Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

bination of water and land conveyances as to place tourists, particularly those who can walk a few miles, completely at their ease. A fourth tour, distinct from any of the above, may be performed from Edinburgh to Perth, by way of the Tay, and from thence onwards to Dunkeld or other scenes of beauty in Perthshire, both highland and lowland. In undertaking tours such as we allude to, a good deal depends on having a proper starting point, as well as a clear idea

of what is wished to be seen.

North Queensferry, stands a tall ruined edifice, called
Rosyth Castle, the base of which is washed by the waves
of the sea at high water. There is something impres.
sive, and even august, in the appearance of this an-
cient fortalice, deserted as it is, in these its days of
ruin and decay, by every thing but the wild sea-bird
and the timid sheep. It was in its days of pride the
seat of that branch of the Stuart family from which
Oliver Cromwell was descended, the posterity, namely,
of Sir James Stuart, uncle to King Robert II. On a
stone in the south side of the tower, near the ground,
and where the dinner bell used to hang, is a quaint
inscription, the words of which may be thus modern-
ised :—

In due time, draw this cord, the bell to clink,
Whose merry voice warns to meat and drink.
Above the strait of Queensferry, the Firth assumes
the appearance of an inland lake, which character
it possesses as far up as the town of Alloa, a dis-
tance of twenty miles. After this, it closes in as a
river, resembling the Thames above Westminster,
and is confined to a serpentine channel through the
midst of verdant meadows. It is worth any one's
while to visit Stirling by water, merely to see the
links or windings of the Forth. The water describes
a long series of sweeps, which are all but formed into
perfect circles; and in sailing along it, the stranger is
puzzled and amused to the last degree by the variety
of positions into which he is thrown in regard to the
surrounding objects. In some instances, an artificial

Glasgow and Edinburgh are the two chief starting places; from either of these cities there are innumerable stage-coaches, canal-boats, and steam-vessels constantly plying, and inviting the tourist to take advantage of their accommodations. We love Glasgow above all the places in the world for its admirable arrangements in regard to jaunting. From its commodious quɛy, steam-vessels start daily and at all hours for all places within the scope of the Highland tour scenery. Leaving this qualification, however, as a matter for future observation, we wish to begin at the beginning, and go along with the stranger on the tour from Edinburgh to Loch Katrine, by way of Stirling. Edinburgh, as is generally known, stands on a series of hilly grounds, which rise gradually from the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, its distance from which is about a mile and a half. The view from the eminences in Edinburgh across and along this inlet of the sea is usually considered to be remarkably fine, and such as to attract the attention of strangers. On the right, the Firth is seen widening till lost in the German Ocean; on the left it is observed to contract and disappear amidst the bosom of hills, having for their background some of the loftiest of the High-reach Stirling, in which case the passengers are transland mountains. The most pleasing route to the Trosachs is by way of this piece of water; and to its shore a number of vehicles are continually plying, particularly at such times as suit the sailing of the steam-boats to Stirling, which lies at the head of the navigation. If the traveller means to go no farther than Loch Katrine, he may take his luggage with him; but if he intends or be able to walk several miles over a bad mountain road (on which there are no conveyances) from Loch Katrine to Loch Lomond, and so save himself from turning back a great many miles, he should take nothing with him but what he can conveniently carry. We strongly recommend him to take only as much luggage as he can carry, and so go on from Loch Katrine to Loch Lomond and the rest of the Clyde scenery, which will save both time and expense.

cut of twenty or thirty yards would save perhaps a
couple of miles in the course of the stream,
Unless the tide serve, steam-vessels are unable to

town.

ferred to a large row-boat, and by it landed at the Stirling is one of the most ancient of the Scottish burghs, and bears a striking resemblance, though a miniature one, to the old town of Edinburgh; each being built on the ridge and sides of a hill which rises gradually from the east, and presents an abrupt crag or rocky cliff towards the west; and each having a principal street on the surface of the ridge, the upper end of which opens upon a castle. While the situa tion of Stirling is thus one of the most pleasing and picturesque in the country, it is a place noted for its antiquities, and the historical associations connected with it. Throughout the period of the reign of the Stuarts, it was a favourite seat of royalty; and it figured in divers exploits of Wallace during the struggle for national independence. It was particularly favoured by the residence of James V., who was born and crowned in its castle, and who adorned it by the erection of the present palace. While this merry monarch resided in the castle, he frequently went forth in disguise, and his adventures on these occaThe steam-boats from Edinburgh to Stirling gene- sions have furnished a theme for many amusing anecrally leave Newhaven chain-pier, the port of Edin- dotes. Of the many historical incidents transacted burgh for steamers, at hours from six till ten in the in the castle, none so well illustrate the state of mismorning, and the fare is seldom more than two shil- rule in Scotland in early times as the assassination of the Earl of Douglas by James II. This monarch was lings. It is best to get away as soon as possible, for so exceedingly annoyed through the whole of his reign the sail occupies from five to six hours, and some time by this too powerful family of nobles, which at one time should, if possible, be spent at Stirling. If the wea- had so nearly unsettled him from his throne, that in ther be propitious, this forms one of the most agree- a fit of disgust he formed the resolution of retiring to the Continent. At length, a means of escape from able sails which can be undertaken. The scenery on the annoyance of the family arrived. William, Earl the Forth is not grand, but the grounds on either side of Douglas, having entered into a league with the rise to a moderate height, and are in many places richEarls of Crawford and Ross against their sovereign, ly clothed by plantations, and embellished with noble- James invited him to Stirling Castle, and endeavoured to persuade him to break the treasonable compact. The men's and gentlemen's seats. On the south shore, the traveller will not fail to observe the woody pleasure-king led him out of his audience-chamber (now the grounds and splendid mansions of the Earls of Rose- drawing-room of the deputy-governor of the castle) into a small closet close beside it (now thrown into bery and Hopetoun; on the north, he will be equally the drawing-room), and there proceeded to entreat that pleased with the domains and house of the Earl of he would break the league: Douglas peremptorily reMoray, and of Alloa House, the seat of the Earl of fusing, James at last exclaimed in a rage, "Then, if you will not, I shall," and instantly plunged his dag. Mar, besides other places not less agreeably situated ger into the body of the obstinate noble. According on the nearest rising grounds. to tradition, his body was thrown over the window of the closet into a retired courtyard behind, and there buried; in confirmation of which, the skeleton of an armed man was found in the ground at that place some years ago. Such is a tolerable sample of the deeds performed without semblance of law or justice in what are called "the good old times."

