The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-04 00:00:00

BRANDE'S DICTIONARY OF SCIENCE,
LITERATURE, AND ART. Part XI.
Another number will complete this work, and in
the course of the present month the twelve parts will
be published in one volume. The price (31.) is con -
siderable, but to those who have the means, and
who take delight in acquiring general knowledge,
the acquiSition will be found worth the money, both
as a source of information and amusement. It fur-
nishes a clear and succinct history and description of
every branch of human knowledge, with the deriva-
tion and definition of all the terms in general use, the
whole illustrated by some hundreds of engravings
and diagrams in wood, many of them beautifully exe-
cuted. It is printed in a small clear type, and will
extend to about 1,350 octavo pages. Mr.
Brande, the well-known chemist, is the edi.
tor. He has been assisted in the various
departments by Cauvin, Galloway, Gwilt, Lindley,
Loudon, M'Culloch, the two Merivales, and
Owen, all distinguished in their respective pursuits.
And looking at the character of the contributors, and
the style of execution, it will be found the most use-
ful book of reference yet published. The present
number possesses one remarkable feature, as it con-
tains descriptions of three of the greatest discoveries
of modern times " Steam-engine printing," under the
head " Stereotype" and " Telescope," as well as two
articles of consumption brought into use only two
centuries ago, and now producing about one sixth
of the whole revenue of the country, namely,
" Sugar" and " Tea." Brief extracts from these
articles will be read with interest, and at the same
time enable the reader to judge of the work.
STEREOTYPE (Greek CTMEO; solid, and 7'0,7'4
a figure) masses of letters, called letter-press plates of
the size of a page, cast from a plaster mould, in which
an exact representation of the types has been made,
and thus forming the permanent plates from which
books are afterwards printed. As the art of printing
began with the impression of whole blocks, it may be
said that in its progress towards perfection it has
again reached the same point by the introduction of
stereotype plates. •(The invention and process are
then described.)
STEAM ENGINE.—The nature and properties of
steam were altogether unknown to the ancients. Some
accounts have come' down to us bearing a very early
date of engines ; such, for example, as that proposed
by Hero of Alexandria, in which the mechanical
agency of steam was more or less used ; but it does
not appear that those who invented and applied these
machines comprehended the properties of, vapour, or
had any correct notion of the phenemena produced
by the application of heat to liquids. The article ex-
tends to 17 pages, and includes, steam-engine, steam-
boiler, steam-carriage, and steam-navigation.
TELESCOPE (Gr. TIM) distant ; TXO7rEW I look
at).—An optical instrument for viewing distant ob-
jects. The invention of the telescope has been ascribed
to various persons ; by Sir David Brewster, to Roger
Bacon or Baptista Porta ; by Descartes to James Metius,
a citizen of Alkmaer, in Holland, and by others to
Lippersey or Jansen. Lippersey, who was a spec-
tacle-maker at Middleburg, in 1608, however, ap
pears to, have the best claim to this great discovery.
The different kinds of telescopes are described, from
that of Galileo, to the great telescope of Herschel,
erected at Slough, in 1789, illustrated with seven dia-
grams, and reference given, as in most of the articles,
to the most approved writers on the subject.
• SUGAR—(Fr. sucre, Germ. zucher).—Sugar is to
be ranked rather as a necessary, than as the most desir-
able of luxuries ; and a larger sum is, we believe,
expended on sugar in this country than on anythin,g
else, except corn and butcher's meat. The sugar con-
sumed in England is all derived from the sugar-cane,
and was, for a lengthened period, almost wholly sup-
plied by our colonies in the West Indies; but,
latterly, we have derived very extensive supplies
from the Mauritius and India. Foreign sugar is vir-
tually excluded from our markets by the prohibitory
duty with which it is loaded. It is raised also in
South America, Java, Siam, the Philippine Islands,
&c. An account is given of the different processes
for refining sugar, with a table of the quantities en-
tered for home consumption, the amount of duty,
and the differential duties from 1830 to 1840. The
net produce to the revenue, in 1840, was no less than
4,449,0701.
TEA.—The late rise and present magnitude of the
British Tea trade are the m cst extraordinary pheno-
mena in the history of commerce. Tea was wholly
unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and even to our
ancestors, previously to the end of the 16th, or the
beginning of the 17th century. A brief history of
the trade is given, with the quantities imported, and
the duties, since 1784, when the great increase in the
consumption of the article took place. In 1841,
36,396,0781b5. were imported, and produced a gross
revenue of 3,978,1981.

