The Sun.
London, England, 1846-11-24 00:00:00

A4i

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING S NI NOVEMBER 24, 1846.

PRICE SD.

No. 16,905.

rl RAVESEND STAR and BLACKWALL
PACKETS.
Boat and Rail included in One Payment upon every pass,i.ge,
avoiding the danger and delay of the Pool.
From the Brunswick Wharf, Blackwall, at 91/2, 1014, 12, 11Q, 3,
4, and 5 o'clock. Sunday's, 91Y, 101/2, 11(2, 4, and 5 o'clock. The
trains starting one quarter of an hour before each of these times.
The New Terrace Pier, Gravesend, at 71,12, 8%, 9%, 111, 1,3, and
4 o'clock. Sundays, 71/2, 11!,, 1,3, and 5 o'clock.
N.13.—N0 other packets call at the Grays or Greenhithe Piers.
Star Office, Gravesend, Nov. 24, 1646.

REFORM in the ROYAL SOCIET Y.

THE STIRLINGSHIRE WOOLLEN
MANUFACTURE.
The manufacture of tartan shawls and plaids from
wool may be said to be a branch of trade indigenous to
the north. The Highlanders of Scotland were the first
of whom we know anything who wore chequered gar-
ments composed of that material ; and so well acquainted
were they even centuries back with a becoming arrange-
ment in striping them, that each feudal lord and his,
vassals had fixed upon a certain composition of stripes
with certain colours, by which they were distinguished
from all the rest ; hence the origin of the clan tartans.
They were worn, as is well known, only in the lower
part of the dress chiefly, though all who could attain to
it had coats and vests of their favourite check. And so
proud were they, and tenacious of their clan, and this
their showy garb, that a Highlander has been known to
wear them in the olden time to shreds, rather than la 3
them aside for other apparel.
The Government of George the Second, after the dis-
astrous battle of Culloden, in passing the Disartnins
Act, declared that it was as essential to prohibit the
wearing of the tartan kilt, in order to restore and ensure
a continuance of peace in the Highlands, as it was to
take away from the hardy Gael his gun, his skein-dhu,
or his broad-sword, and so the wise legislators of those
days decreed accordingly. How altered, indeed, are the
times, when even Majesty itself will wear them, and
thereby encourage their growth ; and now, besides all
the clans, from Frazer to Campbell, or Mac Kenzie
and Mac Lean, we have the Queen's Welcome, and the
Queen of Beauty, and scores of other fanciful checks,
the result of exquisite skill, taste, and arrangement.
If we then can admire all this—and if we then regard.
it as it ought, in an important commercial point of view,
we must—we are compelled—to laugh at the silly idea
of our legislators at all interfering with the colour or
shape of the clothing which the people, or any portion of
them, may feel disposed to wear. Had that part of the
Act succeeded in its working out, probably no such
kind of work would have been now seen amongst us ;
but the mountaineer, while he might be refted- of his
kirk or claymore, could not be stripped of his clan kilt,
unless they proceeded to turn him adrift in his native
nudity, to browse on the heath with his own mountain
roe. He had no other kind of cloth, and would have
none.
Laying aside his predatory habits and mixing more
freely with the people of the low country, the latter, in '
course of time, became attracted with his flaunting plaid
as he strutted proudly by, and the looms that were em-
ployed in the wearing of course home-spun, or blankets,
were soon turned to the production of tartan shawls, of
various kinds and qualities. It is, however, only within
these few years that the trade has: ramified to such an
extent, and reached our town; and as it is likely still far-
ther to increase, and may, as it has done already, super-
sede other kinds of the loom's productions, we will give
some account of how it is carried on, in detail, in Stir-
lingshire, the principal seat, as yet, of its manufacture.
And here, we may remark, that it is not the native grown
wool which is used. The Cheviot and the sheep of the
far off Australasia are mingled together in the product
of a shawl in Stirlingshire.
The fleece or bail is obtained, it is picked, and often
classified or sorted, as it is termed, into three. It is
spun, dyed and scoured, woven, dressed, or waulked, if
necessary, and made fit for the wearer, and all these
processes are performed under the same establishment.
From this, it will be seen at a glance, that those
manufacturers possess a superiority over the Paisley
manufacturer, who buy their yarn from the spinner, and
know nothing at all of the first operation of the trade.
We once heard a Stirlingshire manufacturer say, who
had fallen behind with his yarn in consequence of the
fitting up of some new machinery in the room of the
old, that it would be better for him for a little to give
his idle weavers a small compensation, and go about,
rather than buy yarn and keep them working. The
motive power of the machines for the most part is
water instead of steam, which was at first doubtless a
great inducement to their location, and unless in the
long droughts of summer the streams afford a plentiful
supply. It is very pure, also quite free of chemical
analysis, and therefore well adapted for dyeing and
scouring. Thousands of gallons pouring down the
dark-winding Carron, or the clear-winding Devon, classic
streams, contribute in this way to a great purpose in
the social economy of life, instead of, as in by-gone
days, wasting themselves in the ocean Firth below, or
at most serving as themes for the hero's wail or the
poet's lute.
Having said so much in respect to the manufacturer,