In passing up and down the Firth, the steam-boats stop at various places to land or take on board passenOne of the chief of these stopping-places is gers. Charleston, on the north side, the nearest port to Dunfermline. This ancient town is situated on a ris. ing ground at the distance of three or four miles from The most interesting object in or about Stirling is the the water's edge; and if the tourist has time to spare, castle, which consists of a number of buildings perched on the summit of the before-mentioned cliff, and surand be curious in old ecclesiastical architecture, he rounded by walls, bristling with a few useless canmay advantageously wend his way thither. Dunferm-non, and garrisoned with as useless a body of soldiers. line was the place of residence of Malcolm Canmore, The principal building in the castle is the palace, a and Margaret of England, his queen, in the eleventh lofty erection, externally exhibiting many fine traces century, and it was from his court held here that the of sculpture, but, in the interior, adapted entirely to the purposes of a barrack. It is not any work of art, Anglo-Saxon usages and language spread over Scot- however, which will long engage attention. The eye land. The remains of an abbey originally founded turns from the dull vacant courts to the splendid scene by Margaret are still extant, and have become famed which nature spreads out on all sides of the fort. The view from the battery at the north-east angle, is, within recent times from having been discovered to be the out exception, in our opinion, the finest in Scotland. burial place of Robert Bruce. Dunfermline is now a It is worth travelling a hundred miles to see. The busy seat of the Scottish linen manufacture. Near the prospect embraces both the lofty rugged grandeur of little sea-port, at which passengers are put ashore for the Highlands, and the soft luxuriance of an Italian Dunfermline, and a short way west of the village of plain. While the western horizon is crowded with

the huge masses of Ben Lomond and Ben Ledi, and others scarcely less elevated, and while before the spectator, in the north, there rise to an inferior height various woody hills broken into precipitous cliffs, the scene on the east offers to the eye an extensive flat vale, bounded by the range of the Ochil hills on the north, and, on the south, by those rising grounds on a part of which was fought the battle of Bannock burn. In this direction, in a clear day, the pinnacles of Edinburgh may be seen rising over the shoulder of the Corstorphine hill. The view of the vale below is exceedingly beautiful. The river Forth, after passing beneath the bridge which here crosses it, winds, as has been described, in a singularly capricious serpentine course, forming a number of peninsula, luxu riantly covered with vegetation, and here and there dotted with farm-houses and cottages. In the fore. ground, on one of these peninsulated fields, are ob. served the tall ruins of the ancient abbey of Cambuskenneth, once one of the principal religious houses in Scotland, and the place where James III. and his queen were interred.

The view from the south side of the castle is less extensive, but still possesses a number of interesting king's gardens, the present condition of which is now features. On the low ground in this direction lay the that of a desolate heath or marsh. It is yet possible, however, to trace on this wild spot the peculiar form into which the ground had been thrown by its royal proprietors. Immediately beneath the woody sloping bank of the esplanade in front of the castle, is the ancient place of tournament and games, still distinguishable by its raised tumuli. After examining the castle, and viewing this splendid panorama of hill and dale, wood and water, the visitor returns to the town interior and more ancient streets of Stirling present to explore the objects it offers for his inspection. The rather a mean appearance, being generally long, nar. row, and containing many old-fashioned and decayed houses. It is nevertheless undergoing considerable improvements; it contains many excellent shops and several good inns; and the environs are now embellished with new streets and handsome villas. The municipal affairs are also now well managed, and, to the honour of the corporations, they a short time ago voluntarily abandoned their old exclusive pri vileges, so that any kind of trade may now be carried on in the place without let or hindrance, Such an instance of liberality on a great scale is so pleasing an indication of the improvement of society and the growing intelligence of the age, that we have thought it worthy of being made widely known. The princi pal manufacture carried on in this district of country is that of coarse woollens, such as plaids and tartans, which find a market in all parts of Britain.

If the tourist has a day or two to spare, he may make some most agreeable excursions in the neighbourhood of Stirling. Airthrie is a scattered village, situated about a mile north-west of the town, and is now the place of summer resort of certain classes of valetudinarians, who proceed thither to drink the waters of a powerful mineral spring. Visitants chiefly reside at Stirling, or at an adjacent rustic and picturesque village called the Bridge of Allan. Leaving this agreeable spot, the tourist may pay a visit to the ancient episcopal city of Dumblane, which occupies a delightful and somewhat elevated situation on the east bank of the river Allan. It may be easily reached by means of one-horse chaises, called noddies, from Stirling. Though entitled to be called a city, from having been the seat of a bishop, Dumblane is now only a large village, consisting of a single street of an old-fashioned character, with a few lanes. In recent years it has become a place of considerable resort in the summer months by persons intending to ruralise and take the benefit of a mineral well in the neigh bourhood. The great object of attraction in Dumblane is what was once the cathedral of the bishop, the choir of which is now the parish church. The building exhibits many traces of fine architecture and carving. Within the parish of Dumblane, and at the north base of the Ochil hills, was fought the bloody but indecisive battle of Sheriff-moor in 1715, between the government forces under the Duke of Argyle, and the insurgent Jacobite army led on by the Earl of Mar.

It is worthy of remark, that Stirling is a kind of central point in what may be styled the battle-country of Scotland. The field of Bannockburn is, however, the chief object of curiosity to those interested in our national annals; and as it lies only about a couple of miles from Stirling in a south-easterly direction, it is very frequently visited by tourists. The field is an upland, lying betwixt the villages of Bannockburn and St Ninians, on the face of those long-descending braes which have a northern exposure to the Firth. The battle, which was fought betwixt the Scottish forces under Robert Bruce, and the English invaders under Edward II., as is well known, established the perma nent independence of Scotland against the ambition of the English monarchy. About half a mile south from St Ninians, upon the top of an eminence called the Caldon hill, and close by the old road from Stirling to Kil syth, is a large earth-fast granite, called the Bore-stone, having a hole or bore in the top, in which the Scottish king inserted his standard. This spot is, we believe, the object of an annual visit, on the anniversary of the battle, to one or more associations of patriotic individuals, who walk in procession thither the preservation of feelings connected with historical events being

one of the prevailing traits of character of the people

in the northern division of the island.

As the places we have mentioned either may or may not be visited, the tourist has an opportunity of staying at Stirling for a day, or of passing almost immediately onwards to the Trosachs, to which we shall conduct him in next paper.

RAILWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES. [Condensed from the Statistical Work of Mr Pitkin, formerly mentioned.]

THE enterprise of the North Americans is not more conspicuous in respect of the canals which have been formed, than for the railways which have been projected, and are either finished or now in the course of completion. Such indeed has been the mania for this kind of internal improvement, that between one and two hundred private companies have been incorporated, for this object, in different parts of the United States. It is not our intention (says Mr Pitkin), even were it in our power, to trace the various routes contemplated in these various acts of incorporation-many of them will, probably, never be commenced, or, if commenced, finished. In this, as well as in every thing else which is new, and connected with indivi. dual interest, fancied benefits outrun sober calculations. We shall only notice, and that in a general way, some of the principal of those already completed, or in such progress as to insure their completion.

at Lockport. The portage railway across the Alleg-
hany Mountains is certainly one of the boldest works
of the kind undertaken and completed, in this or any
other country. It is thirty-six miles in length, and
in this distance overcomes a rise and fall of two thou-
sand five hundred and seventy feet; and in one part
of it has a tunnel of nine hundred feet cut through a
solid rock; it has ten stationary steam-engines, and
ten inclined planes, five on each side of the mountain;
and the ropes alone, necessary on these inclined planes,
would reach more than eleven miles, and their expense
has been more than D.20,000-and what is still more
singular, a rigger's loft has been erected for these ropes,
on the summit of the mountain, where riggers are em-
ployed, at an annual expense of more than D.1600.
The whole expense of this stupendous work will be
about D.1,750,000.

