The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-16 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Stn-A friend, 'who is a constant reader of your Paper,
favoured me with your Journal of the 14th ult., and wished
me to read your remarks on the volumes of John Howison.
You very justly refer the imbedment of tropical animals and
plants in the Arctic regions to astronomical causes. You like-
wise very justly suggest a slow motion of the earth at right
angles to the ecliptic. This motion is known to exist, and
with such a rate as to make a revolution in something more
than two millions of years. You speak of countless ages, as
if we had no guide ; but this is divided into portions of time
of about 25,000 years each, by the procession of the equinoc-
tial points. The result of this motion is to bring every part of
the earth under the ecliptic, but not under the equator, for the
equator is known never to have changed its place on the
earth, although it is the darling theme of Sir J. Byerly's
globe, which disgraces the capital of the British empire in
Adelaide-street. I have no doubt, Sir, that this globe has
been placed where it is to serve as an impediment to the dif-
fusion of knowledge among the lower classes ; for there is no
knowledge so terrific in the estimation of the privileged classes,
as the knowledge of true astronomy being diffused among the
lower classes—it is their feuris.
S. A. NIA CKE Y, Shoemaker.
Princes-street, Norwich, Sept. 6.

GALWAY HERRING FISIIERY—ROUNDSTONE,
SEPT. 6.--,The prospect of an extensive herring fishery here
is very cheery. Our boatmen are preparing nets, ropes, oars,
&c. Great numbers of harvest herrings have been taken
already in Galway Bay ; they never were found so far up the
bay as they were found at Roundstone this season. The num-
ber of fish taken last season here was astonishing. The neigh-
bourhood is so poor that no person having salt or barrels, and,
in fact, not knowing the proper mode of curing, the fishery is
of no lasting benefit; but we may yet see some persons of
capital settling with us, and making a fortune before we are
aware of what we are now neglecting.
LIFE PROLONGED BY CIVILIZATION.—If we
collect England, Germany, and France in one group, we find
that the average term of mortality which, in that great and
populous region, was formerly one in thirty people annually,
is not at present more than one in thirty-eight. This dif-
ference reduces the number of deaths throughout these coun-
tries from 1,900,000. to less than 1,200,000 persons ; and
700,000 lives, or one in eighty-three annually, owe their pre-
servation to the social ameliorations effected in the three
countries of Western Europe, whose efforts to obtain this ob-
ject have been attended with the
greatest success. The life
of man is thus not only embellished in its course by the ad-
vancement of civilization, but is extended by it and rendered
less doubtful. The effects of the
.arpehopition of the social
condition are to restrain arid dimmish, in proportion to the
population, the annual number of births, and in a still greater
degree that of deaths ; on the contfary, a great number of
births, equalled or even exceeded by that of deaths, is a cha-
racteristic sign of a state of barbarism. In the former case,
as men in a mass reach the plenitude of their physical and
social development, the population is strong, intelligent, and
manly ; while it remains in perpetual infancy, whole genera-
tions are swept off without being able to profit by the past—
to bring social economy to perfection. —.Philcisophteal Journal.

THE SUN, LOWDON, TVENDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1834.