, 1869-10-22

cargo W llUUl uilQ6I uedNg peIIdIllpS, III dSSlSH-
ed localities. But laws Of this nature are not
always very stringently put in force. The Bor-
deauX Confagration, moreover, shows that a
wharf may be miles below the more frequented
parts Of a harbour, and yet that a combustion
commenced there may penetrate up with the
tide into the heart Of the port. The reckless
ness which losses a lucif9r on to a caSk Of spirit
the tendency of which is to give off an infiam-
niable vapOur we popularity describe by such
epilhetS as astonishing and inconceivable but
it is conduct OF which not merely is almost any
common English Iabourer capable, but in which
he habitually INDUCES. 1t is not so much that
familiarity breeds contempt as that he is absO-
lutely unfamiliar with the nature of the material
he is handling. His imagination is not sufi-
GENTLY educated to make him, however often he
may have been warned, realize dangers beyond
the ordinary range Of his experience. We con-
feSS, therefore, that we can feel no confidence
in the improbability Of a Thames lighterman
smoking over d barrel Of Petroleum Spirit in
the DOg-days The event Of Tuesday demon
%StrateS, besides, that the assignment Of particu-
lar points on the river, even if two or three
miles lower down, for the unlading and storing
of mineral oils, would be no absolute safeguard
to the ships in the Pool. 1t being. then, the
fact that Petroleum is unladen and stored in yet
greater quantities in the port Of London than in
that of b ,rieaux, that sparkle are at least as
likely to be let fall into a Petroleum barge on
the Thames as on the Garonne, and, lastly, that
the tide has the same facility for carrying them
into the very midst Of our forest Of shipping,
it is useful to put TO ourselves as speedily as pos
sible the question what London could do, and
what would happen to it, in such an emergency
as four days ago hefell Bordeaux.
One thing is very certain, and that is, that
the right of the population to use Petroleum
must be taken as an established fact. One Of
our correspondents draws from he calamity the
moral that it is impOlitic to permit the use of so
banetul and incomprehenSible a substance until
its conditions and the means of controlling it
are better understood. But Petroleum is not
incomprehensible. The danger incident to its
employment is perfectly Ineligible it is the
difficulty of meeting the danger when it practi-
cally arises, and Of making those who employ
Petroleum more apt to exhibit a constant re-
cogniti0n of its mischievous propenSitieS, which
at present battles us. AS for forbidding it, it
has made its footing far too good for that. 1t
would be almost as easy to forbid the use of
gunpowder because it sometimes bursts a gun,
or of horses because they sometimes throw their
riders. One correspondent of ours stigmatizes
it as a truly Internal discovery; but it would be
more just W OieSS III DIS thdC Wulcn mas rendered
the hours after sunset No longer a blank to my
riads of poor mems homes. Nevertheless, the
fact that it would be preposterous to attempt to
put Petroleum under embargo in the meantime
is no reason for relaxing in the endeavour to
learn more thoroughly how to control its freaks.
Parliament, indeed, has in this country imposed
conditions on the dealers in it which, if duly en-
forced, would minimize its powers for evil on
land, So far as the land is concerned. the chief
danger since these statutes is that the authori-
ties may fail, from tenderness or negligence, in
insisting that these conditions are .rigidly COM