turn we to the weaver, and we perceive at a glance the
advantages which he possesses in the working of wool
over the Paisley operative. The whole of the plans are
different. Ile glues his own web ; this may be thought
by some no advantage, but it is, as he can size it accord-
ing to the quality of his yarn, and an experienced hand
is, in this operation, very particular. How many excel-
lent warps have we seen in Paisley rendered nearly un-
workable by being too firmly glued, and how many of a
softer texture, that would have required a quantum more.
and might have given to the weaver 3s. or 4s. a-week ad-
ditional wages. In bad weather it is indeed a tantalising
matter to the Stirlingshire operative the glueing of his
web, as the operation is performed in the open air, but
when it is fine we have seen it gone through in
about two hours, and the method of doing it is the best
calculated to do the least injury to the yarn. After
his glue is boiled, say, one pound of sheep-skin to
twenty pounds of warp, he makes up a quantity suf-
ficient to wet the warp through ; not all at once, this
would be too much, but about the fourth part of it. He
then wrings it out with the assistance of a neighbour,
in the same way that a woman wrings her blanket or
petticoat, it is then stretched at its length along hori-
zontal stakes, a coarse rail is put through it, and when
these webs are carefully handled, we have seen them
when taken off, put upon the beam as quickly andwith as
little broken yarn as any cotton warp, this is seldom or
never the case in Paisley. The loom of the north is also
very different to that of ours, the pace or benting
power does not bang as with us, there is on the yarn
beam a row-head just as we have in Paisley on the fore
beam, a string is attached to the clink or hook thereof,
and is led to the front, so that the weaver can ease it
when he pleases wiihout leaving his seat, besides the
beam on which the yarn is, a square beam is placed
about 15 inches behind the heddles over which the warp
passes. By this means the yarn sustains the least pos-
sible amount of friction before it comes to be acted upon
by the reed, lay, and shuttle, which as every weaver,
who is in the least acquainted with wool, knows, to be of,
the utmost impOrtance. The 'cloth passes over a beam
of the same description, and is taken on upon one below.
This is also an advantage, as it does not bulk up to alter
the place of action in the reed on its floating on the lay.
Their shuttles, too, are vastly larger, they will take in a
pirn holding a full number of yarn, so that the labour in
this alone is abridged, when they are compared to Pais-
ley shuttles, seven-eights, at least.
It is with these and other advantages rest the reasons
why the wages of the north-country woollen weaver are
superior to those of his Paisley brother for the same
kind of work. The prices per yard are about the same,
but the former will double nearly the latter in quantity,
and with short hours, too, their time being from six,
A.M., till half-past six, P.M., with forty-five minutes for
breakfast and as many for dinner ; and although the shop
or factory be open, during these intervals of labour, no
one is permitted to sound his shuttle on any account.
Their wages are good during the busy season, which
generally occupies from seven to eight months in the
year—that is from the beginning of March till the latter
end of October. The remainder is short time to all, un-
less an order comes to hand, which is certainly superior
to the Paisley method of some going entirely idle, while
others may be fully employed ; but, let it be remarked,
we speak of factories, and such alone, or nearly so, ob-
tains in Stirlingshire. We may remark that the wages
will run from 15s. to 20s. a-week, and many of them who
are very expert will keep up, during the busy season,
from 4/. to 51. a-month, and even sometimes more. Nor
does this in the slightest degree tempt the
o cupidity of
employers to break the wages—nd, in
trary, their remarks to the weaverstend h
emulation amongst t eir
workers. and
keep
They
dee d
rather; nthe
to
stir
up to keep high
up on the pay roll, for they feel a pride in it.
nfrqy
Nor will the weaver—while he works with a long
al ivetelal them not ef
u
his
stretch, fretting his yarn before it comes to
the shuttle,
and making it as frizzley as a sentimental wig, with
hanging pace straining the thread, while at the same time
it is yielding, and will not assist the heddles in opening
up a course for his shuttles, while these shuttles are Ito
small that in the changing of pirns alone his labour is
increased seven-eights—ever be able to count the wages
of the northern artisan, be his skill and ingenuity in
other respects what they may.
But here we feel we must stop for the present. The
importation of this thriving branch of our national in-
dustry, which bids fair yet to command customers in the
furthermost quarters of the globe, ought to be looked to
by all taking an interest in the prosperity of our town,
with a wistful eye, while men of influence and capital
would do well to turn their attention fully upon it ; and
sure are we, that while it would prove a source of
wealth to themselves, it would improve the condition of
the operative vastly, who now, poor man, languishes on
6s. or 7s. a week, while they would reap the reward of
this besides, in a joyous heart, in a conscientious feeling
that they bad done something to smooth a rugged path
of life, and mitigate to some extent the catalogues of
human
woes.—Glasgow Saturday Post.
up

