The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-11 00:00:00

ADELAIDE GALLERY.

We enjoyed, on Saturday, several delightful hours at
this theatre of varied entertainment and instruction. We
stood for a long while, and with infinite gretitication,
beside the laboratory of Mr. Miles, the ingenious ex
hibitor of a glass-blowing apparatus. which, occupying
no more than six inches square, produces interestino•
miniatures' or all the results obtained in those gigantic
glass-works, whose tall chimnies rise two hundred feet
above the banks of the Avon and the Thames. Amongst
the most curious productions of Mr. Miles's ingenuity
were fillets for ladies' head-dress, composed of plaited
glass fibres, as brilliant as the hues upon the breast of
the humming-bird, and scarcely more brittle than India-
rubber.

Immediately connected with this portion of the prac-
tical course of scientific instruction, provided for the
• public in this valuable institution, is the course of lec-
tures now in progress of delivery by Mr. E. M. Clarke
on the polarisation of light. This gentleman, who is au
optician and mathematical instrument maker, and has
certainly a most mathematical mind, professes -a most
heretical and whimsical contempt of mathematics. Yet,
notwithstanding his denunciations of the pride of Cam-
bridge, he has evidently reason to be as proud of his ac-
quisition
,of Cambridge lore as of that practical cape-
, rienee upon which he prefers to pride himself.
In his introductory lecture Mr. Clarke stated that the
subject of polarised light, Was not only an interesting
branch of optizal science, but of vast importance in
housewifery and in the arts, to all those who have oc-
casion to use utensils of glass. A very small know-
ledge of light, in the condition improperly called " po-
larised," would enable housekeepers to ascertain at once
the purity of the glass plates and vessels which they
purchase, and enable artists to determine the fitness of
the colours which they employ. Before this property of
light was discovered, the optician, however skilled, had no
means of selecting glass that was purely homogeneous.
He was consequently obliged, first, to grind and polish
the glass before he could ascertain its equal refraction.
In ninety-nine cases out of one hundred he did not ob-
tain, after enormous labour and expense, a lens of the
transparency and perfect curvature which he required.
Now he has only to apply the test of polarised light,
which enables him at once to select the pure material.
To tavern- keepers, and all who use much glass, into
which boiling water has to be poured, a know-
ledge of this science is of great importance ;
for, by the same test, the quality of any
glass vessel can be ascertained. The lecturer proceeded
to explain that the term " polarised light" was inappro-
priate and ridiculous, there being nothing of pclarity (pro-
perly so understood) in light under the conditions to
which the name is applied. What is called polarised
light is simply WrIITE, or ordinary light, in a state of di-
vision, altogether different from the prismatic separation
of white light into the coloured rays of which it is
composed. The simplest mode of effecting this
division of white light is, to place horizontally a piece
of glass, blackened on one side, w:th the blackened sur-
face upwards, or the back of a Russia bound book, or
any mahogany or other dark wood, that has been French
polished, so as to get the reflected light from it. To
apply this for the purpose of detecting badly-made gins;,
or glass that is not of an equal refraction, or glass that
will not admit of a sudden elevation of . temperature, to '
the great annoyance of the thrifty housewife, a few
pieces, say eight or ten of thin crown glass, two inches
long,. by one and a half wide, must be pl'cad
together, and held in a slanting position, in
the right hand, so as to allow the observer
to admit the polarised light to pass to his eye. Then
take the glass to be examined in the left hand, and place
it between the reflecting surface and the plates of glass ;
and, if it be a tumbler that is under examination, a black
cross developing itself in the bottom of the vessel is a
sure indicator that, if boiling water be poured in, away
goes a crack right across the bottom ; or, should the op-
tician observe the glass developing peculiar marks or
slight tinges of colour, he is aware of its not being fit
for optical purposes. The lecturer then concluded by
showing a variety of very interesting experiments with
the gas polarscope mae°titied 1,000 times on three discs,
the largest being 24 feet diameter. Amongst others
was a figure of Columbine 20 feet high. The lecturer
observed that polarised light was by no means compli-
mentary to the ladies —the figure before them proving
Columbine to be as white as marble; but, as if by magic,
she ran into the opposite extreme, changing into. an
ebony black. At the conclusion, Mr. Clarke stated that
it was his intention to give those lectures in succession‘
every half-past three o'clock.
8111 aeyill delivered his lecture
on Mnemonics, n t 311
crania;
nag nc'
ells; greatv".hicl ' s been
oefilhfiosrnirestd
course sinceth the
we
last
reported
to a l
th
eof lectures. We observe that he persists in
extollingfi
seudp.9Tvrhletorese
arsy;
ieFseiania.egibea,
stem he thinkv his
prillerrei nt so
tyo pies
undoubtedly some
principles common to the two systems. But the learned
Major has rejected all the absurdities of the Luxembourg
Professor, and we do cot th.:r k , lie is justified in defending
them. The very great success of his own system with the
adult pupils. of his first c lessons goes far to
persuade us that his simple,s intelligible,oi and easily re-
membered mnemonics, might be made available for
effecting, in the education of the young, that railroad ra-
pidity of progress which Feinagle promised, but no man
has yet succeeded in realising, except in such rare in-
stances of genius and memory combined as the perse-
cuted and highly educated exile, Beniowski, presents in
his own person.