In addition to the state railroads, many roads of
this kind have been made and are now making in
Pennsylvania, by companies and individuals, the most
of which are connected with the coal mines, and have
been constructed for the purpose of facilitating the
transportation of coal from these mines to the canals
or other water communications. The most consider-
able of these are the Philadelphia and Trenton, which
will soon be completed; the Philadelphia and German-
town, the Little Schuylkill, Mine Hill and Schuyl-
kill, Mount Carbon, Danville, and Pottsville, Schuyl-
kill valley, Mauch Chunk, Room Run, West branch,
Mill creek, Pine grove, Lykens valley, and Carbon
dale, and many collateral roads, connected with these
at the mines. A lateral railroad is made from the
state road to Columbia, about twenty miles from Phi-
ladelphia to West Chester, a distance of nine miles,
at an expense of about D.100,000. About forty-five
miles from Philadelphia, on the Columbia railroad, a
road is located to Port Deposit, on the Susquehanah,
through Oxford, a distance of about thirty-one miles,
to meet a similar road from Baltimore. The whole
extent of railroads in Pennsylvania, made by compa-
nies and individuals, is about three hundred miles.

The Newcastle and French Town railroad, sixteen miles in length, connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake, in the state of Delaware. This road cost about D.400,000, and is one of the best in the United States.

To secure the trade of the Susquehanah, a railroad has been projected from Baltimore, to strike that river in Pennsylvania, by the way of York; but what progress has been made in it, we have not ascertained. The citizens of Baltimore had at various times expended many hundred thousand dollars in improving the navigation of the Susquehanah, lying within the limits of Maryland, by which they had enjoyed no small share of the trade of that river. This trade, however, they were losing, in consequence of the internal improvements of Pennsylvania, and of the De laware and Chesapeake canal: and to regain it, this road was projected.

As we proceed south, we find that Virginia, also, has her railroads already in operation, and others in contemplation. In this state a railroad has been constructed from the tide waters on James' River, near Richmond, to the coal-mines in Chesterfield county, a distance of thirteen and a half miles. It was commenced in January 1830, and was in operation in July 1831; and was made for about D.8000 per mile, and has been very profitable to the stockholders.

A railroad from Petersburgh to Weldon on the Roanoke, a distance of sixty miles, has been in operation for about two years. In November 1833, there had been expended upon it D.515,334, and its income for a year ending October 31st, 1833, was D.37,574. This road was calculated to divert a part of the trade of the river Roanoke from Norfolk to Petersburgh. To prevent this, a similar road has been projected, and is now in progress, from Portsmouth to a place on the Roanoke, in North Carolina, opposite Weldon, a distance of seventy-seven miles; the estimated cost of which is only D.475,000. A company has also been lately chartered, to construct a railroad from Winchester to Harper's Ferry, to meet the road from Baltimore to that place, and which will soon be completed. Virginia has also long contemplated to secure a share of the western trade, by connecting James' River with the Ohio, by the way of the Great Kanaway. A company has been for some time formed to effect this great object, by connecting the rivers with canals or railroads. The expense has been estimated at somewhat more than D.8,000,000, but the whole stock, it is believed, has not yet been taken up.

In New England (to begin at the north), a railway of three miles in extent was constructed at Quincy, in Massachusetts, in 1825 or 1826, at the expense of about D.11,000 (dollars) per mile, for the purpose of transporting the valuable granite of that town to tide water. Three railroads are now constructing from Boston: one to the manufacturing town of Lowell, a distance of about thirty miles; one to Worcester, about forty miles; and one, about the same distance, to Providence. These three roads, at an expense of about one million of dollars each, will be completed, in all probability, in 1835. From Providence, a railroad was commenced in 1833 to Stonington, in Connecticut, a distance of about forty-eight miles, the expense of which is estimated at about D.1,140,000. South Carolina has already completed the longest In the state of New York, the Hudson and Mo- The enterprising citizens of Baltimore, in 1826, railroad, now in operation, in any part of the world. hawk, the Schenectady and Saratoga railroads, are perceiving that, in consequence of steam-navigation It extends from Charleston to Hamburgh, on the Sawell known-the former, about fifteen miles in length, on the western waters, and the exertions of other vannah river, opposite to Augusta, a distance of one has cost nearly D.1,000,000; and the latter, twenty-states, they were losing the trade of the west, began hundred and thirty-five and a quarter miles. It was one miles long, will have only cost, including every seriously to consider of some mode of recovering it. commenced in 1830, and was opened for use through❤ thing, about D.297,000. A similar road has lately A communication with the Ohio by a canal was first out, in 1833. It is built on piles, and may be consibeen established, and the stock taken up, from Troy contemplated; but the report of the engineers sent dered as a continuous bridge. Its original cost, into Saratoga, twenty-four miles, and which, it is said, out by the government of the United States, by which cluding preliminary surveys, locomotive engines, cars, will be finished in 1835, at an expense of D.300,000. the cost of such a canal was estimated at more than depositories, inclined planes, stationary engines, purA railroad from Harlaem to New York is nearly twenty-two millions of dollars, induced them to sub-chase of land, &c. was D.904,500. Where these piles completed. Farther west in that state, a similar road stitute a railroad; and for this purpose, in February are above the surface of the ground, it has been conis nearly finished, from Ithica, the head of the Cayuga 1827, they obtained acts of incorporation from Mary-sidered necessary to fill up the space with earth, and Lake, to Oswego, on the Susquehanah, twenty-nine land and Virginia. The company was authorised to this has been partly done; and this, with other items, miles, at an expense of about D.400,000; and a short strike the Ohio River at any place between Pittsburgh increased the cost of the road, up to October 31st, 1834, road connecting Rochester with Lake Ontario. and the mouth of the Little Kanaway. The distance to D.1,336,615. The stock is considered valuable. to Pittsburgh was about three hundred and thirty From May to October 1834, a period of six months, miles. the company received, for transportation of passengers and cotton on this road, D.83,445. The number of passengers, during this period, was thirteen thousand five hundred and seventy-five, paying D.35,140, and the quantity of cotton transported the same time, was twelve thousand seven hundred and fifty-six bales, and which paid D.47,304.

The railroad between Schenectady and Utica was chartered in 1833, is now in progress, and will, no doubt, be completed as soon as a road of that length and magnitude can be done. Its length is seventyseven and a half miles, and the estimated cost D. 1,500,000.

The number of passengers on the Mohawk and Hudson road, in 1834, exceeded the number between New York and Philadelphia, on the Camden and Amboy road, more than thirty-three thousand, the number on the latter being only, as will be seen hereafter, one hundred and ten thousand. We would here observe, that the railroad from New York to Lake Erie, through Binghampton, so long in contemplation, has been lately accurately surveyed and pronounced practicable, to strike the lake somewhere between Dunkirk and Portland, a distance of four hundred and eighty-three miles, the expense, with a single track, being estimated at D.4,762,260.

This was the most extensive, and, we may add, the boldest project of the kind ever undertaken by any government, or by individuals. The road contemplated was about four times the length of any similar one in Europe, and over ground much higher and more difficult than any other before occupied for such a road. But neither the boldness of the plan, nor the difficulties attending its execution, prevented an immediate subscription to the amount of D.4,000,000, towards carrying it into effect-the state of Maryland and the city of Baltimore each furnishing D.500,000 of this sum, and individuals the remainder. The work was commenced on the 4th of July 1828, but was for a long time retarded by a dispute between the company and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, as to prior right of location in certain parts of the route. This dispute, however, has been adjusted, and on the 1st of December 1834, the road was finished to Harper's Ferry, so as to admit the passage of cars to that place, a distance of about eighty-two miles, and at an expense of towards D.3,000,000. At Harper's Ferry, this road meets another railroad from that place to Winchester, in Virginia, which is now in progress from Winchester, it is calculated that a road will be continued to the Ohio, either at Parkensburgh, by crossing the mountains from Winchester, or by ascending the valley of the Shenandoah, to Staunton, and then to Jennings gap, and the white

The Camden and Amboy railroad, sixty-one miles in length, is now completed, and brings the cities of New York and Philadelphia into the vicinity of each other, the travel of five or six hours being only required from one city to the other. The cost of this road, including real estate, steam-boats connected with it, locomotive cars, wharves, &c. was about D.2,000,000. The number of passengers on this road, during the past season (1834), was one hundred and ten thousand, and the gross income said to be D.500,000. This road is connected with the Raritan and Delaware canal. A road from the manufacturing village of Pat-sulphur springs, to Guyandotte. terson, to New York, about sixteen miles, is nearly finished, but at what expense, we have not ascertained. In addition to these, a road is now in progress, from Jersey City, through Newark and Elizabethtown to Brunswick.