thing to repair the wrongs which have been inflicted on
men of science by former irregularities, and we do not
scruple to say, illegalities ; and will he set himself in
conjunction with the Council, to bring its organisation into
a state fitted to lead and foster the science of this coun-
try as it at present exists ? Each of these points is of
the utmost importance. So long as irregularities are
permitted in the reading and printing of papers, in the 1
constitution of committees, and the awarding of medals—
so
long no discovery made amongst us can be safe. Corn-
mon justice, and the present and future character of the
Royal Society, imperatively require that the wrongs
already committed should, as far as possible, be repaired.
And last of all, activity, discussion, and permanency in
the weekly sittings of the Royal Society, should be pro-
vided for. Unless a genuine reformation be set afoot,
unless the cold and formal aristocracy of science admits
some more generous elements than it at present possesses,
we may look to see discovery after discovery lost to this
country, and the original workers amongst us soured
and disappointed, instead of cheered and honoured.
The Royal Society and its coteries have long acted the
Florentine part towards the scientific genius of England.
This year they have, among other errors, lost a planet;
what they may lose next, if they continue their career,
it is impossible to foresee. If this loss does not rouse
them, no arguments can do so. Dante describes, in the
" Inferno," the interviews between the ghosts of the
dead. What kind of meeting will that be between the
offended shades of Newton, and Halley, and Herschel,
and the administrators of science of the present gene-
ration?

IRELAND.