SECRECY OF INCOME TAX COMMISSIONERS.—PeeI
has boasted that no facilities will be afforded by his
income tax commissioners for ascertaining the profits
and circumstances of those against whom the inquisito-
rial powers of his new act are to be exercised. The em-
ployees of the Government are to be sworn to secrecy ;
but they are to consist mainly of the old machinery.
Now, some opinion of the old machinery may be formed
from the following fact. A gentleman, residing in Ken-
dal, happening to call, some time since, upon a friend in
Sedbergh, was informed that this friend had formerly
purchased, for waste paper, and kept by him and still
retains, the accounts connected with the collection of the
old income tax in Kendal and the neighbourhood, in
which the returns of some firms reached no higher than
500/., although the parties were in all probability real-
ising as many thcusands. Another gentleman states
that he remembers the collectors' books being sent to
the bookbinder's, in Kendal, in whose office they lay for
some clays, open to the inspection of all the journeymen.
The old living machinery -may be secret enough ; but
who shall answer for the silent machinery ? "It be-
hoves us," says Milton, "to look how books demean
themselves as well as men ;" and secrecy is just next to
a matter of impossibility.—Kendal Mercury.
THE PROVISION TRADE.—Mr. Gladstone's reply
to the Cork merchants is anything but satisfactory :
" Whitehall, 26th March, 1842. Sir,—l am desired by
Mr. William Gladstone to acknowledge the receipt of
your communication of the 23d instant, on the part of
the Committee of Merchants of Cork. Mr. Gladstone
apprehends that you are mistaken in saying that coast-
ing vessels only use fresh meat ; but it is unnecessary
for him to enter into detail upon that point. With re-
spect to lard, I am directed to acquaint you that Mr.
Gladstone cannot hold out any hope of the Government
consenting to raise the duty on that article to Bs. I am,
Sir, your obedient servant, R. W. RAwsoN. J. J.
Murphy, Esq." We can only repeat that our country-
men engaged in the provision trade must not allow the
disheartening appearance of affairs to prevent them from
making the utmost of the time and opportunity still
open to them. Let them meet—memoralize--petition.—
Dublin Mail (Tory paper).

Culloden,) Lord Loudon with the King's army was at
Inverness, and understood that Prince Charles Stuart
was to sleep that night at Moyhall, the seat of the laird
of Mackintosh, which is eleven miles south of that town,
with a guard of '2OO of Mackintosh's men attending him.
His Lordship, with 1,500 of his men, proceeded imme"-
cliately to Moyhall, in order to take the Prince by sur-
prise, and thereby to put a speedy end to the rebellion.
Mackintosh himself was absent in Ross shire, in the
King's serviee, but his lady, who was a daughter of Far-
quharson of Invercauld, entertained the Prince, and was
so enthusiastic in'his cause, that she raised a regiment
of her husband's clan and followers to support him.. She
got privnte information in the forenoon of that day, of
the intended advance of the King's forces, and having
consulted with Donald Fraser, blacksmith, at Moybeg, a
clever and active man, he agreed to go along with five
other men whom she named, to reconnoitre the royal
army along the high road to Inverness. Donald having
armed himself and his party, lost no time in proceeding,
upon their expedition. It was' in the dusk of the even-
ing when they reached the pass at the hill of Craig-an-
oin, at the boundary of the parish of Daviot with that of
Moy. Here there was a quantity of feal and divot set up
to dry. Donald and his men, in order to watch the
motions of .the enemy, placed themselves a few hundred
yards asunder, amongst these heaps', soon afterwards
they perceived Loudon's troops coming forward, and,
when the army came within hearing, a command was
passed by Donald, and then from man to man, in a loud
voice, along a distance of nearly a quarter of a mile, " the
Mackintoshes, Macgillivrays, and Macbeans to form in-
stantly the centre, the Macdonalds on the right and the
Frasers on the left,"—all this in the hearing of the com-
mander-in-chief of the Royal army. Fraser and his
party fired a few shots, when a soldier of the advanced
guard was killed. Lord Loudon, suspecting in the twilight
that the heaps above noticed were the Highland army,
and that the whole of the Prince's forces were ready to
attack him, instantly faced to the right about in great
eonfusion, and retreated with the utmost expedition to
Inverness ; and, not thinking himself safe there, he con-
tinued his route across three arms of the sea to Suther-
' landshire, a distance of seventy miles, where he took up
his quarters. This affair was humorously called the
Rout of Mop.
The greater part of the moor upon which the battle of
Culloden was fought on the 16th of April, 1746, and the
spot where the Prince stood during the engagement, a
little to the north-west of the farm-house of Culchin-
nock, lie in the parish of Daviot.
After the Prince's defeat at Culloden, he left the field
with a few attached friends, crossed the River Nairn
above the mains of Daviot, passed byTordarrcch, and
proceeded to Gorthieck in Stratherrick. .
Here is another extract fearfully descriptive of the
thirst for revenge, which so often sullied the character
of a brave people.
The Cummings, conceiving they had received some
offence from the Mackintoshes, were determined to be
revenged, and, concealing their bloody purpose, invited
the Mackintoshes to the Castle of Rait, where all ani-
mosities should be buried in oblivion at the festive
board. One of the Cummings, from compunction of
conscience, or regard for one of the intended victims,
sent private notice to one of the Mackintoshes to meet
him at the grey stone, to which, addressing himself in
the audience of his friend, he disclosed the bloody and
treacherous intention of his clan. The Mackintoshes
being thus made aware of the design of the rendezvous,
nothing daunted, repaired to the castle at the appointed
hour, and before the Cummings could give the signal for
attack, each Mackintosh plunged a dagger in the bosom
of a Cumming, and only saved the life of the man who
communicated the treachery to the grey stone.