In Georgia, a company has been incorporated to make a road from Augusta to Athens, and we are informed that the stock has been taken up, the route surveyed, and will probably be made, and at an expense of about D.10,000 per mile. The distance is about one hundred and fourteen miles. This road is

considered a continuation of the Charleston road, and naturally connected with it. From Athens, it is contemplated to extend it to Decatur on the Tennessee river, and thus, in this direction, connect the trade of the west with the city of Charleston.

In Alabama, a railroad round the Muscle shoals in the Tennessee river, was finished about the 1st of December 1834. It extends from Tuscumbia, through Cortland to Decatur, a little more than forty-five miles; twenty-five of which was made in 1834. This road must be advantageous to a great extent of country adjoining the Tennessee river, above the Muscle shoals; as that river above these shoals is navigable for steam-boats as high up as Knoxville, a distance of about four hundred miles.

An important road of this character has been commenced in Kentucky, and will no doubt be soon comThe tolls collected on the Baltimore and Ohio rail-pleted. It extends from Lexington, through Frankroad, from October 1st, 1833, to September 30th, 1834, was from tonnage and passengers, D.205,436; the expenses for the same period were D.132,862, leaving a revenue of D.72,574. The number of passengers on the road the same year, was ninety-four thousand eight hundred and forty-four, and the tonnage of articles fifty-six thousand one hundred and twentynineteen thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight going westwardly, and thirty-six thousand one hundred and ninety-one eastwardly.

fort, the seat of government, to Louisville, a distance of about ninety miles. The work upon it was commenced in April 1832, but during the summer of 1833 was suspended on account of the cholera. In September 1834, twenty-three miles were finished, and by the 1st of January following, it was completed and used to Frankfort, twenty-eight miles. The cost of this road, with a single track, was estimated at D.1,032,000; and its actual expense thus far has not much exceeded the estimate the estimated cost to The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company are now Frankfort being D.355,000, and the actual cost to that constructing a lateral railroad to the city of Washing-place about D.370,000. This road, we understand, ton, commencing about eight miles from Baltimore. has been built in a substantial manner. It is about thirty-two miles in length, and will probaIn crossing the Alleghany, the Pennsylvanians had bly be completed in 1835. The expense of making it to encounter difficulties, apparently insurmountable, is estimated at D.1,500,000, and on the 1st of October as the New Yorkers had, in passing the rocky ridge | 1834, about D.900,000 had been expended upon it.

The railroads as well as the canals of Pennsylvania, exceed in number, extent, and expense, those of any other state. The Philadelphia and Columbia road, and the portage road, over the Alleghany, constitute a part, as before stated, of the great inland communication between the Delaware and Lake Erie, and were constructed at the expense of the state. The former is eighty-two miles in length, and the expense, when completed, will be about D.3,500,000, or more than D.44,000 per mile.

Other roads of this kind have been contemplated and authorised, in the western states, and some of them will no doubt ere long be finished. The state of Indiana has lately authorised a loan of about a

million and a half to make similar roads in that state. In Louisiana, a railroad has been completed from New Orleans to Lake Ponchartrain, about six miles, at an expense, including machinery and real estate,

of D.443,443.

The railroads before noticed, which were completed on the 1st of January 1835, or would not long after be completed, are in length, taken together, about sixteen hundred miles, and their cost not far from D.30,000,000. The aggregate length of those in Pennsylvania is about four hundred and eighteen miles, made at an expense estimated to exceed D.7,000,000. When the cost of the railroads in the United States is added to that of the canals, it will be found that there has been or will soon be expended in this coun try, on these two kinds of internal improvement, a sum not less than about L.94,000,000; and this has been done principally since 1817.

I

[ocr errors]

"don't wait for me."

"That

A HINT TO WIVES.-" If I'm not home from the party to-night at ten o'clock," said a husband to his better and bigger half, won't," said the lady, significantly-" I wont wait, but I'll come for you.' He returned at ten precisely. TAKING THINGS COOLLY.-Some time ago, a young farmer left a market town, situated no matter where, and proceeded homewards, mounted on a nag of which he has often boasted, as Tam O'Shanter did of his mare, that "a better never lifted leg." The season was winter, and the night very dark; and from some cause or other the animal deviated from the proper path, stumbled over a crag, and broke its neck; al. though the rider, strange to say, escaped unhurt, or, at worst, with a few trifling scratches. The youth journeyed home on foot, told the servants what had happened, and directed one of them to proceed to the spot next day, for the purpose of flaying the horse, and bringing away the skin and shoes. course obeyed his instructions, and was busily engaged, when his senior master, who had also been at mar

The lad of

"Is

ket, but who preferred travelling in day-light, passed
the spot, and on hearing some noise, paused, and
looked into the ravine below. On recognising through
the branches one of his own men, he called out,
that you, Benjie ?" "Ay, it's just me, maister."
"An' what are you doing there ?" "Ou, just skin-
What pony?" "Maister
nin' the pony, sir."
George's, that tumbled down last night, and broke its
'Ay, indeed! and can ye tell me wha's skin-
neck."

[ocr errors]

In reviewing the foregoing brief account of the canals and railroads of the United States, it will be perceived that the two principal objects originally contemplated in making them, have in a great measure been accomplished. A safe internal water communication, along or near the Atlantic sea board, has been completed large vessels can now go from the Hudson to the Delaware, through the Raritan and Dela. ware caual, from thence through the Delaware and Chesapeake canal, and Chesapeake bay, to Norfolk in Virginia, and from Norfolk, through the Dismal Swamp canal, to Albemarle sound in North Carolina. The eastern and western waters are now connected,nin' George?" not only from the Hudson to Lake Erie, through the State of New York, but also from the Delaware to the Ohio, and to the same lake, through Pennsylva nia. This has greatly facilitated the intercourse between the east and the west, to the immense advantage of both, and has bound them together by ties, which we trust can never be broken. In addition to this evidence of the great and growing wealth and resources of this country, it will be remembered, that the United States, during the same period, have paid off a national debt of more than D.120,000,000.

JOKES.

[From the "Laird of Logan, or Wit of the West," recently published.]

[ocr errors]

CAN SHE SPIN?-A young girl was presented to James I. as an English prodigy, because she was deeply learned. The person who introduced her boasted of her proficiency in ancient languages. can assure your majesty," said he, "that she can both speak and write Latin, Greek, and Hebrew." "These are rare attainments for a damsel," said James; "but pray, tell me, can she spin ?"

THE INGENUITY OF A BEGGAR BOY.-A beggar boy made application to a farmer's wife for relief, and was refused; on which the boy, with an arch look, informed the good dame that he would, if she gave him slice of bread and cheese, put her in possession of a secret which would be of service to her all the days of her life; the boon was granted, and the boy, agreeably to his word, remarked, "If you knit a knot at the end of your thread, you will never lose your first stitch."