(From the Lancet.)
Saint Andrew's Day is drawing nigh—the day on
which the official programme of the Royal Society will
be drawn up for another year. The present would,
therefore, be a fit season for reviewing the proceedings
If the society during the scientific year, which closes on
the 30th of November. But we can only refer to parti-
cular points. Besides a numerous array of minor laches,
we have charged those in authority, with three specific
outrages upon the constitution of the Royal Society.
In the first place, they have doubly violated the re-
gulations under which the Royal Medals are awarded—
regulations which have received the sanction of her Ma-
jesty, by giving a Royal Medal to a paper which cal not
legally come within the cycle of years for which the
award was made ; and for a paper which did not appear
in print in the "Philosophical Transactions" until nearly
a year after the medal was given away. In the second
place, we charged the secretaries and the Physiological
Committee with having broken the statutes by allowing
he author of the paper to which the Royal Medal was
illegally awarded, to receive back and alter his paper,
without the permission of the council. And in the third
place, we have charged the secretaries with trampling
under foot the whole constitution of the Royal Society,
by printing an extended communication from a person
not a fellow of the Society, and which had neither been
read, nor referred, nor considered by the Council in any
way, having, in fact, as the printed date proves, been
sent to the secretary subsequently to the last meeting of
the Council for the year. We stop not to enquire into
irregularities of former years—it is enough to say, that
all these subversions of the statutes belong to the
present year alone. These charges, as our readers know,
were made distinctly, nominatively ; it would, indeed,
have been a treason to truth not to have done so. We
charged the parties concerned in the court of public and
professional opinion, and they have acknowledged the
competence of the tribunal by pleading to the indict-
ment. They have all responded, have all held up their
hands—some with the plea of not guilty, some with ex-
planations, some with equivocations, and all with ad-
missions of one kind or another. Besides the corres-
pondence of the injured parties, letters have been elicited
from Dr. Roget, the senior secretary; from Mr. Bell, the
secretary of the Physiological Committee; from
Drs. Todd and Sharpey, the two referees in the case of
the recent medal; and from Mr. Beck, and Mr. Newport,
the two royal medallists by favour, but not by right or
desert; and, lastly, from the Noble Presiden, the Mar-
quis of Northampton himself; wile the rest of the par-
ties engaged have been busy with private repudiations
of all part in the discreditable transactions, and members
of the Council have been running to and fro to examine
into the truth of things about which they had judged in
the absence of evidence or inquiry. Never before, in
the annals of the Royal Society, has there been such a
series of charges—never such a series of replications.
Such has been the contradictory nature of the communica-
tions, that we have sometimes been able to stultify theetate-
ments of the individual writers, by bringing them into self-
collision—the facts and acts of the same party at dif-
ferent times or places being in inexplicable contradic-
tion. At other times we have proceeded by the equally
easy mode of knocking the statements of one party
against the opposing facts of another. Their official
conduct has reduced them to such a condition, that the
mere touch of truth has been sufficient to throw them
into a state of moral polarization, particle instantly re-
pelling particle, and mass opposing mass.
But the profession have seen the changes, the evidence
adduced in their support, and the defences set up. The
parties implicated are, with the exception of the Pre-
sident, all of them professional men, and with the pro-
fession rests the verdict. Let them, then, throw their
pebbles into the urn of the republic of medicine,
•and decide for punishment or acquittal. We do
not wish to aggravate the matter, but we ask—What
would be said to the secretary of the Medico-Chirurgical
Society, :if he could have dared to assume in his
own person all the functions of the society, and to print
papers without the sanction of the society, or sanction
of any kind, in the " Medico-Chirurgical Transactions?"
Or what would be said if the treasurer of the Bank of
nEinagoloarondmNavnedre?shoAwnndtaorehanvoet
amoiaelnvoeersaanted the
dsoientiffiuonds fame
t oh
thingsthe
e nation,as deara
tso
etvlieerrmigehrtefuml poonsesyesesaohr,haen?d as important
We say it advisedly. At the present time, the whole
system of scientific polity in this country is rotten at
the core as regards those who are charged with its
regardsad-
ministration,
either the
lax
xodteo toan
obxeternomfoarced
Thinaitsttrhaeti menon, ainnd aspourer
a de-
gree, or utterly unprincipled, we have shown again and
e
i
again; and the machinery entrusted to these infirm or
hands is equally to be condemned. Science ad-
vances with an increased impetus from every century and
from every generation; yet the polity of the Royal Society,
our chief scientific institution, clings pertinaciously to its
venerable regulations, clogged as they are by time, and I
by the altered condition of knowledge. Where Science
formerly numbered its tens, it now numbers its thou-
sands of cultivators; advances which were formerly the
feature of a generation are now the events of a day.
