The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-14 00:00:00

party should gain in strength, is, after all, not so
grave a question as what is the conduct and the
capacity of that class to which a larger share of.
the governing power is to be transferred, or what
would be the effect on the working classes of a re-
fusal of such a participation in political power.
Almost all men are agreed that a refusal would
not only be most dangerous as affording popular
demagogues an opportunity of preaching up a war
betwe m the classes, but also unjust, inasmuch as
the interests of the working classes are not repre-
sented with sufficient directness, nor is their desire
to take part in political life sufficiently recognised.
It is the duty of the statesman—one which re-
quires, however, consummate skill and knowledge
of the principles of our Constitution—so to adjust
the new element with the old, that one class shall
not overbalance the other, nor alter the essential
character of the House of Commons, as presenting
as perfect and complete a reflex as possible of the
opinions, principles, and interests of the country
at large. But we can easily conceive that men
should hesitate for the sake of a theoretical perfec-
tion in the Constitution to admit to political power
and to the future government of the country
classes whose tendencies and principles they might
not unjustly deem as likely to be subversive of
existing institutions, and therefore injurious to
the well-being of the State. They might argue
in this fashion : it is true that the working classes
of England are entitled, by their numbers, know-
ledge, and wealth, according to the theory of the
Constitution, to a larger share of political power,
but it is likewise true that their principles and
tendencies are hostile to institutions—political, re-
ligious, and social—so long held sacred in England,
but which would not long -survive the increase of
popular power ; therefore-they would prefer rather
to do violence to the theory of the Constitution than
run the risk of sacrificing ancient institutions to
theoretical completeness. Without stopping to in-
quire how far the working classes are hostile to such
institutions as the House of Peers, the established
religion, or the law of primogeniture, it seems to us
as clear as the summer sun at noon that the exclusion,
on such a plea of the working classes from such pri-
vileges as the Constitution might confer on them,
would bring on a collision of classes which would
not only lead to the overthrow of the most cher -
ished institutions, but endanger the stability of
the Empire. How to deal with the working
classes, powerful by their numbers, by their or-
ganised combinations, abandoned to the pursuit
of material interests and enjoyments, and un-
guided by the light of religion, is the most diffi-
cult problem of modern society ; and we are not,
therefore, surprised, when it presents itself under
one form or [another, that men shrink from at-
tempting its solution. Reconciliation and not col-
lision is evidently the wisest and most Christian
;course.. to be adopted. . A-- Collision' such as that
between the socialistic working men and the
Einperor Napoleon, which deluged the streets of
Paris. with blood in 1852, is a dangerous cure,
and one likely to have sown in blood seeds of
future mischief. What we have now to do at home
to avoid a like alienation of classes, is to give
generously and ungrudgingly to the working
classes their fair share .of political power, so ar-
ranged that it shall in no wise trespass on the po-
litical rights or swamp the due influence of any
other class entitled to political power. Whether
household suffrage. and cumulative votes and
lateral extension, taking taxation and education
as the bases of the electoral privilege, will effect
the well-ordered gradation necessary in our Consti-
tution, are questions requiring, at the hands of
our legislators, the most careful and impartial
Consideration. In their hands rests the future
welfare of the country. After having devised
the most generous reform compatible with the
general safety, we must put confidence in the
working classes and seek to reconcile them to the
existing institutions, so far, at least, as such in-
stitutions answer
.the end of justice and good
government. The late conference at the Loudon
Coffee House showed what little hold the religion
of the country had upon the people ; other confer-
ences, if they were to be held, would, doubtless,
show the extent of the alienation of classes, or
what little sympathy many of the working people
have, with the House of Peers, or with our system
of primogeniture, or with our military system or
civil administration. When our institutions are
intertwined with the. roots of the Constitution or
answer the end of good government, we should
do our utmost temperately, but firmly, to recon-
cile the' working classes to these ancient safe-
guards of • our country ; but where our institu-
tions, religions or political, cease to answer a wise
purpose or to fulfil their proper end—the moral
and material well-being of • the nation—we mist
not allow prejudice or old habit to blind our in-
tellectual vision or stay the reforming hand. In-
stitutions, however venerable by age or by :asso-
ciations, unless they are rooted in the heart and in
the intelligence of the people, are mere shadows
of a departed power, remnants of a lost glory
soon destined to' be numbered among the ruins
of a nation's greatness.