COMING TO CLOSE QUARTERS.-An old woman to whom an unfortunate son of poverty was owing a small account, had repeatedly called for payment, but the answer to her inquiry invariably turned up, the usual retort when a debtor wishes genteelly to cut a troublesome creditor, "Not at home!" Having once or twice dogged her neighbour, and knocked at the door which his coat-tails had not a moment before swept in passing in, and receiving still the chilling reply, "Not at home," she determined to come to closer quarters when she next got scent of him. An opportunity soon occurred, for when an eagle eye is on the watch, nothing escapes it; the unfortunate debtor passed her windows, and she bolted out in pursuit. Step by step she dogged him to his door-he rung the bell his importunate friend was at his back; the door opened, and catching her opportunity before he disappeared, she rapped sharply with her knuckles on his back; he wheeled round. "Weel, is Tammas Williamson in noo?" said she, staring him in the face. The appeal went home, and the money was instantly tabled.

HONESTY REWARDED.-About the end of harvest, a cow-herd, in the neighbourhood of Dundee, in throwing a stone at one of his master's cows in an outfield, unfortunately broke one of her legs. Scratching his curly head, the rustic began to think seriously about what he should say to his master. After musing for some time, his countenance began to brighten, and he observed, loud enough to be heard, "Fegs, I'll just say she took the rig, and got it jumpin' the style to the stooks." On farther reflection, however, his conscience began to remonstrate with him on the impropriety of telling a lie; and at last he murmured, "Weel, I'll tell the truth, gif I should lose my place and fee." "Yes, callant," said his master, who had heard the soliloquy, "that's the best plan, and for your honesty you shall be forgiven,"

A HIGHLAND PLEDGE.-An aspirant after parlia. mentary honours, in one of the Highland burghs, was thus interrogated by a kilted elector:-"Whether or mot are you prepared to bring a bill into parliament when you go there, obliging every man or woman who keeps a public-house to sell the gill of the best whisky, new measure, at the old price ?"

THE FOUNTAIN,

A CONVERSATION.
[From Wordsworth's Poems.]

We talked with open heart, and tongue
Affectionate and true,

A pair of Friends, though I was young,
And Matthew seventy-two.

We lay beneath a spreading oak,
Beside a mossy seat;

And from the turf a fountain broke,
And gurgled at our feet.

[ocr errors]

Now, Matthew !" said I, "let us match This water's pleasant tune

With some old Border-Song, or Catch,
That suits a summer's noon.

Or of the Church-clock and the chimes
Sing here beneath the shade,
That half-mad thing of witty rhymes
Which you last April made !"

In silence Matthew lay, and eyed
The spring beneath the tree;
And thus the dear old man replied,
The gray-haired man of glee:
"Down to the vale this water steers,
How merrily it goes!

"Twill murmur on a thousand years,
And flow as now it flows.

And here on this delightful day,
I cannot choose but think
How oft, a vigorous man, I lay
Beside this Fountain's brink.

My eyes are dim with childish tears,
My heart is idly stirred,

For the same sound is in my ears
Which in those days I heard.

Thus fares it still in our decay:
And yet the wiser mind

Mourns less for what age takes away
Than what it leaves behind.

The Blackbird in the summer trees,
The Lark upon the hill,

Let loose their carols when they please,
Are quiet when they will.

With nature never do they wage
A foolish strife; they see

A happy youth and their old age
Is beautiful and free :

But we are pressed by heavy laws,
And often, glad no more,
We wear a face of joy, because
We have been glad of yore.

If there is one who need bemoan
His kindred laid in earth,

The household hearts that were his own,
It is the man of mirth.

My days, my Friend, are almost gone,
My life has been approved,

And many love me; but by none
Am 1 enough beloved."

"Now both himself and me he wrongs, The man who thus complains!

I live and sing my idle songs
Upon these happy plains,

And, Matthew, for thy children dead
I'll be a son to thee !"

At this he grasped my hand, and said,
"Alas! that cannot be."

We rose up from the fountain-side;
And down the smooth descent
Of the green sheep-track did we glide;
And through the wood we went ;
And, ere we came to Leonard's Rock,
He sang those witty rhymes
About the crazy old church-clock,
And the bewildered chimes.

WHAT DRAM-DRINKING IS DOING. CAPITAL punishments have of late years been uncom. mon in Scotland except in cases of murder, and it is exceedingly worthy of notice, that few murders are now perpetrated in the country from any other cause than drunkenness. It is still more lamentable to remark, that the murders are generally of husbands by their wives, and of wives by their husbands. It would appear that, in all such cases, the unhappy murderers have been roused to a state of ungovernable fury from the conduct of their partners in life, and the utter ralised condition of the lower order of females in parhopelessness of relief from their misery. The demoticular, in large towns, purely from the practice of dram-drinking, is becoming daily more distressing; and if no remedy interpose, we may rationally anticipate that murders will go on rapidly increasingfor the fear of public execution has no influence what ever in arresting the progress of crime. There is a law in one of the American states, Ohio we believe, by which confirmed drunkenness forms a plea for divorce, which must save many lives, and not a little domestic misery. In some of the northern countries of Europe, there are also regulations of a peculiar nature relative to drunkenness, which our legislators might find advantageous to examine. In Sweden, as we learn from Schubert, in his Travels, the laws for

punishing intemperance are very rigorous. “The laws against intoxication (says he) are enforced with great rigour in Sweden. Whoever is seen drunk, is fined, for the first offence, three dollars; for the second, six; for the third and fourth, a still larger sum, and is also deprived of the right of voting at elections, and of being appointed a representative. He is, be sides, publicly exposed in the parish church on the following Sunday. If the same individual is found committing the same offence a fifth time, he is shut up in a house of correction, and condemned to six months' hard labour; and if he is again guilty, of a twelvemonth's punishment of a similar description. If the offence has been committed in public, such as at a fair, an auction, &c., the fine is doubled; and if the offender has made his appearance in a church, the punishment is still more severe. Whoever is convicted of having induced another to intoxicate him. self, is fined three dollars, which sum is doubled if the person is a minor. An ecclesiastic who falls into this offence loses his benefice: if it is a layman who occu pies any considerable post, his functions are suspended, and perhaps he is dismissed. Drunkenness is never admitted as an excuse for any crime; and whoever dies when drunk is buried ignominiously, and deprived of the prayers of the church. It is forbidden to give, and more explicitly to sell, any spirituous liquors to students, workmen, servants, apprentices, and private soldiers. Whoever is observed drunk in the streets, or making a noise in a tavern, is sure to be taken to prison and detained till sober, without, however, being on that account exempted from the fines. Half of these fines goes to the informers (who are generally police officers), the other half to the poor. If the delinquent has no money, he is kept in prison until some one pays for him, or until he has worked out his enlargement. Twice a-year these ordinances are read aloud from the pulpit by the clergy; and every ta vern-keeper is bound, under the penalty of a heavy fine, to have a copy of them hung up in the principal rooms of his house."