Science never sleeps; yet the Royal Society hybernates,
or rather falls into perfect torpor, annually, from June to
November. It still moves on in the antique round, when
the London year commenced with the fogs, and ended
with Midsummer. To the savans the 30th of November
is still the beginning of the season, as it was in some
remote era, the date of which can hardly be specified.
But the resultant mischiefs are incalculable, when to
this semi• fossilized state, the grossest violation of
statutes, charters, regulations, and by-laws, are per-
mitted with impunity. Times and dates being altered as
they have been—papers being tampered with in the way
we have stated—and papers being printed without the
sanction of the Council,—no anatomical or physiological
discovery is safe. We say anatomical and physiological,
because the more glaring outrages have occurred in these
departments. If a greater than Harvey were now to
arise, his labours and his reputation would not be safe in
the hands of the present officials of the Royal
Society. This is not mere assertion, but a
close induction from the proved facts. Of late
years, whenever any man has signalised himself
in these departments, some puppet has straightway
been fostered at Somerset House, to the defamation and
injury of the right man. Sir Everard Home, the pur-
loiner and destroyer of John Hunter's papers, was sup-
plied from the coffers of the society with the funds for
appropriating the labour of his illustrious predecessor.
The expensive plates of his work on " Comparative
Anatomy," illustrating one hundred and nine papers in
the " Philosophical Transactions," were executed at the
cost of thesociety. Mr. Mayo, who attempted to deprive Sir
C. Bell of his just fame, was long suffered to be upon the
Council, than which a greater insult could not have been
offered to this distinguished man. More recently we
have seen Mr. Newport set up and rewarded, it is
scarcely known for what, while the discoverer of the
reflex function has had his papers blackballed, which, to
his noble and independent spirit, was ostracism from the
society. Later still, Dr. Lee makes an anatomical dis-
covery, and, as if in obedience to some mysterious and
inevitable law of wrong, a non-discoverer is raised up to
usses and worry him in his career.
Evis of this magnitude cannot exist in one depart-
ment of science without being an indication of they
unwholesome polity pervading the whole. They are
so, in fact, at this time, when an event of the
highest importance is engaging the attention of the sci-
entific world. We allude to the newly discovered planet.
It is now well known that our countryman, Mr. Adams, a
member of St. John's College, Cambridge, had first cal-
culated the existence and position of the new planet in
September, 184 e, that he sent these calculations to Mr.
Airy, the Astronomer-Royal, and to Mr. Challis, of the
Observatory, Cambridge, in September and October
of that year. M. Le Verrier, a young French mathe-
matician, made, in June, 1846, a calculation which
yielded fewer of the elements of the discovery than
those obtained many months before by Mr. Adams, and
sent them to Mr. Galle, of the Observatory of Berlin.
Professor Airy does not seem to have looked at all:
Professor Challis looked and saw the planet twice in
August, yet did not publish the matter. But M. Galle,
though he had received M. Le Verrier's calculations
many months after Mr. Adams had sent his to Mr. Airy,
and though he did not see the planet until six weeks
after it had been twice seen by Mr. Challis, was able to
publish it first through the French Academy, and thus
to take from this country the glory of the discovery.*
While the French Academy was active, our Royal Society
was in its six months' sleep, or, in all probability, Mr.
Challis would have sent his observations to this the legi-
timate channel. In this way of the greatest things of the
age has been partially or wholly lost to us! The intellec-
tual triumph clearly belongs to Mr. Adams, with whom all
must profoundly sympathize. Oceanus would have been,
his but for the slew and formal technicalities which sur-
round science in this country. He did even more than M
Le Verrier, but Mr. Airy, our Astronomer-Royal, did
not turn his tube into the heavens so promptly as M.
Goatl 1e s 0
, theg astronomeroo
Arago ; and the
Royal Society has proved itself no match for
the activity of the French Academy, or rather
nv
irn a and
eloquent Berlin ; Sir John Herschel was
as
M.
it has not appeared on the stage at all : otherwise the
genius of England would have been unequivocally before
that of France, we should have added Oceanus to
Uranus, and the name of Adams would have been
higher than that of Le Verrier, or even of the elder
Herschel himself.
We put the question last week, " What will the Mar-
quis of Northampton do ?" When he was first elected
into the Society, in common with other Fellows, he
subscribed the obligation and promise to " observe the
statutes and orders of the Society " in his own person .
when he arrived at the Presidential chair, it became his
especial duty " to execute," himself, or, see to the exe-
cution of the statutes" by other persons. It can be
proved from the minutes of the society that he has him-
self infringed the statutes, and that during his Presidency
the statutes, orders, and royal regulations, have been ha-
bitually broken by those in authority under him. Will he
for the future observe and cause to be observed, the sta-
tute of the society in the letteer and spirit ; will he do any

