The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-23 00:00:00

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

ABERDEEN, SEPT. 21.
SECTION A.—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL
SCIENCE.
President—The Earl of ROSSE.
Yesterday Sir DAVID BREWSTER read a paper
On the Decomposed Glass of Nineveh and other
Places." He described the general appearances of
glass in an extreme state of decomposition, when
the decomposed part was so rotten as to break
easily between the fingers, a piece of undecomposed
glass being generally found in the middle of the
plate. He then explained
ac how, in other
one, spectwoimens or,
the decomposition took ple around ,
more points, forming hemispherical cups, which
exhibit the black cross and the limits of polarised
light. In illustration of this decomposition he
showed to the meeting three specimens, in one of
which there was no colour, but which consisted of
innumerable circular cavities, with the black cross,
these cavities giving it the appearance of ground
glass. In another specimen the film was of pecu-
liar and of great beauty, showing a complementary
colour by reflected and transmitted light. In a
third variety the films were filled with circular
cavities, exhibiting most beautiful colours, both in
common and polarised light. Various other re-
markable properties of other plates were described

by the author.
SECTION B.—CIIYMISTRY.
President—Dr. LYON PLAYFAIR, C.B.
A communication was read by J. G. MAcVICAR,
D.D., " On the Organic Elements, and their Rela-
tions to each other, and to the Medium of Light,"
illustrated by models, according to the author's
theory of the forms and structures of the molecules
of bodies. He began by recalling to the memory
of the audience the remarks which hadrecedin been made
on the philosophy of chemistry on pg days,
which brought the subject into that position in
which his own theory desired to find it, viz., an
admitted analogy of function in the entire series
of chemical agents, to which it is to be
inferred that an analogy in structure corresponds,
abolishing from the philosophy of chysaistry the
division of chymical agents into simple and com-
pound, and viewing them all as compound, the con-
stituent atom, or truly simple element, being some-
thing that is lighter than hydrogen, and a physical
rather than a recognised chymical agent. In order
to find it he then stated the sanction which modern
science has given to the ancient doctrine of an uni-
versal ether constituting the medium of light and
radiant heat, and composed of particles, all similar
to wit other, and animated by repulsive and at-
tractive forces, like the molecules of common
bodies. He then proceeded to show that by giving
an affirmative answer to the query of Sir I. New-
ton, as to whether the molecules of dense bodies
may not be composed of particles of the medium of
light, a molecular theory resulted which satisfied
and explained to a wonderful extent the well-
known atomic weights and phenomena generally
of chymical agents. The principle on which lie
conducted his synthesis of molecules was that of
statical eqnilibrium or symmetry; and here he pro-
ceeded to the construction of a few of the simpler
of them. The first in the series, of which a repre-
sentative in the laboratory is to be looked for, is a
molecule composed of five particles of light or ether,
three to form an equator and two to form poles.
He showed that this molecule, when viewed in re-
lation to its own exquisite mechanical structure
and to the medium of light in which it continues
to exist, gave as its mechanical and optical proper-
ties the same as observation gave as the properties
of hydrogen gas, so that this molecule becomes in
science a valuable representative of hydrogen and
a reminder of its properties. He then reached
the structural representatives of carbon, to show
how simply his theory explained the hydro-
carbons, the' principle of symmetrical con-
structions immediately giving two eminent
hydro-carbons, the one with a carbon and the
other with a hydrogen nucleus, the numbers of
whose constituent hydrogens and carbons being
counted gave numbers identical with the chemical
formulae of caoutchoue and of the essential oils. He
stated that he was prepared to go into similar de-
tails with regard to the other hydro-carbons, and to
discuss tie other organic elements, oxygen and
nitrogen; but, the time being limited, he preferred
bestowing what time was left in illustrating his
method.
A commendatory discussion ensued, in which
Professor L. Playfair, Professor Williamson, and
the Abbe Moigno took a part, but without giving
their adhesion, as might be expected, to a theory
which cannot be accepted without entering on a new
era in chemistry.
SECTION E.—GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOLOGY.
President—Admiral Sir 3. C. Ross.
Sir It. NlußomsoN stated in this section yester-
day that at a meeting of the committee of this sec-
tion, held in the morning, he had proposed a motion
relative to the communication read on the previous
day regarding a memorial to the great and illus-
trious Humboldt. That motion had been most un-
animously and heartily adopted, and he (Sir R.
Murchison) trusted it would meet the same favour-
able reception from the section at large—a section
which should be the first to do honour to the tra-
veller whose name was known throughout the
whole world. (Hear.) He (Sir Roderick) having
had the deepest personal regard for Baron Hum-
boldt, and having received encouragement from him
during many years of his scientific life, and having
further, in 1840, proposed that there should be a
meeting, on a great scale, of the scientific men
from all nations at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, and to
honour Humboldt by asking him to preside, he (Sir
Roderick) in those circumstances thought it fitting
enough that the motion which he would now read
should emanate from him. (Applause.) The motion
was as follows :
"That the Committee of the Geographical and Ethno-
logical section of the British Association, being deeply in-
terested in the promotion of any preject by which the
memory of the truly illustrious Humboldt shall be honoured
and science advanced, do hereby express their sympathy
with the wishes of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort,
respecting the establishment of the Humboldt Foundation
for Physical Science and Travels.' "
The motion was passed amid cordial applause.
Mr. A. AMEUNEY, a Syrian gentleman, read a
paper " On the Arabic speaking Population of the
World."
Dr. MACGOWAN then delivered an address " On
Chinese Genealogisal Tables," which drew forth
some discussion.
In answer to questions from Principal CAMP-
BELL regarding the rebellion in China—namely,
whether these portions of China in possession of
the rebels were the native districts of those men,
or if they had come from other parts of the country
—whether they were marauders, and if the rebel-
lion was on the increase, and what was likely to be
its effect on the future of China,—
Sir JOHN BowRING said that he did not believe
any one of the leaders of the rebels, or any man
holding an influential position, was connected with
the localities in their possession. The rebels had
found no support or sympathy from the inhabitants
of the quarters into which they had advanced.
They lived solely on plunder, and their progress
from town to town, and from place to place, was
one track of desolation. They were very ignorant,
had no common bund of union, and wherever re-
bellion had been experienced the progress of civi-
lisation and education had been retarded. So far
as he (Sir John) had watched the progress of the
rebels, it had been marked by barbarism and
destruction of property and life. He looked with
great apprehension upon the security of China,
for where Government was so corrupt, and its
laws but so partlally obeyed—where justice was
so impure and religion so little thought
of, he was afraid in that country there was nothing
to be anticipated but great disorganisation and in-
creasing misery.
SECTION F.—ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS.
Yesterday a paper, " On the British Trade with
India," prepared by Mr. R. Valpy, was read by the
secretary. It stated that in the year 1858 the ex-
Po
of British- produce from England to India
amounted
to £16,7‘2,515, and exceeded those to
the United
States, which were not more than
£14,510,61 low amount, it was true, for the
United States. the first six months
value of British of 1859 the
produce exported had been
£11,783,795 to the
1815,
the first
States, and £10,109,563
to India. In
I.risttdear after the opening
of the Indian trade to
e.,ll,srao
,erschoafnths, the total
value of the imports
Zlo,7tolis
from and to India amounted to to 000 count
1858 the amount was £31,754,000.
In 1858, there
fore, the value of the British trade with India was
imp orts
three times'more than it was in 1815.
The computed
real value of the total imports from
India in each
year since 1854, when the real
tom
-house, wasa of the
was first ascertained at the C_
.. .10,672,000
1854 ......................
1855 ........................
186 ........................ 162(p,000
15,600,000
_ .