MAKING COFFEE.-In making coffee, much care is requisite to extract the whole strength and flavour of the berry; and, moreover, it is very erroneous and most expensive to sweeten it with moist or raw sugar. Many persons imagine that the moist sugar tends more to sweeten; but if experiment be made, it will be found that half the quantity in weight of refined sugar will add more sweetness, and the flavour of the coffee will be much more pure and delicate. In Holland, where coffee is the universal beverage of the lower classes, the sugar cannot be too refined, and the boatmen on the canals may be seen mixing the most beautiful white refined sugar with their coffee; while on such their custom and taste they pride themselves highly. It requires but little thought to acquiesce in this departure from our custom, and when economy is blended with such judgment, it is only necessary to call the atten tion of those whose means naturally excite them to seek for facts combining what is cheap and what is best. The first mention of coffee in the west of Europe is by Ramsolf, a German traveller, who returned from Sy. ria in 1573. It was first brought into England by Mr Nathaniel Conopius, a Cretan, who made it his com mon beverage, at Baliol College, Oxford, in 1641. Coffee trees were conveyed from Mocha to Holland in 1626, and carried to the West Indies in the year 1726; first cultivated at Surinam by the Dutch, 1718; its culture encouraged in the plantations, 1732.—Mirror,

LONDON: Published, with Permission of the Proprietors, by ORA & SMITH, Paternoster Row; and sold by G. BERGER, Holy well Street, Strand; BANCKS & Co., Manchester: WRIGHTSON & WEBB, Birmingham; WILLMER & SMITH, Liverpool; W. E. SOMERSCALE, Leeds; C. N. WRIGHT, Nottingham; M. BINGHAM, Bristol; S. SIMMS, Bath; C. GAIN, Exeter; J. PUR DON, Hull; A. WHITTAKER, Sheffield; H. BELLERSY, York: J. TAYLOR, Brighton; GEORGE YOUNG, Dublin; and all other Booksellers and Newsmen in Great Britain and Ireland, Canada, Nova Scotia, and United States of America.

Complete sets of the work from its commencement, or num bers to complete sets, may at all times be obtained from the Pub lishers or their Agents.

Stereotyped by A. Kirkwood, Edinburgh. Printed by Bradbury and Evans (late T. Davison), Whitefriars.

[graphic]

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM CHAMBERS, AUTHOR OF "THE BOOK OF SCOTLAND," &c., AND BY ROBERT CHAMBERS, AUTHOR OF "TRADITIONS OF EDINBURGH," "PICTURE OF SCOTLAND," &c.

No. 187.

EVERY MAN HAS HIS ERA. THE bodies of men live in the present year. The mind, or at least that portion of it which is usually employed in speculative thought, may or may not do so. Generally speaking, every man has a different spiritual anno domini: his date of soul may be past, present, or future. So regularly does this principle operate, that it might be a new means of classifying men. You might distinguish a prospective from a retrospective man; a seventeenth century man, from an eighteenth century one; a man of the second quarter of the nineteenth century, from one of the third or fourth; and so on. The now living generation would probably be found to exhibit specimens of mankind, from about the time of the crusades, down to the happy period which is to see moral evil almost banished from the face of the earth.

[blocks in formation]

kind-who think that nothing has been right since splendid silken robes, and eyes half sleeping beneath the year 1650: that fatal measure by which the Cava- the profusion of the flowing hair. The black boy, so liers were admitted into the army, has ruined every frequent in the portraits of that time, is better to him thing. One of my most particular friends, in early than the finest ladies painted by our own Lawrence. youth, made one of these strange halts. Like Hume's China vases are one of his passions, because they first history, he stopped at the Revolution. Nothing after figure in this reign. He delights in chocolate, bethat had the least charm for him. Chivalry abdicated cause several court ladies of that time had poison adwith James II., and he used to speak with absolute ministered to them in it. The very worst atrocities horror of the later reigns, filled with parliamentary of the period have something that redeems them in proceedings and tame continental wars, Mr Pulteney, his estimation. The conduct of the Countess of the Duke of Newcastle, and the Earl of Chatham. I Shrewsbury, who held the horse of her gallant, the question if he have yet once read the history of the Duke of Buckingham, while he killed her husband in eighteenth, for ten times that he has gloated over that a duel, is to him only romantic. Its smack of the balof the seventeenth century. Crazes of this kind are lad age purges away the sin. The court ruffians who very apt to beset youth. Another of my young friends slashed Sir John Coventry's nose in the streets of Lonused to speak, with more minute knowledge and in a don by night, for his bold speaking in the House of more familiar tone, of the character and history of Commons, might be said to have committed a breach It is my good fortune to be on intimate terms with Mary Queen of Scots, than of any personage or period of privilege or a capital crime; but to my friend their a considerable number of people who live towards the of history more recent and more "useful to be conduct only serves as a mediate step of barbarism, to conclusion of the present century. Their society is known." He might be ignorant of the dissolution of carry him back to the old chivalrous times when every so delightful, that evenings spent in their company parliament which took place last week; but he would man avenged himself by the sword. He can speak of might be cut up into minutes, and each of these found be quite certain that the transaction called Ainslie's such things with tenderness for the sufferer, but not a morsel of pleasure. With the sloughs and imbeci- Supper, at which Bothwell got the sanction of the with indignation for the culprit. "It was certainly a lities of passing time cast beneath their feet, their nobility for his marriage to the queen, took place on dreadful thing," said he to me one day, "that assassi heads rise into the clear heaven of the future, and the twentieth of April 1567, and not the nineteenth, nation of poor Percival." "Yes," said I, "particualready radiate with the dawn of inchoate human ex- as has been stated by some historians. Whenever I larly as he leaves such a large family." "Family!" cellences. A few weeks ago, I spent a very pleasant feel myself overheated by the speculations of my friend replied my friend, "the poor lad was only nineteen years day about the year 1890, with one whose mortal frame of date 1890, I have it in my power to cool myself at of age." We then mutually discovered that he had for the present inhabits a country-house a few miles once by a forenoon interview with a middle-aged been alluding to Robert Percival, who was killed in from town. This individual is a good average speci- gentleman of the reign of Charles II., who lives the Strand in 1677, while I was referring to the prime men of the class. There may be one or two who live nearly opposite to my own house in town. Were I minister shot in the House of Commons in the preceding some twenty or thirty years ahead of him; but there romancing, I should describe this gentleman as dress- month. After this interruption, he went on in his usual are more who linger as far behind. Easy in his cir- ing in antique guise, and residing in an old-fashioned way, speaking as familiarly of the circumstances of cumstances, benevolent, and contemplative, he realises house. Being in sober earnest, I am bound to say this long forgotten affair, as if it had really been that the rural peace and happiness of the poets. He may that he is rather punctilious about being in the fa- of which the echo had scarcely as yet died away in occasionally glance at the controversial topics which shion, and has just removed to a square of the most the newspapers. "A sad tragedy truly," said he, fill the newspapers, or at the local squabbles which go recent erection. He, as well as my other friends of "and very mysterious. Percival was a gay young on around him, but it is only to contrast them with a remote date, whether in advance or in arrear, is student in Lincoln's Inn, had been much in bad comstate of things which will know nothing of such ig- obliged to conform externally to existing modes; and pany, and, at the time of his death, had fought as many noble matters. War, religious and political rancour, indeed this is regarded by them all as a matter of duels as he numbered years. Whether it was through blind national jealousies and self-seekings, he speaks comparative indifference. The distinction chiefly lies a drunken and excited imagination, or that he had reaof mildly, as things proper only to the childhood of in the residence, mode, and occupation of the mind, son to fear his approaching end, I know not; but a few mankind, and which must pass away in the course of or at most in a few external circumstances which do nights before his murder, he came in great agitation nature, even as the rudeness and recklessness of the not come glaringly before the world. to his uncle, Sir Robert Southwell, saying that an ap boy are changed for the soft manners and generous Charles-Second friend has his dining-room hung pearance of himself, all bloody and ghastly, had walked sentiments of youth. "How can mankind," says he, with portraits of his favourite epoch-a Duchess of into his chamber, and afterwards vanished down stairs. "be expected to be otherwise, at this day, than what Cleveland by Lely, one or two breast-plated generals In the evening of his death, as he walked from tavern they are?-for want of a sanctioned or intelligible with long hair, capricoling in front of besieged to tavern, he observed a man dogging him, but yet, system of philosophy, they do not as yet know the towns, and a very grotesque Sir Jeffrey Hudson. as by a fatality, would not allow any one to accomconstituent elements of their own nature, and of course In his lobby is a buhl clock, which is said to have ori-pany him. He had one encounter with his enemies act entirely at random: from an ignorance of the ginally figured in Versailles; besides the wreck of a before the fatal one, and entered a tavern, to wipe his laws of physical nature, they expose themselves to in-cabinet-the cabinet itself wanting, but two gilt Cu- sword and bind up a wound he had received in his numerable miseries which might easily be avoided. pids still anxiously and strainingly endeavouring to leg. But yet he persisted in going home alone. Early The causes now at work must in time produce very support it. Things of this sort have necessarily ga- next morning, he was found dead near the Maypole different results." There may be something of what thered about him, simply in consequence of his pecu- in the Strand, with a deep wound in his left breast, the world calls enthusiasm in my friend's calculations, liar taste: his library, for the same reason, abounds and his sword lying all bloody by his side, together but the insanity is an amiable one; and it is impos- in first editions of Roscommon and Butler, in various with a stranger's hat with a bunch of ribbons in it. sible to help being affected, at least for the time, by illustrated sets of Grammont, French and English, No such affair could then take place without some the sweet hopes and moralisings in which he indulges. and in various other books either produced in that supernatural accompaniments. One servant of the Upon the whole, I find a few days of the twentieth reign or referring to it. St Evremond is his favourite family dreamed that another came to her for a sheet century, now and then, a great treat. wit, and Clarendon his most esteemed historian. He to wind Mr Robert in, who had been killed; and, imknows no French book equal to Voltaire's Age of mediately after she awoke, that person did come in Louis XIV.-for it is a curious part of his whim, that with that very demand. His elder brother some years foreign things contemporary with the merry monarch after, having returned from his travels, and being inhave also a preference in his eyes. I cannot trace tent on discovering the murderers, encountered, in a this predilection to any serious approbation of any street in Dublin, a gentleman whom he had never thing connected with the reign of Charles II. If taken before seen, but whom he immediately attacked with pointedly to task, he would be found to condemn the his sword, through an intuitive conviction that he was profligacy of the time as heartily as any body. But one of those who had been guilty. They were sepathere is something in the form of things-the style-rated by the crowd, and the assailed party slipped off, the fashion of that reign, which has a charm for him. No women, in his opinion, can match the Windsor beauties, with their gorgeous fulness of form, their

