The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-02-13 00:00:00

PH itENOLOGY.

TO Till? _EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STAN-DARD.
Stu,—Availing myself of the permission you have granted
me, to reply, through the medium ot your paper, to the strictures
upon my lectures, which froth time to time have appeared in
your columns, I commence by stating, whereas phrenology pre
tends to erect a building which, like the ark of old, is sufficiently
capacious to comprise within its limits, not only the human
race, but to preserve from the deluge of false opinions which
till now has overpread the world, all creatures, from the bird
that flieth in the air to the beast of the field, and the lowest ani-
mated intelligence which creepelh upon the earth ; so is it a
structure built upon a multitude of facts and inferences, each
constituting,; a pillar of support, and without any one of which
it loses its fair proportion, and, divested of many, it of necessity
falls to the. ground; so with those who look for the proofs upon
which it rests in the necessarily contracted reports which you:
havd been enabled to give, find a superstructure wanting in a
very great degree the foundation which, I flatter myself, I ex- .
bibited in toy lectures, but which they will in vain look for in
your reports. It is as though a carpenter should make a three
legged stool, which he should declare capable of supporting
every individual who might choose to sit thereon, and an enemy •
• were to come into his shop and say, he would take it home and
try its strength ; but as he bad ord), power to take with him the
top of the stool and one leg, he found, when he exhibited it to
his friends, that it toppled over with its own weight.
Moreover, there are still a number of verbal errors and mis-
conceptions, which it is incumbent upon me to correct, before
I examine those phySiological experiments, which, any critib'
fancies, tear up phrenology by the roots, but which I hope to
show, either prove its truth or refute each other.
I pass over the first two lectures, having already, as far as
could, corrected them, merely remarking, that they conic under
the first bead, of insufficiency, and commence with the third,
or the second of the course; in it I am made to say, "tables
erase," it should be "tabula rasa." You misconceive the me-
stilt of dividing the fifth pair of nerves—it destroys sensibility;
dividing the special nerve of the part, (say. the lips,) destroys
motion. I said cautiousness "was timidity."
In the fourth lecture, for "the vain man was not what God
had made him," read " was vain not of what he possessed at
birth, but what be had acquired." For " ignorant as au urn,"
read "ignorant as an owl." Instead of "veneration leading to
consciousness,', as your report would seem to imply, I occupied
a considerable time in endeavouring to show that veneration.
and consciousness were distinct faculties ' • that, in short, " re-
ligion was not righteousness." I said i°firmness was a substi
tute for courage." The whole sentence, contrasting the poet
with the shoemaker, is misreported. " Poeta nascitur non fit"
may be considered the text upon which I enlarged.
In the fifth lecture, I thought "space a better name than
locality," not size. The hydatid in my patient occupied the
portion of the brain allotted to locality and not eventuality.
For powers of " memory" read mimicry.
Instead of wit being a " discovery of incongruity where con-
gruity was expected," which is Combe's definition, I spent a;
quarter of an hour, at least, in endeavouring to show the error
of this definition, and to prove my own, which is the following :
" Wit is the perception of a resemblance in things essentially
different, and classifying the two objects in consequence of
this resemblance, in despite of the differences which so widely
separate them."
" Why is a pocket-hankerchief like a venomous reptile?"—
" Because it's a wiper"—illustrates and embodies my definition..
You omit all mention of "comparison" in your enumeration
of the reflective faculties, and attribute to casualty alone the
product of three faculties, viz. :—" casualty, comparison, and
wit." Somewhere you say "He does not attribute self-esteem
to man," it should be to animals. These mistakes of the re-
porter are all I feel it necessary to notice. In my next I shall
reply to his criticisms.—l am, &e., JQ. ItUIIIBALL.