1857
'''''''''''''''''''''' : 14,972000

1858 ........................
This increase was not so striking as that of the ex.
ports of British produce to India, the totals,
_o_n a
comparison of similar periods—viz., from 18ao to
1858 of er 1815 to 1819—for the respective periods
being about £11,600,000 against £2,800,000. In
1850 there was a large increase in the imports of
Indian cotton, the qyantity being 118,872,7421 b ,
which since had steadily increased. The paper no-
ticed the various articles of imports and exports,
showing that India is the best customer we have
f?r the most important of our industrial produc-
t4ns. For example, in 1854 the quantity of cotton
manufactured goods exported was only 39,000,000
'Thds, and in 1858 it rose to 728,000,000 yards.
e total value of our exports of cotton stuffs and
yarns to India in 1858 was £10,249,826. 11

chinery has been exported to India since 1855 to
the extent of £500,000 annually.
The business of the sections was concluded yes-
terday, with the exception of a few papers, which
are to be read to-day, in the Mathematical, Che-
mical, and Geological Sections.
At a meeting of the General Committee held to-
day in the Library of Marischal College, Dr. Robin-
son presiding, grants of money for scientific ob-
jects, to the amount of £930, including £5OO to
Kew Observatory, were passed unanimously. The
reports of the various sectional committees were
read and approved.

TUSCANY, MODENA, AND PARMA.