DUBLIN, Nov. 21.—The Duke of Leinster has, in the
following brief letter, sent in his resignation of the office
of President of the Royal Agricultural Improvement
Society of Ireland :
" Carton, Maynocth, No
" Sir,—The special general meeting of the ;al
Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland aving
yesterday decided to suspend until April, 1847, the
latter part of the 14th rule of the society, I consider it
will be impossible to prevent matters totally unconnected
with the object of the society from being discussed. I
beg, therefore, to resign the honour of being their Pre-
sident, and request you will have the goodness to inform
the council of my determination.—l am, Sir, your obe-
el;ent servant.
" Edward Millen, Esq. " LEINSTER."
This communication was read at the weekly meeting
of the council on Thursday last, when the following re•
solution was adopted :
" That the council have received with much regret
the letter addressed to them by his Grace the Duke of
Leinster, their Noble President, to whose uniform kind-
ness and co-operation the society are so much indebted,
and will lay his letter before the general meeting of the
society, at which the usual election of its officers will
take place ; and they hope that the constant abstinence
in the meantime from all discussions unconnected with
the objects of the society may prove that his Grace's
apprehensions will not be justified by any departure, on
the part of the society, from the spirit which dictated
the law in question."
Lord Downshire's letter of resignation, addressed to
Mr. Secretary Bullen, was published in the Mail of last
(Friday) night, twenty-four hours after the usual weekly
meeting of the society. It is somewhat strange that no
notice of the fact appears in the printed minutes of the
proceedings.
POPULAR ARMAMENT.
The following appears in the Tipperary Vindicator:—
There is at present, literally speaking, a rage for
fire-arms among the humbler classes of the country., people.
The trade in guns, pistols, powder, and shot, is of the
briskest of any within several miles of Limerick, Ne-
nagh, and other localities. The trade is quite a new
one in Nenagh; but since it has been commenced by
one cr two persons it is almost impossible to meet the
demand. In a house in Queen-street, Nenagh, on
Thursday, the crowds were enormous. It was difficult
to enter the door. Groups of eager purchasers sur-
rounded the counter, and others gazed in at the win-
dows, the former supplying themselves with arms, or
getting them repaired, while the owner of a shop, and
aaat innt 1
attend
themselves,ade t
n‘ t
adie
rxett
arms
poaestrr their
veryere iaeaii
trsemyei
customers.
si
armament
oilsfrmmsnai sooentsrwats en.
ret
m,
vg'
inferiorsTeoos
riohuynmregeahear
rwao,
efnalohi
hand.
forward.
wtdg
doing
aat i dlsrevedvoa.aeornecebeoeleidyl. i
etti
hvinmei
sae
tgihtesoi
respectable class of farmers perfectly right in arming
soI
a; but
almostwe
cannot see the good that will arise from the indiscri-
minateevery district we hear from reports of gunshots are
frequent throughout the day and at night. A gentleman
residing near the Shannon, between Birr and Borriso-
kane, heard several volleys within the last few nights.
Shots have also been heard in the neighbourhood of
Kilcoleman and in other localities. Some of the country
boys cunningly say that they will be all disarmed when
they go to a certain length in the purchase and posses-
sion of firearms, and that just now Government is en-
couraging them. In the latter observation we think them
wrong. W• do not believe Government is encouraging
the purchase of arms for a vicious purpose. It would be
horrible to think so; but we do think that this business
cannot end well. A large seizure, we learn, of arms
from an English house, consigned to Ireland, was made
in an English factory last week, and the arms sent to the
Custom-house."
MR. MORGAN JOHN O'CONNELL.
The Evening Post contradicts the reported appoint-
ment of this gentleman to the office of Poor-law Com-
missioner in tho room of Mr. Twisleton, and asserts that
such an arrangement was never contemplated.
THE GALE OF FRIDAY.
The morning papers publish a long list of the casual-
ties of the terrific storm which raged here from Thursday
night up to five o'clock yesterday evening, when, veering
from S.S.E. to N.N.W. the gale took off, and the night
became quite moderate :
"We have been visited with a most frightful gale of
wind yesterday morning, accompanied with heavy rain.
From about four o'clock until after it blew with extra-
ordinary violence from the south and south-east. The
effect was, as usual, to impound a quantity of water in
Dublin-bay, and this occurring on the top of the spring
tides had a fearful effect upon the stability of the Dublin
and Kingstown Railway. We are happy to say that the
injury sustained is but trifling, and none whatever upon
the sea wall or embankment. The sea which rolled in
was in the morning terrific—waves breasting the wall,
and the wind sending the surf some 40 or 50 feet high,
shutting out all view of the opposite coast. At Merrion
the water rushed in unbroken across the road, and on
that part of the railway between Merrion and Williams-
town there were at least from two to three feet of water
on the line. The trains were, from motives of safety,
stopped for about an hour and a half, and afterwards
quarter trains were dispatched to meet the demands upon
the traffic.
" The water enclosed by the sea wall on the sea side,
and the embankment on the south sieve, at length forced
its way through two breaches, and deluged the reclaimed
ground between Merrion and Booterstown. Near the
rock an extensive breach was made, undermining the
road, so that labourers had to be set to work to ballast
up the rails, and make the road passable.
" The inhabitants of Bath-avenue and Bath square
were all inundated in their houses, and the operatives of
the Dublin and Kingstown Railway works most chival-
rously turned out to the rescue, and some hundreds of
families were conveyed by them, wading up to their
waists in the water, to a place of refuge. One woman,
with an infant at her breast, and its grandmother, were
amongst the rescued. One of the inhabitants saved his
pigs by putting them into a cask, and guiding it to a
place where the animals were high and dry, he wading
nearly breast-high in the water.
" The breaking of the sea over the eastern pier was
magnificent, and several adventurous spirits dared to go
to the end and view it. One young man, the son of a
pilot, was amongst them; he unfortunately suffered for
his temerity, having been carried away by a wave.
" About two'o'clock the wind changed to the west-
ward, and the sea, though running heavily, was more
mOderite. '
This day at twelve o'clock will be the top of the
springs, and, from the moderation of the gale, we may
augur no further amount of damage, but to the lovers of
the picturesque an imposing object will be afforded.
" DUBLIN AND DROGHEDA RAILW4Y.—There were
serious apprehensions about the sea embankments on
this line, but they have stood the test of this violent
storm admirably.
" DUBLIN AND HOWTH LlNE.—This branch line has
suffered some trifling injury near Baldoyle, but a few
hours' work will set all to rights.
" ALARMING FLOOD.—This morning, about half-past
ten o'clock, a most tremendous tide broke over the wall.
on Sandymount stand, commencing at Merrion, pros-
trating at that place the stables of Mr. Bourne, and also
the walls adjoining the strand road. Such was the force
of the great element that it broke down every barrier
that the inmates of the several dwellings raised against
it. At Newgrove-avenue the inhabitants suffered most
severely, as many of them had to fly from their houses,
and seek shelter in the city, leaving their valuable furni.
ture, &c., to float on the briny waters. A great portion
of the wall from Sandymount to the Tritonvillo baths
has given way, and it is much to be feared and regretted
that Mr. Cranfield has suffered severely, as the greater
walls, &c.,
hnee‘.oicef.
ghaui
adjoining, spdo rienor
ipneegre,teymp
rppolrseettsreett net
prostrate.
.se
ea t
Ame
fo
ls,stvregtee distressingrg,aabnbdaredl
all
piethe
s
floated right over the Dodder bank at Ringsend, and is
now to be seen sailing about on the low grounds of Bath-
avenue, where a few days since a fine crop of oats in stack
was to be seen.
" There is a rumour that four people have been
drowned in the neighbourhood in trying to rescue their
property.
" The cellars allong the quays were flooded, and great
injury done to the poor in the vicinity.
" PORTOBELLO GARDENS.—The storm of Thursday
night did great damage in these gardens. The beautiful
panoramic model of Mount Etna is a complete wreck,
and a great portion of the timber of it is totally de-
destroyed ; much injury was done to the firework factory
and the fences. Nothing could be more unfortunate for
Mr. Drewett at the present time, whilst he is struggling
against his heavy losses occasioned by the late fire.
STOPPAGE OF A PUBLIC WORK.
In the hi-weekly record of Tipperary pleasantries, a
Nenagh paper mentions the following :
" On Tuesday night last the steward employed by the
Board of Public Works on a road at Loughorna, within
two miles of this town, shortly after he had retired to
bed in the house in which he lodged, was fired at when
he had lain down, and the ball passed close over his head,
as if the parties outside knew well the locality within.
A threatening notice was found next morning posted
did
not the door, threatening the steward with death if he d
his making a re-
act over the few under his charge.
blicOnWorks in Neeagh,
presentation to the officers ofhPe
all
unlessthe
he
e personsd did so,
or
ht
eo
would
nworks to be suspended,
they very properly ordered t
s have been thrown out
and, consequently, thirty person
the Board to suspend any w
employ
Hood—thatallowed h bou
trc,
mated." ourldk not be
of employment. We underesrtkanedwtlhiearteitoiustrtehgeeo.risdeerosmo!