Others of my friends, regardless of the future, and not caring much about the present, are nearly altogether given up to the past. Like Lady Margaret Bellenden, who never could get over the morning on which the king breakfasted with her, each has a particular date at which he fixes himself, or to which, though he should occasionally sally from it, he is always ready to fly back. The Stuart insurrections, the civil and religious broils of the seventeenth century, and the Reformation, are points at which great numbers stick. There is a regularly constituted class of persons in Scotland--it would not be decorous to say of what

Thus my

and was seen no more. It was generally supposed, however, that Beau Fielding was the principal, if not the only assassin, as the Beau had not long before had

a quarrel with Percival at play." With such tales as for the small-pox, till that practice was rendered gene-
this will my friend beguile the time, never once stop-ral by the improved method introduced by the Sut
ping to give a collateral note, but evidently presuming tons: so that the working people in the dairies were
that his hearers should know such heroes as Percival seldom put to the test of the preventive powers of the
and Fielding as well as himself. And yet the chief cow-pox."
charm which these matters have for him as evidently Upon inquiry among the medical practitioners in the
lies in their difference from the matters of the present country, Dr Jenner then tells us he was at first mor-
day. Were the Strand, for instance, still liable to be tified to find that they all agreed in holding, that
the scene of such transactions-did gentlemen of cow-pox was not to be relied on as a certain preven.
Lincoln's Inn still wander from tavern to tavern, tive of small-pox; and their report seemed to be con-
keeping up a kind of running fight with sword-armed firmed by the actual occurrence of small-pox in several
bravoes he would regard this tale of Charles II.'s persons who were said to have had the cow-pox. Dr
time with indifference. A part of the pleasure may Jenner, however, was not willing to abandon the
also be presumed to lie in that very oblivion or obsolete-pleasing prospect that had opened to him, and resolved
ness which makes the present generation little likely
to be acquainted with them.

Johnson observes very truly, that "whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, and makes the past, the distant, and the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the scale of thinking beings." It may only be observed, that he who derives his ideal pleasures from a hopeful anticipation of a better future, is more apt to be serviceable to his kind, than he who lingers amongst the romantic but still comparatively barbarous wonders of the past. The great mass, unfortunately, have little of them. selves to give to either kind of meditation. Compelled to make the daily labour supply the daily bread, their thoughts are almost entirely confined to the passing day. Or, exhausted in body by their exertions, they have little nervous energy to be expended in the shape of thought. The mind of the Baconian sort, keeping a look-out both in front and in rear, is only for the master of the vessel: the bulk of the crew must confine their attention to the oars whereto they are chained. Contemplation, indeed, is not their department: all that kind of thing must be left to the regular thinker kept upon the premises. The division of labour, with all its boasted advantages, has at least this disadvantage, that it too much narrows the minds of individuals, each to the little field of its own ordinary exertions, and prevents the developement of those salient powers which, in other scenes, fit men for various contingencies, and render them a check to each other.

VACCINATION.

to inquire into the matter more carefully than any
one seemed previously to have thought of doing. The
first discovery he made was, that the cow was subject
to a variety of distinct eruptions upon her teats, all of
which were capable of producing ulceration on the
hands of the milkers, and passed in the dairies by the
indiscriminate appellation of cow-pox. After a short
course of observation, he was easily able to distin-
guish the true cow-pox from other accidental eruptions,
and flattered himself that he had thus discovered the
true cause of the apparent uncertainty of a preventive,
the powers of which were universally admitted to a
certain extent. His hopes, however, were damped a
second time, when he found that some persons who
had been infected from the genuine cow-pox, had,
nevertheless, proved liable to variolous infection, and
that one was sometimes effectually protected, when
another infected from the same sore proved liable to
after-contagion. By diligent and continued observa.
tion, however, he was fortunately enabled to explain
this anomaly also. He ascertained, by repeated ex-
periments, that when the matter was taken from the
ulcer or sore on the cow, after a certain stage of its
progress, it produced a sore in the human body of a
character altogether different from that which re-
sulted from an earlier infection, and that it was only
the disorder communicated in the earlier stages of the
case, and before the matter originally secreted had
undergone any change or decomposition, that had the
power of shielding the patient from the infection of
small-pox.