(From the Timegs.)
It may well be supposed that the Ducal houses
of Tuscany, Modena, and Parma will not consent
to fall without a struggle. The sympathies of the
present age are not, indeed, likely to be much en-
listed on the side of pretenders to thrones. The
days when a Stuart was honoured in Rome and
Paris, and a Bourbon received the homage of Eng-
lish visitors at Hartwell, are for ever gone by. The
rightful heir of St. Louis lives unnoticed and
almost forgotten in his German retirement, and
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte has been recei red at
once into the rank of European Sovereigns, his only
credentials being the possession of supreme power
in his own country. But if the Grand Duke of Tus-
cany and his compeers foresee the obscurity which
awaits them should Italy ever exclude them from
its limits, they are all the more anxious to leave no
means untried for the preservation of the authority
which only belongs to them as long as they hold it.
Nor are they without powerful friends and many
hopes of success. Like the frontier Barons of
the middle ages, they find security in the rivalry
of the great potentates on whose limits they live.
The Grand Duke, no doubt, considers himself, to
use the phrase of the day, the only possible solu-
tion of the Tuscan question. Who shall rule the
fair city of Florence and its classic land ? Not
Austria, for she has for ever renounced the right
of interference. Not Sardinia, for Austria will go
to extremities to prevent it, and the French Empe-
ror, nettled at Victor Emmanuel's independence
and the alleged ingratitude of the Piedmontese,
will play into the hands of his late enemy before
allowing a powerful State to be founded on his
frontiers. The objections of the Tuicans to a
French Imperial Prince, and the transfer to one
foreigner of the supremacy lately snatched from
another, seem likely to forbid the settlement which
is supposed to be favoured by France. There are
difficulties in the way of any new arrangement, and
the exiled Princes may well believe that they are
destined to return to their capitals, if not amid the
enthusiasm, at least with the acquiescence, of their
subjects.
That in spite of elections by universal suffrage,
and votes by an unamimous assembly, these are the
hopes of the Grand Dukes and their followers is
abundantly manifest. They are working hard
among courtiers and diplomatists to set the in-
ternational machine in motion against the deci-
sion of liberated Italy. The recent movement in
the Peninsula is, indeed• almost without paral-
lel in history. The charge that disaffection was
confined only to a few restless spirits has been
summarily disproved. As soon as the pressure
of Austrian military strength was taken off, the
whole of Central Italy rose against its oppres-
sors—against its worst oppressors, the Italian
Princes themselves. Never was greater una-
nimity. Army, civil officials, professional men,
traders, handicraftsmen, and peasants, all joined in
expelling the rulers who had made their dominions
mere provinces of the Viennese Emperor. The
Grand Duke of Tuscany had a respectable military
force, relying on which he had made a treaty with
Austria for the permanent subjection of Italy. But
they were Tuscan officers who announced to him
that his power had passed away, and it was an es-
cort of Tuscan cavalry which, under the orders of a
Provisional Government, conducted the legitimate
ruler beyond the frontiers of his Duchy. Nearly the
same thing took place in Modena, and even in
Parma the respectable character of the Regent was
unable to preserve the principality for her child.
These revolutions were accomplished while an im-
mense Austrian army was actually in possession of
the strongest places in Italy, when the issue of the
war was still doubtful, when the reputation of
Francis Joseph's troops still gave reason to suppose
that Piacenza and Pavia might be destined to break
the tide of French invasion, and perhaps to roll it
back on Piedmontese soil.
But the most striking proof of the unanimity of
the Italians is to be found in the events which have
taken place in the Legations. Here the authority
of the most ancient and venerable throne in Chris-
tendom has been thrown off by a population taught
from infancy only to listen and obey. What must
not the strength of that impulse be which can
turn men who have been governed by Austrian
commandants and educated by Romish priests
into the assertors of liberty, and the as yet suc-
cessful maintainers of order ? Yet it is these Tus-
cans, Modenese, and revolted subjects of the Pope
whom it is now necessary to represent as fail-
ing in their objects, as repenting of their late pro-
ceedings, as unable to organise independence or
freedom, and as conscious of their own inca-
pacity. It cannot be doubted that if the belief
became general that the Italians were unwilling
participators in the late revolutions, or that order
would be threatened by the exclusion of the Grand
Dukes, a great point would be gained by the
partisans of the exiled families. They have
fir them Austria, the Pope, perhaps the French
Emperor, and certainly the Government of the Two
Sicilies. They may calculate on powerful support
if ever a Congress meets ; and we cannot but think
that even the desire of thwarting English, inter-
ference would operate largely on more then one
Continental Power. They have the Princes and
mighty ones of the earth on their side, but they
fear that with the people their case is different.
They have been expelled by popular movements,
and not a hand has been raised in their cause. And
as long as this is the conviction of Europe it will
be difficult to restrain Sardinia from accepting the
fusion which has been proposed by the new Go-
vernments. There is enough of public conscience in
Europe to prevent any gross outrage on a people
which is merely seeking its own happiness. Let
the world remain in the belief that the Dukes are
not wanted by the Italians, and neither France
nor Austria will have the courage to reinstate
them. But there is one way of sapping the
strength of the new Governments, and of giving
their enemies an excuse for summary measures. It
is by making it appear that the mass of the popu-
lation in the Duchies is coerced by a few dema-
gogues, and that, while honest men are strongly
desirous of seeing again their legitimate rulers, a
set of adventurers are passing off their own deci-
sions as the will of their countrymen. A long letter
has reached le to this effect, purporting to come
from a Tuscan ; it complains of the tyranny of the
Government, the impossibility of conversing freely
without danger of delation and imprisonment. It
charges the elections with corruption, declares that
only a small percentage of the people voted, and
that in many cases votes were openly extorted.
Now, all this is to be expected from a beaten party.
Any one who is acquainted with the hi.tory of re-
volutions knows that the existence of a party at-
tached to the old institutions and the persons of
the banished rulers is always to be found, strangely
tenacious of life, clinging to its traditions closely,
and satisfying its animosities bitterly. This was
the case in England for 70 years ; it is
still the case in France : why should.
Italy be an exception ? As for the asser-
tion that the people are careless about, or averse
form, the movement, even if it be true, the same
might be said of many of the most salutary change s.
In every country it is only a minority which takes
an active share in politics, and we should not ask
what the peasant or the huckster engaged in sordid
cares thinks about the fate of Italy, but what have been
the principles and the action of the educated classes
throughout the chief cities of the North and Centre?
We by no means allow that the people are indif-
ferent to the recent changes, but, even allowing it
for the sake of argument, it is nevertheless certain
that every man of mind and honour is committed
to the cause of freedom, and that under the guid-
ance of such men the political character of the
Italians is rapidly recovering from the contempt
I which had for ages been cast upon it.