BRITISH WHALE and SEAL FISHERY
COMPANY.
SPECIAL NOTICE.
No applications for Shares in this Company will be received after
TO-MORROW, (IYEnzrEsDAT), the 25th Instant.
By order of the Directors,
NATIIL. W. SYMONDS, Secretary pro tern.
72, Cornhill, Nov. 24, 1846.

ZALS TURI A N MINING COMPANY
NOTICE is hereby given that, in terms of a Resolution of the
Special General Meeting of the Shareholders in this Company, held
at their offices this day, the remainder of the Shares on whieh Calls
past due shall not have been paid on or before the 30th day of
November instant, wit: be cancelled, and new Shares issued, in lieu
of them, for the benefit of the Company.
By order of the
K. MACKENZIE, Secretary.

No. 9, Austin Friars, Nov. 23, 1846.

PUBLICATIONS.

RURAL PICKIIs.MS.
Just published, 12mo, bound in cloth, gilt edges, price is.
RURAL PICKINGS; or, Attractive Points in
Country Life and Scenery, by the Author of " Ephraim
Holding's Domestic Addresses," &c. with Coloured Plates, by
Absolon, &c,
*** Youth and Manhood delight in the country, while Childhood
absolutely revels there ; even old Age himself, almost forgetting the
wrinkles on his brow, and the rheumatism in his limbs, is ready to
skip in the gaiety of his heart, while he breathes the fresh air, gazes
on the green fields, and calls to his remembrance the exploits of his
lAyhood.

INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.

The Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury
having had under their consideration an application, from
an eminent firm, requesting that Prussian books may be
admitted into this country at the reduced rates provided
in the treaty of international copyright, recently con-
cluded between this country and Prussia, notwithstand-
ing that the said books may have been stamped at
Leipsic, and not at a town in Prussia, the Commissioners of
the Customs Department have received a communication
from Mr. Parker, one of the Secretaries to the Treasury,
stating that he has been commanded by their Lordships
to transmit, for their information, copy of a letter from
the Board of Trade on the subject, and to desire that
they would admit the Prussian books with the stamp of
the Saxon authorities thereon, which have been already
imported by the memorialists, at the low rate of duty.
Mr. Parker also intimated to the Commissioners in this
communication that he had received directions from their
Lordships further to state to them, that their Lordships
concur in the opinions expressed in the Board's report
and in that of the Board of Trade, namely, that books,
published in Prussia and stamped in Saxony, or any
other State which may have acceded to the Convention,
should be treated as Prussian, and vice versa; and that it
was their Lordships' desire that the Board would give
the necessary directions to their officers to admit the
same at the duty prescribed Iby the convention to be
levied upon books published in Prussia, and imported
into this country with the Prussian stamp affixed. The
following is a copy of the letter from the Board of Trade
to the Lords of the Treasury alluded to:—
" Office of Committee of Privy Council for Trade,
Whitehall. _ .

"Again his childish days afford him joy,
And pleasant thoughts—again he is a boy I"
Loudon : William Tegg and Co.

P. VIRGILII MARONIS A:NEM
Just published, 12mo. roan, price 7s. Gd.
THE .2ENEID OF VIRGIL, with English
Notes, Critical and Explanatory ; a Medea' Clovis ; and an
Ilistorical, Geographical, and Mythological Index, by CHARLES
ANTHON, LL.D., Jay Professor of the Greek and Latin Languages
in Columbia College, New York, and Rector of the Grammar School.
Edited, with considerable alterations, and adapted to the use of
English Schools and Colleges, by the Rev. W. TROLLOPE, M.A.
Also, the following works, by Anthon :
Homer's Iliad, First Three Books. Greek Reader, by Boyd, 7s. 6d.
7s. 6d. Caesar's Commentaries, 6s.
Horace, by Boyd, 7s. Gd. Greek Grammar, by Major, 45.
Sallast, by Boyd, ss. Greek Prosody, by ditto, 2s. 6d,
Cicero's Orations, by Boyd, Os. Latin Grammar, by Hayes, 4s.
London : William Tegg and Co.