MARYLEBONE VESTRY.--On Saturday, this
vestry had the resolution passed by the board on the
previous Saturday, to the effect " That 600 square yards
of wood pavement should be laid down in Oxford-street,
by the proprietors of Rankin's patent, as an experiment
for six months, at the cost of 16s. per square yard,
brought before them for confirmation—the said pave-
ment to be laid down on the declivity between Bake-
street and South Melton-street. The confirmation was
strongly opposed by Messrs. Biers, Foster, and others,
on the grounds of the vast expense, and the shortness of
the period to be allowed for its trial. The debate was
eventually adjourned. In the course of the day a report
was brought up by a Committee, which was unani-
mously agreed to, and a resolution subsequently passed,
directing that the sum of 2,200 guineas should be paid
on Saturday next, to the Metropolitan Wood Paving
Company for their specimen, which has been upwards
of one year on trial in Oxford-street.

EVENING- SUN.
THE UNEMPLOYED OPERATIVES
(From the Leeds Tunes, of Saturday, Oct. 9.)
BOROUGH OF LEEDS.—A good deal hr.s been sbid
o' late, both in and out of Parliament, of the dest;tu
flea and misery existing in the country. Mr. Sharman
Crawford, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Stewart, and others, have
made representations in the house as regards Rochdale,
Manchester, Paisley, and other manufacturing towns
and districts, at which humanity shudders. We have
not heard much regarding Leeds ; but verily we need
not go beyond the bounds of that borough in search of
pictures of extreme distress. Sir Robert Peel and
other members of his government have endeavoured
to explain away the statements of the above-named
gentlemen ; or, when this was found impcssiblt., they
have aimed at making out a case of great exaggcra-
tion. They, or others for them, may make a similar•
attempt in regard to the statistics of distress with which
we ate prepared in regard to this borough ; would that
they could explain away the hunger and the raggedness
of the hungry and the shivering _

Our readers will have noticed the slictt reports
which have appeared regularly in our paper for same -
weeks past, of the proceeding of a- number of persons
called the Unemployed Operative Enumeration Com-
mittee. That Committee has now completed its statis-
tical labour', and has resolved to lay the result before
a general meeting of the inhabitants on the evening of
this day week. To that meeting we request all who
possibly can to repair. The benevolent need no incite-
puent to this conduct ; and there are a sufficiency of
motives to induce the calculating politician and the
merely curious to attend. As Mr. Aldam, our good
member, remarks in a letter which ho addres,ed to the
Secrelary of the Committee a few days ago—" to ascer-
tain the real extent of the distress of the country is the
first step towards providing a remedy for it."
Dctails will be laid before the meeting ; hut Mean-
time we may sebenit a few facts with which we have
provided ourselves ; and really it does not surprise us
that such men as Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of
Wellington profess themselves sceptical as to tile state-
ments of Messrs. Crawford, Cobden, Gibson, &c. ; for
we feel persuaded that there arc thousands in Leeds
who will teal disposed to set down the following state-
ments as altogether chimerical. Will it to credited
that there are in this borough 747 families, consisting
cri 3,960 individuals, subsisting upon is. 4d. per head
per Reek?--that there are 2144 families, consisting of
1,`294 indieidua!s subsisting on 4:11. per head per week?
that there are 1,946 families, consisting of 5,776 in-
' diehluals, who-have/no visible •-means .of sebeistenceee-e—
-whatever ?—and will it be believed that the average
suhsietenee per head per week of 4,752 fetniiiees MY"
sistins of 19,937 individuals, is nothing morn than
aid.? These are astounding statements, but they
are etatemenla which the Enumeration Coumittee
warranted to put forth, after having made a searching
inves6gatior.—after having visited the number of fami-
lies above stated.