The following is the letter alluded to above :
Sir,—The impossibility which we unhappy Tus-
cans feel by any means to make the truth known
through the press of our own country, the punish-
ment which too often awaits any private interchange
of our real opinion, induce me to appeal to your
invaluable assistance in endeavouring to undeceive
those statesmen in your country who appear too
ready to be led away by false assertions, so often
repeated, of tranciuillity, which exists but on the
surface, and of a pretended national election, which
had its origin in n timidation and deception.
We exist a thisi moment under oppression with-
out example 'Weus, have hardly even the liberty of
thought left tofor on the slightest suspicion we
are imprisoned
and
condemned without any legal
The
sentence. popular vote se much boasted com-
prised at the most 2 per cent. of the population,
and if we make the
,dtehdeuretion of those votes ex-
torted by compulsion
expression of opinion „,
there will hardly remain the
free more than 1 per cent.
of the Tuscan people.
The municipalities are said to havevoted spon-
taneously the annexation to Piedmont.
can be further from the truth. I myself belong
a municipality whose real opinions I Nothing t
well kil):
All are sincerely desirous of the return of the exist:

ing dynasty, and yet their votes are recorded for the
fusion. There cannot be a greater proof that the
majority of the population really desire the return
of our preserA Sovereign, so deservedly popular
than the thousands of persons who, without o
Wise compromising themselves, left their cards
with Prince Poniatowski, as an indication that they
had no sympathy with the existing rulers, by
whom he had been so ill received, but ardently
desired the return of the existing representative of
their late mild and paternal Government.
The public treasury has been plundered, the
reveizue of the next 18 months anticipated. In the
last foul* mouths more than 50,000,000 Tuscan lire
have beezl. squandered, and if this system of extra-
vagant cotTuption is much longer continued the
country will })e entirely ruined. The Piedmontese
influence was by no means extinguished by the de-
parture of the Commissioner. He still continues
in all the departments to exercise the same powers
through the age:sts he had placed and through
salaried agitators. It is now notorious that it was
Piedmontese money scattered on all sides beforo the
27th of April which brought about the insurrection.
Two superior officers received immense sums for
procuring the disaffection of the troops, in order to
make evident to the Prince that his army had
thrown off its allegiance, The great majority of
my countrymen, deprived of any external support,
oppressed by daily despotism, beset in the public
streets by lawless agitators, imprisoned without
just cause if they seek justice from the authorities,
find themselves almost without:the power of devising
any means of giving expression to their wish for
the return of their lawful Sovereign.
It is therefore hoped that through your columns
this sincere contfadiction of the untruths daily
circulated may be allowed to appear, and that your
eminent statesmen may no longer be deceived into
giving the moral weight of their support and opin-
ion to the revolution in Tuscany. I trust I have
at the same time taken the best means of convinc-
ng you, by the most satisfactory reference, that I
am a person of respectability, who, living on the
spot, would not make any assertions of which I
could not prove the truth.—l am, Sir, your obe-
dient humble servant, A TUSCAN.
Florence, Sept. 12.