THE LEEDS AND M ANCHESTMI RAILWAY V. MR. HENRY
TAYLOR.-Au inquiry to assess damages under the Leeds and
Manchester Railway Act took place before a jury specially sum-
moned for the purpose yesterday forenoon, at the Coach and
Horses, St. George's road. The party for taking whose land
damages were assessed, was Mr. lien. Taylor of Pontefract.'
The land ,required is situated in the vicinity of St. George's
Church. No offer had been made on the part of the Company:
Evidence was adduced on the part of Mr. Taylor to prove that
the property might be rendered very valuable for wharfing pur-
poses, as it was near a branch of the Rochdale canal, which.
might, without much difficulty, be brought into Mr. Taylor's
land, and several valuers were called to prove the value of the
land, the average of. whose valuation was ab.ut Is. per yard at
20 years' purchase. For wharling purposes the land was valued
at £44,000, and fot building upon at 1:24,(XX). The valuers called
on behalf of the railway valued the land at £15,000 or thereahouti„
and the jury. after being charged by the assessor, gave £17,000
The costs on both sides to be paid by the railway company, and
the price awarded averages 41d. per yard at 2() years' purchase
on the whole quantity of land taken. The counsel for the railway
company were Mr. Cresswell, Mr. Brandt. and Mr. Wilkins;
and for Mr. Taylor, Sir F. Pollock, Mr. Foster, and Mr. Duck.
'l'he ease occupied the whole of the day.—Froia the Manchester
Courier of Saturday last.

Mr. Buckingham is giving, at New York, his lectures on.
Egypt and Palestine, to crowded houses; he has given eighteen,
and is repeating them; he must have averaged near £lOO. each
lecture.

The late Rev. Wm. Richardson, for fifty three years the
reverend Vicar of St. John's, Chester, has bequeathed the very
munificent sum of £6OO. for the purpose of purchasing an Organ
for that Church.

We understand that Mr. James Booth, the Chancery harris-.
ter, and brother of Mr. Henry Bmitt► and Mr. Alderman Booth,
has been appointed counsel to the House of Commons by the
Speaker.
The Rev. Joshua Finlinson, 8.A., of Queen's College, Cain-
bridge, late of Liverpool, has been prese►►ted with the incum-
bency of Earls II eaton, in Yorkshire, by the Vicar of Dewsbury,
patron.

The consumption of gold for gilding at the various potteries
is said to amount to upwards of VOL a week, and the consump-
tion of coals in the same period is about 800 tons.
WRECK OP THE. KILLARNEY STEAMER.—We perceive by,
the Bristol papers that a subscription has been set on foot for
the relief of the widows and orphans of the unfortunate persons
who perished in the Killarney steamer. The subscription ex-
ceeds £3OO.

FACT Felt THE NATURALIST.—ADVENTUEES OF WO
GEESE.—The efforts made by salmon to regain their native
river are well known, and other animals also possess strong
local attachments and a retentive memory. The following;
however, is the first instance we have heard of geese being en-
dowed of faculties of this description :—Mr. D. Campbell, a res-
pectable sheep-farmer, lived at l3orley, in the county of
Sutherland, close by a fresh water lake, near the Kyle of our-
ness. Subsequently he took the farm of Mudale, inland Irons
Burley about 30 miles, where he now resides. When he lett
his former residence, Mr. C. took with him, as part of his
moveables, a pair of geese. The wings of the geese were clipped
and they were carried across the country in a covered basket.
Their new locality did not seem to please ibis douce and cor-
dial couple; and, accordingly, after residing a few days at
Mudale, they set off together clown the river to Loch Never,
a distance of three miles. Here they remained two or three
days, after which they continued their aquatic excursion for 30
miles further, to Inver Naser. The sea was now before them,
but they holily entered upon their voyage; they crossed the
Ks le of Tongue, and rounded the Whiten-head, ( well known
to mariners as a stormy head land,) steering athwart Loch.
Eribol, and landed at RiSpond, the first pint of laud at the en-
trance on the west side. At this place they bailed, and after a
short stay pursued their course along the coast till they arrived
at Durin. 'l'o save a distance of about twenty miles by sea,
• round Farrel head, the geese then, sagaciously and courageously,
walked across the country to their native lake, Burley, giving
the worthy minister of Durness a call as they passed. The
wanderers had been six weeks on their travels, having per-
formed a circuitous route of about 100 miles, first north-east to
the sea, and then north-west to Loch Borley. The fate of the
poor geese after their long and perilous journey was hard and
unmerited. They bad come to Burley (as some other travellers
had done) somewhat hungry and exhausted, and they took the
liberty of feasting a little in a cornfield. Mr. Campbell had
Gfferea a reward to any person that would secure the geese; and,
this failing, he offered to pay the amount of any damage in-
flicted by their trespass. The grieve, or steward, on the farm
was apparen'ly aii ruthless as Coleridge's ancient mariner when
he shot the albatross, for be shot both the geese. Thus perished
the unfortunate wanderers, whose exertion, certainty entitled
them to a better fate. This story well known in the district,
and the curreetness of the alialie narrative can be vouched fat
by Mr. Campbell and the other iiitiabitauts•