It is quite possible that the enumerators may have
been misled in souse instances to a certain extent. This
we presume, they will not be disposed to deny ; but
after snaking all reasonable allowances—say that we de-
duct 50 per cent. from the above statements, and what
a fearfully dark picture at II remains !
Surely we live said enough to stir the sympathies of
every heart in which there is one drop of the milk of
human kindness—enough to induce those who know
nothing of ail this experimentally, to ask, Is it so ? and
if they find that this question must be answered is the
affirmative, to put the question, Why is it so? and how
can it be alleviated or rsnaored ? Such questions
ought to be put immediately. Winter is appraach-
ieg, the damp, comfortless cellar, without fire,,
without food, without furniture, without even a bed,
in many instances—is that a plane, and are these
circumstances, in which human beings should be
doomed to live ? list the fact is undeniable, that
many in this borough are existing in such circum-
stance's—many who would wilingly better their circum-
stances cottis; they do so by hosest and unceasing la-
bour. This feat:: us once more to reprobate that igno-
rant, and foolish, and false expression of the Duke or
lArelrngtan's, that in this ccimiry every indus:Tious man
may obtain a competency—sea,2s us to reprobate that
policy which, to pleasure, sporting ;sgislators, refs es to
inquire, even, into the extent and the cause of such s net-
fol misery. Let us just ask tv`sat is the general was
dzncy of such a state of things? Can it Le otherwise„,
than towards demoralisation—towards theft, towards:
robbery ? The five or six thousand in Leeds who are.
represented as having no visible means of livelihood,
what shall we say of them ? In olden titres it
was said that " men do not despisa a thief if he evil
to satisfy his soul when he is hungry "—hits this.
rule or law been abrogated ? Does it consist with'
the requirements of modern civilisation—thet a man
may first be robbed of his rights as a man—be
forced, in fact, to become a thief or die, and then nat.
only 'be despised, but punished for theft ? This mrsr
seem a curious question, and one full of meaning ; but:
it is a question which has been practically answered no
later than this day week, in a police court of the me•
tropolis. A youth is brought before Mr Grenwood,
a mcgistrate, charged with theft ; the theft is not de-
nied ; the culprit says that he stole from necessit&
after applying in vain for parochial reliet'; his story its.
found to Le true ; and the confessed thief is dismissed
without even a reprimand ! Do not matters t.,PPear to
have reached a crisis?

The extent of this misery is such as calls loudly for
I rVeviation ; but tbe Pict of its extent almost incline.'
! a person to shrink from encountering it. Twenty--
thousand individuals existing on II id. per week.
each !—Say th,,t only half this number arc in such
circumstanceq, and still this is a number which it is -
altogether impossible for private charity permanently
to reach Such a disease demands a radical aura—
palli.tives can never reach its root. Speaking of this'
matter suegests the idea of another of the Dike of
Wellington's famous expressions. He stated in tl-e:
House of Lords, a few evenings ago, that the distress:
existing in the county could not hn the effect of a scar-
city of corn ; for no less a quantity than 1,700,000
quarters had laiely been imported at a low duty ; and
beside:, we had the whole produce of the present har-
veet on hand. Very true ; hut what matters it to those
who have nothing to buy with, that there is plenty of aorta
in tl.c country ? Tais remark of the Duke's illustrates:
a fact, which we should wish to be universally known as,
such•—that there is plenty and to spare in Englincl fog.
all its inhabitants ; that there is plenty in the
and to spare for all its inhabitants : hence, the'canse
all this suffering lies not in the nature- of things ; of:
course, it flaws from the institutions of man. " I thank
thee, Jew, for teaching me that word :"—we thank the
Duke for illustrating that the scarcity under which so
many of our follow-mortals—our fellow-immortals, are
pining, is not from Heaven, but that it is from man--
from such men as the Duke of Wellington, who im-
piously stand between a tarnishing population and the
bona:les of Heaven. But tt cannot—this must not
endure.