Having brought his observations so far to maturity,
it occurred to him to try the experiment of propagating
the disease by inoculation, first from the animal, and
afterwards from one human creature to another. In
the year 1796, he accordingly inoculated a young man
from the hand of a milker, who had the distinctive
symptoms of the genuine cow-pox, and had the plea-
sure of finding, that, when inoculated for the small-

pox, at the distance of some months, he completely
resisted the contagion. The experiment was after-
wards enlarged; and after inoculating some hundred
children, and putting them, at different intervals, to
the test of a subsequent inoculation for small-pox
without effect, he ventured to communicate his dis-
covery to the world in a treatise published in 1798,
which was followed up the year after by a still longer
list of experiments and observations. In these works,
Dr Jenner suggested that the disease itself probably
was not original in the animal from which it took its
name, and that several circumstances led him to be-

nials, frantic personal abuse, and insane predictions of worse diseases accruing from it. The treatment of the small-pox had been so lucrative a portion of medical practice, as to become a regular matter of dispute between the physicians and the surgeons; the physician claiming it as a contagious fever, while the surgeon, as the inoculator, thought he had a right to all the subsequent treatment. Jenner's discovery was a touchstone, to detect what proportion of selfishness alloyed the human heart. It was calculated to make known, whether the scenes of misery which medical men are compelled to witness, blunt their feelings. The result certainly reflected honour on the faculty; for the plan to exterminate the small-pox was zealously adopted, over the whole world, by all except a few prejudiced and narrow-spirited practitioners.

Dr Jenner had at the very first held forth an admirable example of humanity and generosity, by the way in which he had brought forward his discovery. Had he kept the secret to himself, and surrounded the practice of it with a little mystery, it is unquestionable that he would have realised a fortune beyond all professional precedent; for, by only an improvement in the mode of inoculation forty years before, a country practitioner named Sutton had cleared six thousand guineas in one year. It was apparent that the high and self-denying principles on which he had acted, entitled him, now that his discovery was in full operation, to some public reward. The subject of vaccination was accordingly investigated in 1802 by a committee of the House of Commons, and the sum of ten thousand pounds was soon after voted to Dr Jenner; to which twenty thousand was added in This' illustrious benefactor of the human race died, 1806, upon additional proofs of efficacy being adduced. January 26, 1823, at his house at Berkeley, in the 74th year of his age.

During the course of the thirty years which have since elapsed, some circumstances have taken place to prove that vaccination is not infallible as a preven tive of small-pox, though, in the few cases where it has failed, there may have been some peculiarities in the matter employed, or in the mode of its communication, or in the constitution of the patient, to induce that result. In the spring of 1817, an epidemic smallpox occurred at Cupar in Fifeshire, where Dr Dewar of Edinburgh examined or received accounts of seventy patients, and found that no fewer than fifty-four were said to have gone through the vaccine disease, of whom one died, while, of the remaining unvaccined sixteen, the deaths were six. The excellent physician here mentioned published an account of this epidemic, and drew the conclusion, that, allowing the liability exemption from it for a great part, if not the whole of the vaccined to small-pox, they at least gained an of life, and, at the worst, had it in a very mild form. In the ensuing year, epidemic small-pox prevailed at Perth, Lanark, Edinburgh, and in the northern parts of Ireland, when the following facts were elicited by Dr Monro, of the Edinburgh University:-1. If the matter taken from a person labouring under the small-pox be applied beneath the skin of another who never had the disease, the disease is communicated in its genuine form; and the same happens if the poisonous matter be taken in by respiration, or by simple contact. 2. If the same matter be in a similar man.

In a previous article entitled Inoculation, it was shown that, though that method of preventing the more dangerous form of the small-pox was effectual in almost all who tried it, nevertheless, in consequence of the infectious nature of the inoculated disease, the discovery upon the whole increased the number of deaths from small-pox to a considerable degree, and left mankind at large rather worse than it had found them. We have now to advert to a later discovery, by which it was proposed to prevent the small-pox by inoculating with a somewhat similar but milder disease, named the cow-pox, which, not being fatal like the inoculated small-pox, contained within itself no ner applied to a person who has had the cow-pox, and obstacle to its general reception, but, even if that had gone through it in a proper manner, in an immense not been the case, had the advantage of being nonmajority of cases no result follows; but in some cases, contagious, so that any number of persons might and especially where the small-pox is peculiarly active, a modified disease follows, which is either so mild as enjoy the benefit of it without endangering others. to escape notice altogether, or else is very violent at The merit of this discovery, by which forty thou-lieve that it originated from the distemper called the first, but stops all at once, as if an impenetrable bar sand lives were annually saved upon the amount of grease in the heels of horses, and was communicated rier had been opposed to its farther progress, and goes the British population at the close of the eighteenth to the cow by being milked by persons employed in off rapidly without any ill consequences. 3. If the century, is due to Dr Edward Jenner, a surgeon dressing such horses. The cow-pox was uniformly cinated persons, a similar mild disease is sometimes matter of this last disease be applied as before to vacsettled at Berkeley in Gloucestershire, where he was unknown in those dairies where the milking was per-produced; but in a great majority of cases no result born in the year 1749. This gentleman, in 1802, formed by women; and in all the instances in which communicated to a committee of the House of Com. Dr Jenner could trace its introduction, he found that mons an account of the discovery, which may be the milkers had been recently before in the habit of here given in a condensed form. "My inquiry into handling horses affected with the grease. the nature of the cow-pox," said he, "commenced jecture, it is said, has since been verified by inoculatupwards of twenty-five years ago. My attentioning the cow from the grease directly, which produced to this singular disease was first excited by observ. ing, that among those whom in the country I was frequently called upon to inoculate, many resisted every effort to give them the small-pox. These patients I found had undergone a disease they called the cow-pox, contracted by milking cows affected with a peculiar eruption on their teats. On inquiry, it appeared that it had been known among the lairies time immemorial, and that a vague opinion prevailed that it was a preventive of the small-pox. This opinion I found was, comparatively, new among them; for all the older farmers declared they had no such idea in their early days: a circumstance that seemed easily to be accounted for, from my knowing that the common people were very rarely inoculated

the genuine form of the cow-pox.*

This con

The process suggested by Dr Jenner, to which the name of vaccination was given (from vacca, Latin for a cow), was brought under notice in so philosophical a manner as insured it what must be considered, upon the whole, a favourable reception. In a very short space of time, the most eminent physicians, satisfied of its virtue, gave it their sanction, and introduced it into their practice. It was only opposed by a few persons, upon erroneous views of religion, and by a small and inglorious band of medical men, who, against all the experiments and philosophical conclusions of its advocates, could only bring clamorous de

Edinburgh Review, ix. 37.

follows. If, however, it be applied to others who have not gone through the small-pox or the cow-pox, it is capable of producing in them genuine and fatal smallpox of an infectious nature. It is a curious and remarkable fact, that it also produces a modified dis. ease in those who have gone through small-pox before. In the epidemic of 1818, six children in Edinburgh were inoculated from a perfectly vaccinated child who had this modified disease; in one a severe disease was produced, in two others it was less severe, and in the remainder very mild. The disease spread by infection to three other children and four adults, who had either been in the room with or nursed the inoculated chil. dren. Of the adults, all of whom had had the small. pox before, one had it mildly and the other three severely; from one or other of these last cases, the disease spread to a fifth adult, who had never had small-pox, and he died.

Notwithstanding these somewhat alarming facts, it seems incontestible that the discovery of Jenner, if not all that was originally expected of it, is one of vast benefit and importance to mankind. The meris of vaccination may, in conclusion, be thus summed up-It is beyond all comparison milder than the disease produced by inoculated small-pox. It is not

« НазадПродовжити »