CLOCKS AND WATCHES.

In commenting upon *Mr. Wood's entertaining
work on the Curiosities of Clocks and Watches the
Saturday Review gives the following able summary
of all the various means employed from the earliest
period in the measurement of time by water, air,
shadows, sand, fire, and machinery. Unhappily,
the records and monuments of the most primitive
races known to us (says the writer) yield but little
information. Though the gnomon, or sun-dial, cer-
tainly seems to have been in use among the Egyp-
tians, we are not aware of any example of the kind
having been met with in that country. By Herodo-
tus the invention is 'attributed to the Babylonians.
The earliest actual notice of it we possess is the well-
known one of the sun dial of Allaz. Its introduction
into Greece is generally attributed to Anaximander.
The dial, riWpcov, was probably, in its origin, no
more than an upright pillar or staff, the hours being
measured by its shadow, which was marked off
into feet along the ground where the shadow fell.
It was, of course, extremely imperfect as an indi-
cator of time ; and it was impossible by it to divide
the day into 12 equal spaces. The IT iiXos or
ipuorpOiriov, of which our museums :contain several,
was of a more scientific construction. It 'consisted
of a basin (AcKaviv) of stone or marble, in the
middle of which the staff or index (yveop.cov) was
erected, throwing its shadow upon six or twelve
meridian lines drawn from, it as a centre to the
circumference of the concave surface. The general
name for instruments, of whatever kind, for mea-
suring time was c'opoAcirov (horologium), whether
it referred to a sun-dial, clepsydra, sand-glass, or
clock. The period of the first introduction
of the clepsydra is not known, but these con-
trivances are said to have been common in
Egypt before they are met with in Greece.
I Mr. Wood•has missed the fact that Plato made
himself a night-clock of that sort, and that Bath,
the comic writer, a century later, speaks of them
as in common use, according. to Athenams. The
clepsydra was used in the courts of justice at
Athens to measure the time allowed for speak-
ing, as we learn from the amusing pas-
sages in Aristophanes, as well as from allu-
sions by the orators. lts form and construction may
be seen very clearly from a passage in the Problems
of Aristotle. A great improvement was introduced
in the WpoXtiytop apavXocop of Ctesibius of Alexan-
dria about B.C. 150, which is elaborately described for
Virginias. It combined wheel-work with the action
of water, and the hours were pointed out by a
small statue, holding a wand. The so-called
Temple of the Winds at Athens, besids exhibiting a
dial,appears to have been a clepsydra ou a large scale.
The first horologiunz in use at Rome was a sun-dial,
solarium, set up, according to some by Papirius Cur-
si‘oire,ssna.ica., 2f9r2 co
0 m;
tahcobrodoitnygot of oa ttlat ras;
B.C.by 11216.31. rel errr ss
was made for a different meridian, and showed time
very incorrectly. The first dial regulated to the
meridian of Rome was set up by Q. Marcius Phil-
lipus. P. Scipio Nasica in his censorship B.C. 159
established the first public clepsydra. Water-clocks
were in general use in Caesar's time for measuring
the night- watches, and by a law of Cn. Pompeius,
B.C. 52 they were introduced into the Courts of
Rome, asat Athens, as a check on the speakers. • A
kind of water-dock was.found in use in Britain by
Caesar, and there is good presumption, from the
arithmetical treatise of one Bhascara Aeharya writ-
Lewin the 12th century,-that they were early used
in India. A wondrous account is given by Abbot