am directed by the Lords of the Committee
of Privy Council for Trade to acknowledge the receipt
of your letter, enclosing a report of the Customs on an
application of certain parties for the admission, at the
low duty, of Prussian books, stamped at Leipsic, and I
am to state to you, for the information of the Lords
Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, that my Lords
of the Board of Trade are of opinion that the Commis-
sioners of Customs have put a right construction upon
the instructions which have been issued to them with
respect to the admission of Prussian and Saxon books.
The books mentioned in the memorial under notice are
clearly not Saxon books,' because they were not pub-
lished in Saxony, neither are they entitled under the
Convention to be regarded as Prussian books,' because,
although published at a town or place within the domi-
nions of Prussia, they have not been duly stamped by
the proper municipal or other authority of such town or
place,' as is required by the sth article of the Conven-
tion. Had they been so stamped, and had they thus ac-
quired a perfect Prussian character, they might un-
questionably have claimed admission at the low duty,
although imported from Saxony, and not from Prussia
itself, which is the meaning of the sth article of the
treaty. My Lords are, however, of opinion, that there
would be no objection to allowing books published in
Prussia and stamped in Saxony, or vice verse', to be ad-
mitted at the low rate of duty, and as both the Act of
Parliament and the Orders in Council are perfectly ge•
neral in their terms, they would suggest that the in-
structions which have been issued to the Commissioners
of Customs may safely be modified, and the Commis-
sioners informed that they may treat as Prussian books
published in Prussia, and stamped in any state which
may have acceded to the Convention; and as Saxon books
published in Saxony, and stamped in any such state.
" I am, &e.
(Signed) " STAFFORD 11. NORTIICOTE.
" T. C. E. Trevelyan, Esq."
In pursuance of this order of the Lords of the Trea-
sury, the Commissioners have caused copies of the same
and of the communication from the Board of Trade to
be issued to the principals of the several departments in
London, and the collectors and comptrollers of the out-
ports throughout the (InitedKingdom, for their informa-
tion and future government in this important matter.

DEATH EY DRowsrma.—Last evening an inquest
was held at Barnes, on the body of Mr. George
Roxburgh Sharp, aged 19, who was drowned on Friday
afternoon by the upsetting of a boat in that part of the
River Thames called the Chiswick Cut. The deceased
was a student at the College for Civil Engineers at
Putney, and a very promising young man. He and a
party of fellow-students had gone up the river for recrea-
tion, and in crossing the stream from the Surrey to the
Middlesex side, the swell struck the bow and the boat
was swamped; the decased (who was steering) having
sunk, it is believed, in consequence of having had on a
heavy pea jacket. Verdict, " Accidental death." The
accident excited a deep feeling in the neighbourhood.
About two years ago, his brother, also a student in the
' same college, was similarly drowned near the same spot;
and about five years ago, a third brother was drowned
in the East Indies. A sister alone remains of a family
of four. The deceased was just about to leave the col-
lege for Cambridge University.

o " Had the facilities of publication been equal to both, it
is possible that the position of these eminent names (M. Le
Verrier and Mr. Adams) might have been reversed. This we
state with no other feeling than a conviction of the imperfect
machinery of our Royal Sod ety. We have announced that
reform is being carried out, and we know that good heads
and stout hearts are at work. Facility, regularity, and
frequeney of publication, will 4e a great boon."--Literary
Gazette, Oct. al.

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1 THE POPE AND RAILWAYS.
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It is at length announced that the Pope has appointed
Commissioners to devise forthwith a general plan for the
extension of railways over the Roman States. The fol.
lowing articles, signed by Cardinal Gizzi, which have
been published by order of his Holiness, are to constituter
the basis of their proceedings:—
" Art. I. The lines considered by the Pontifical
Government to be of the greatest importance, and thof.o
whereof the execution is authorised, are four in number—
namely:—
"1. The line from Rome through the Valle del Sacco
to the confines of Naples, near Ceprano.
2. Vecchia.
Aianzio.
3. AA
" 4. A line from Rome, running through the moss
populous parts of Umbria—namely, Foligno and the
Valle del Fiume Potenza to Ancona, and thence to
Cthievi Porto
Bologna; following the traces of the ancient Via Fla-
mini*
" Art. 11. The construction of these new roads will be
conceded to private companies, represented by Papal
subjects, and the competing parties will be required to
furnish—

undeiriaAke.plan of the line or lines which they propose to

bind th;..mss ta eltveemseetot
ofcomplete
the s
" 2. Drawings and specifications.
" 3. A statement of the time within which they will
the
shortest lease with which they would be satisfied.
~ 4. in
eeothrietywv‘oriklise,banitdlamlsoay obfe
their power to offer for the due completion of their re-
spective undertakings.
a s
they
At
. wlillll. r
astatementffeoert theofthepresentation
railway is to be conducted, considered principally as far
th
eprinciplesßoman
people,
: upon
; projects on w
in
h which
landholders,
t eachand
capitalists.
com-
plianceA
with the above conditions, a period of three
months is to be allowed from the date of the present
notice (Nov. 7, 1346), which period can be extended at
the request of the companies, on sufficient reason being
given.
" Art. IV. The construction of the lines described in
Article I. having been assured, the Government re-
, serves to itself to take into consideration the construc-
tion of a line from Foligno towards Perugia and Cita
di Castello by the Valle del Tevere, aad also other lines
of communication with the neighbouring States, when-
ever the necessity or utility of such works for the Roman
people shall be fully recognised.
" Art. V. A gold medal of the value of 1,000 seudi
@151.) will be given, under the judgment of the Council.
of Art (the members of which are on that account ex-
cluded from the competition), to the person who shall
demonstrate the easiest and cheapest read between 'Um-
bria and Le Marche."