The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-22 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR,—You have inserted in your valuable journal letters
against magnetism. will you have the justice to insert a
few words in its favour?
Magnetism is an immense problem, that has been the
subject of debate for nearly a century throughout Europe.
The Academy at Paris has exerted all its energy without
being able to give it a solution. On the contrary, day by
day it has been more perplexed by new changes and marvel-
lous phenomena. At the present time many learned men
reject it. it is true • but a learned man makes up his mind
with difficulty to understand a positive innovation, when it
humiliates and dethrones him. The Cartesian tenets wres-
tled a long time in France against the old universities before
obtaining their rights ; latterly they themselves have repelled
the principles of the Newtonian philosophy. In other places
tobacco, coffee, emetics, vaccination, and even potatoes,
have had their time of persecution. The inventor of brandy
(eau de vie)—was he not burnt for a sorcerer ? The disco.
verer of the properties of steam—was he not imprisoned as
a fool? Galileo, for having found out the system of the
world—was he not dragged -barefooted into the forum of
modern Rome, and compelled to deny his theory? Para-
celsus, Volta, Fulton, Gall, and very lately Priesetnitz the
hydropathist, and all those who have presented themselves
with truth in band at the door of the mighty Bedlam (Char-
renton) which we call the world—have they not been received
with blows, stones, and execrations? All the great discove-
ries—have they not been for a time under the ban of nations,
and obliged to pass a long quarantine at the doors of science
and civilisation ?

It is thus with magnetism, which is ridiculed, rejected,
and denied. Had we lived two centuries back, we should
have been burned. There exists in magnetism phenomena
so extraordinary, that even now a fear exists to put faith in
it. The human understanding is so backward, so limited,
and man is yet so far from being in the place he ought to
occupy, the human mind receives in every period forms so
different, good and evil vary so•frequently, that there is
hardly anything in what is called truth but has something in
it apparently impossibilities. The bounds of possibility have
already been so extended since-the times of Pythagoras and
Aristotle, that we cannot reasonably assign them a position.
The effects produced by magnetism are extraordinary, ne-
vertheless we find them almost all in certain diseases. It is
thus in natural catalepsy, in natural somnambulism : we find
the insensibility of the body, insensibility of the senses to
exterior impressions ; the transposition of feeling and the
sight piercing through opaque bodies.
Magnetisers are treated as impostors (charlatans). Impos-
tors act in the dark and in secret; magnetisers, on tne con-
trary, have always addressed themselves to scientific bodies—
to academies—for the purpose of provoking an inquiry. They
have appealed to all learned men, and, far from engrossing
the secrets of magnetism, they make it known to all. You
who are incredulous, do as we do—examine, practise, and
soon facts will.convince you. It is a remarkable circum-
stance that, amongst those who are opposed to magnetism,
there is not one who has examined or practised it. It is only
when subjected to serious and frequent examination, and often
having practised it themselves, that its partisans arrive at a
profound belief in it.
A remark not unworthy to be made is, that it is not
amongst the people that magnetism is spread ; they hardly
know it even by name. It is amongst a class of men who
have received a certain education, men of great merit, who,
having opposed it, have become converted, and written books
which we now possess, These are medical men—naturalists
—who, by their position, could net be attacked for charlata-
nism. would that those wbo oppose it—who are incredu-
lous—would follow my advice; that they would take the
trouble to examine without prepossession. They should mag-
netise persons themselves amongst their friends, and they
would soon discover that magnetism is a truth.

I have had the happiness to make a second deaf and dumb
boy hear, who absolutely heard nothing, not even a pistol
cap fired at his ear. The first has made a progress that the
public will have as opportunity of appreciating.—l am' sir,
your's, LAFONTAINE.
George Hotel, April 18th.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert has accepted the ap-
pointment of Warden of the Stannaries and Chief Steward
of the Duchy in Cornwall and Devon. The salary and
emoluments hitherto attached to this important office have
been abolished by his Royal Highness's desire.

We are enabled to announce that all the preliminaries are
now finally arranged for the marriage of the Hon. Miss Stu-
art, the beautiful
and accomplished daughter of his Excel-
lency Lord Stuart de Rotbesay, the British ambassador at
St. Petersburg,
with the Most Noble the Marquis of Water-
ford. By the last courier from the embassy, who reached
town, from St. Petersburg, on Monday last, the consent and
approbation of Lord Stuart, which alone was wanting and
waited for, to the
completion of a happy union, so entirely
one of pure affection, has been received. Without intending
to wound susceptibilities or delicacy anywhere, it may be
mentioned now, as a well-known fact, that there is, perhaps,
no lady in the land who has declined so many noble and
otherwise desirable alliances, and refused the hand of so many
distinguished personages, as the amiable and beauteous bride
of Lord Waterford that is to be; and it is no small honour
to the noble marquis to have carried off the prize from so
many competitors.
THE EMANCIPATION OF THE BLACKS OF BRITAIN.—The
act to abolish chin"'
ney-sweping by the " living machine"
comes into force on the Ist of July and after that period we
trust we shall not again be called upon to record the violent
deaths of poor and helpless children, who too often, to escape
a fierce and blistering fire, have clambered upwards in a
horrid and tortuous flue, and found a frightful death amid
stifling vapours and burning soot. Her Majesty, it is ru-
moured, took great inte i
rest n., and expressed great sympathy
for, these much oppressed infapts ; and to so high a source
may doubtless be ascribed the hastening of a measure which
has been so long retarded. The act has, however, passed ;
and it is alike creditable to the country and honourable, to the
humane persons concerned, to learn tliat, with a view to carry
out this enlightened measure, capital has called in, the aid of
science, and, a machine has been invented which will for ever
prevent the posibility of a return to this barbarous practice
alluded to. The apparatus is termed the " Eamoneur," and,
from what we are informed, is admirably adapted, to the ob-
i Jects in view, and will obviate the necessity of altering the
Construction of chimneYs.