" Vulgar tyrants, hush, beware !
Bring not down the avalanche !"

SIR H. LE FLEMING SENHOUSE
This distinguifihed officer was closely connected with
the north of England. He was of a younger branch of
Senhouse, of Nether Hall, near Maryport, a family
which has been settled in Cumberland from a very re-
mote antiquity ; and, by the female line, he was de-
scended from a family of yet higher antiquity and dis-
tinction. though of late years fallen into decay, the
foander of which was Michael the Fleming, first Lord
of Gleaston, in Furness, after the Conquest, one of the
five greater Barons who shared Lancashire under Roger
of Poitou, and who afterwards passed into Cumberland
with Ranulph de Mesehiens, its first Norman Earl,
where he acquired large possessions, some small por-
tion of which yet remain with those of his name and
blood to this day. About seven years ago, Sir.
H. Senhouse retired temporarily from active
.ser.:
vice to 'his native country, where he
partly by purchase, an estate, the formera, Pa'
trimony of the Senbouses, Seascale Hall, Lo
, he
twelve miles south of Whiteharen.
,Y.,?:." a
built a handsome house, interested himself
mind on,
affairs, and employed his ever active.
a.
prc_n_
several local topics. He was one of the princ,!p he
zda
acquired.
tars of the Maryport and Carlisle liail
soLli.„„t
several efforts to obtain an explorationil
of Cumberland in search of coal,
and line of railway over
unsuccessful attempt to procure a ,
itihnerly line. arid thus
.A,.lorecambe Bay, to join a more northerly
west of Scotland
unite the manufacturing districts int c
1 his attention also.
with those of England. lie directed etangaged in the
coast, which had.
very closely to the hydrography
and of which sur-
previously been very much neglected,
naval officers, and in 1
yen on the repair of
white la , • ,
re-
ference to the harbour oflir
Walker, Captain Lenham,
which Sir John Rennie, ._
' s had been consulted,
veys were just then entrusted to.
and other eminent persons ofd opinion. He `contri-
anything like unanintloi y
local papers, an ela-
borate essay,
valuable
tuexperience and excellent judgment,
of a seaman of gre_at,
of constructing artificial tidal bar-
on the proper n a
I'.
important department pf. engineering, on
bated anonymously
able -
bours—a roostsingle systematic or scientific work
talsie
extant.
..- ged in these and similar pursuits, he was
While "2-
out on active service. Of the coura suddenly called.
with hedischargedthe e
and skill whichduties
.
energy,
butone opinion has ' to him been expressed.
entrusted .
which there is not a
lie perished just at the moment when, after a life of Woo-
-1
TLOUS service, he found himself in a position of inde-
pendent command, which promised to lead to the full
display
and would, probably, had he
fir,lnnaodoliaf histieccs
idteltidaisleign,atis forbllearna i
gallant officer
fficer was, from conviction, a
been spared a few years longer, have occupied a leading
political position in the western division of Cumberland. •
In private life he was a most amiable and excellent
man, and his death will be a subject of deep regret to
the extensive circle of friends by whom he was known
and esteemed. His lady, daughter of the late Vice-
Admiral Manley, survives, along with two daughters, to
lament his loss.--Liverpool Journal.

BRIBERY AT ELECTIONS.--
ill join heartily in any
(FIOM a Cone-
spondent.)—Sir R Peel says he w
eeheme likely to effect the destruction of bribery and
corruption at elections. Then let him adopt short Par-
liaments. Candidates will not bribe largely for every
short tenure,

/