The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-14 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Social Life and Manners in Australia. By a
Resident. Longman.
This little work purports to be the notes of
eight years' experience of a lady in Victoria. We
say purports to be, for it is evident that the author's
topographical experience is derived from a map,
and her other experiences partly from hearsay and
partly from fancy. Nevertheless, as everybody is
not supposed to have visited Australia; there is no
reason why fiction may not be written about it ;
but we should have preferred that the author had
admitted the fact in the preface, seeing that any-
body who is in any way acquainted with Australia
cannot fail to detect some error in almost every page;
but treated in its true character as a work of fiction
it is amusing, and as the author has taken the pre-
caution to avoid all reference to dates and proper
names, those uninitiated in the mysteries of gold
digging and colonial travelling may pass a dull
hour away in the perusal of a volume which has
certainly the advantages of novelty, being, we
believe, the first attempt to give a lady's ideas of
the gold-fields.

Treatise on Mills and Millworks. Part I. By
William Fairbairn, C.E., &c., &c. Longman.
Mr. Fairbairn informs us in his preface that he
has long had it in contemplation to give an account
of his own practical experience on millwright con-
struction. In this the first volume he furnishes
data and general principles for the successful guid-
ance of the millwright in his professional studies.
In the next ho proposes to give a treatise on the
new system of transmissive machinery, and on the
arrangements necessary for imparting motion to
the various descriptions of mills. From long ex-
perience in the construction of mills, and a thorough
knowledge of the principles which govern
water power and other motive agencies, Mr.
Fairbairn is eminently competent to carry
out these views. He has a great respect
for the millwrights of the last century, of
wLom he gives the following account :

THE MILLWRIGHT OF OLDEN DAYS.
The millwright of former days was to a great extent the
solo representative of mechanical art, and was looked upon.
e .
as the authority in all the applications of wind and water,
under whatever conditions they were to be used, as a motive
Jack-of-
all-trades,gineer of the district in which he lived, a kind of
work at the lathe,
power for the purposes of manufacture. He was the en
who could with equal facility.
the anvil, or the carpenter's bench. In country districts,
far removed from towns, he had to exercise all these profes-
sions, and he thus gained the character of an ingenious,
roving, rollicking blade, able to turn his hand to anything,
and, like other wandering tribes in days of old, went about
the country from mill to mill, with the old song of " kettles
to mend' reapplied to the more important fractures of
machinery.
Thus the millwright of the last century was an itinerant
engineer and mechanic of high reputation. He could
handle the axe, the hammer, and the plane with equal skill and precision ; he could turn, bore, or forge with the ease
and despatoh of one brought up to these trades, and he
could set out and cut in the furrows of a millstone with an
accuracy equal or superior to that of the miller himself.
These various duties he was called upon to exercise, and
seldom in vain, as in the practice of his profession he had
mainly to depend upon his own resources. Generally, he
was a fair arithmetician knew something of geometry,
levelling, and mensuration, and in soma cases possessed a
very competent knowledge of practical mathematics. He
could calculate the velocities, strength, and power of ma-
chines : could draw in plan and section, and could construct
buildings, conduits, or watercourses, in all the forms and
under all the conditions required in his professional prac-
ticea ; he could build bridges,. cut canals, and
variety of work now done by civil engineers. SuchPe
character and condition of the men who designed and to
car-
ried out most of the mechanical work of this country,
mom
primitive the middle and end of the last century. Living - a
in
primitive state of society than ourselves, there probably_,..,,,e,
never existed a more useful and independent class
mechanicali
than the country millwrights. The whole them, and,
knowledge of the country was centered amongstselpimprovement
wherever sobriety was maintained and perform
the
aimed at, they were generally
ble intellectual p9wer. It,
upon as Dien of supe-
rior
that early training, however, too frequently happened
temptations of jovial com-
panions, attainments and of considerable
con-
stant change of scene, and tl?
ht into excesses which almost
raooked
panions, led theyoungrafirtgions. His attainments as e
the useful arts, were apt to
of
skimalas himself, unless he was born
with a rude independence he would
th
mechanic,paralysed hisand
hgiosodstaneasd.iini-gcain .
make him vain ;
working with an inferior craftsman, or
even with another ast.
h remember an old mill hwr t
and bred a mill=
, n ioffence with which his eml h who,
oyes c arged
in Palliati-111 at
he ought not to forget that
repudiate the ideaaand
he had condo-
him urged —Beven with carpenter to
conde-
scended to work 8 please him,
BMc r. Fairbairn commences with the early history of
mills, and step by step, as he advances up to
the present time, he explains the various construc-
tion of water, steam, and other mills, together with
the requisite formula to regulate their mechanism.
We have also several plates illustrating different
mills which he has erected in various parts of the
country, demonstrating the peculiarities of the
principles on Which they are built. The various
forms of boilers are considered in chapter 8; and
chapter 9 is devoted to windmills, the consideration
of the causes of their limited use, the forms and
proportions of sails, and the regulation of speed.
The volume is concluded by a series of experiments
upon the efficiency of the vortex wheel.

THE POLES AND THEIR PRISON.--Eighteen
miles from Warsaw stands the largest fortress in. the world,
a fortress with casemated and bomb-proof barracks for
40,000 men, and with a circumference of 11 miles. Who.
ther this fact is generally known or not, it is certain that
very few Englishmen—very few persons of any country but
Russia—have been allowed the opportunity Of inspecting
this wondrous stronghold. Nor, I believe, is cur Govern-
ment at present in possession of any plan or sketch of the
immense works ; and as evidenceof the jealow fy thwi which
it is hidden from the eyes of strangers, I may mention that
special permission from the Czar is requisiiie to enable
any foreigner to enter it. The fortress is calls I Modlm, or
the New Georgien, ix Rusoian, Novo-Gliorgiewor-Once a.
ofk.