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MR. M'CULLOCH'S LECTURES.

really injurious to he borrower, whom it is intended to protect; expedients are resorted to, and the lender exacts a higher interest, owing to the penalties to which he is obnoxious. Hence, legislation, in this case, as in some others, augments the evil it was intended to diminish.

Mr. M'Culloch concluded with hoping that the legislature, which had lately done so much to weed the statute book of injurious enactments, would succeed in repealing the Usury Laws.

LECTURE XVIII.

CORN LAWS.

Internal Corn Trade-High Prices always pernicious-Corn Trade in Holland-Corn Law of 1815-Evils of Fluctuation in Price-Interest of Land lords opposed to all other Classes.

MR. M'CULLOCH entered this morning on the important subject of the CORN LAWS, and the effect of fluctuations of price, and restrictions on the corn trade.

The internal trade in corn has, for a considerable period, been free; and the prejudices which formerly prevailed against forestalling and regrating, and which Dr. Smith compared to popular errors on witchcraft, entirely exploded. Nor is it less necessary to insist on the freedom of exportation; which, from the reign of William III. to 1813, was encouraged with a bounty. The evils with which we have now to contend are restrictions on the importation of corn, which have the same baneful tendency, as the necessity of resorting to inferior soils for subsistence.

The Agricultural Committee of 1821 has shown that, with an unrestricted corn trade, the average price of wheat would be 55s. or 56s. per quarter. Such a price is sufficiently high to prevent any great diminution of tillage: only such land would be abandoned as had been forced into cultivation by the artificial high prices of 1810 and 1814. Hard as this sacrifice might be, it had better be made, than the profits of stock, and the enjoyments of all other classes, be diminished. The good of the whole ought never to be sacrificed to the advantage of a few. It was thought no objection against the adoption of the improvements of sir Robert Arkwright, that the proprietors of the old machinery would suffer. Why then not adopt the best machinery in

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agriculture, by cultivating the more fertile soils, as well as in manufactures ?

Mr. Malthus is the only economical writer of eminence who has opposed the repeal of the corn laws; and he admits that the legislature has nothing to do with maintaining the profits of particular classes. The operation of the corn laws is opposed to every principle of improvement; and were not their pernicious tendency counteracted by the superior industry and intelligence of the people, they would prove fatal to national pros perity. By preventing importation they force capital into a comparatively disadvantageous employment. High prices can never be an advantage: if less wages are spent in the purchase of provisions, more will be spent in the purchase of other commodities. Those who think the country is benefited by the corn laws might as well contend for the adoption of the old machinery in manufactures in lieu of modern improvements.

They cause fluctuations in price not less injurious to the farmer than to the consumer. Were the corn trade free, the price would be nearly uniform, and could never rise greatly above, nor be depressed greatly below that of neighbouring states. The expense of freight would make all the difference: corn imported from, or exported to France, would only cost 5s. or 6s. per quarter. The excess of one country would compensate the deficiency of another: a deficient crop would cause a country to import; and an abundant one to export. Thus would an equality of price be maintained.

Nor is this mere theory: the effect of the seasons is never the same in all countries; an excess of moisture, which is fatal to the crop in one part of Europe, may, in another, from the difference of soil, be highly beneficial. This is proved by experience. In England, during the great scarcity in 1800, the harvest was most abundant in Spain. Again, 1803 was an abundant year in England, while Spain suffered all the evils of a famine. Prices rose 400 per cent. in the latter country, an evil which might have been prevented by an unrestricted intercourse.

Holland always depended on foreigners for a supply of grain, and the prices have been steady and uniform. There is always abundance of food in the world when the use of it is not interdicted by absurd restrictions. Monopoly is the parent of scarcity, dearness, and uncertainty. By our policy we deny ourselves the benefit of that wise provision, which Nature herself has made for equalizing prices. Under the present system, abundant crops are a real evil to

the agriculturist; he cannot export his surplus produce till the price falls to a level with that of other countries, and to this cause the late distresses of the farmer were owing. Landlords, not wishing to see the price reduced to the average rate of other countries, introduced the law of 1814, to exclude foreign corn till the price rose to 80s. per quarter, or double the price in France.

Farmers

What is absurdly called a protecting law, is really injurious to the permanent interest of the cultivator. By the interference of the legislature, the price of wheat rose in 1817 to 75s. per quarter, and in 1819 to 91s. per quarter. then thought golden days were about to return. Prices, however, began to fall, and in 1823 was reduced so low as 38s. per quarter. This unusual depression rose solely from restrictions on importations. It is demonstrable that the evils of fluctuation in price can never be averted by prohibitory enactments, which flatter with hopes that cannot be realized. Much has been said of flagitious attempts to exasperate one class of the community against another. But can any thing be better devised for this purpose than the Corn Laws, which place the interests of the landlords at variance with that of all other classes. It is no exaggeration to say, that they have turned the blessings of Providence into a curse. Farmers formerly looked to an abundant harvest as the source of prosperity and wealth. How great and melancholy is the change! Plenty is now considered the forerunner of bankruptcy, poverty, and ruin. When the farmers are not suffering from abundance, other classes are suffering from scarcity and high price; so that under the Corn Law system, there is neither good nor bad harvest which is not accompanied with more or less of distress and suffering.

Mr. M'Culloch concluded, with refering to the work of Colonel Torrens on the "Corn Laws," and quoted a striking passage illustrative of the misery occasioned by alternations of high and low prices in the national subsistence.

DR.WHISTON dining one day with lady Jekyll, sister to lord Somers, she asked him the reason why woman was made out of the rib? Whiston, after reflecting a moment replied, "Indeed, my lady, I don't know; except it was because the rib is the crookedest part of the body."

Chinese, the Hindoos, and most of the African race, has continued unchanged for such a long period of years, that we might really doubt whether MAN, placed under certain moral and physical institutions, is a progressive animal. At this day the instruments of weaving in India are now precisely of the same construction as they were two thousand years ago. The Indians still spin their yarn, web as well as weft, with distaff and spindle; and the loom upon which the cloth is woven is composed of a few sticks or reeds; and when in operation, it is placed under the shade of a tamarind or mango tree, with the balance fastened to one of the branches. Two loops underneath the gear, in which the weaver inserts his great toes, serve as treadles; and the shuttle, formed like a netting needle, but of a length exceeding the breadth of the cloth, is used alternately to draw through the weft and to strike it up into the web. The loom has no beam, the warp is laid upon the ground, the whole length of the piece of cloth; and upon this primitive machine the Asiatics produce muslins, which have long been subjects of admiration for their beauty and the fineness of their texture!

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC

INSTITUTIONS.

MR. PARTINGTON's lecture on atmospheric electricity to the members of the Spitalfields Mechanics' Institution, will now claim our attention.

The lecturer commenced his subject by briefly adverting to the history of coated electrics: and stated, that the principle of a charged electric was first attempted to be explained by Von Kleist, in 1745, but it was more fully examined at Leyden, where some curious experiments were performed with a phial; hence, a phial or jar coated on the inside and outside, for the purpose of charging, is generally called the Leyden phialand the charging and discharging of a coated electric, the Leyden experiment.

The manner in which this discovery was made, in Holland, is curious and interesting: Professor Muschenbroeck and his friends, observing that electrified bodies readily lost their electricity by contact with the atmosphere, imagined that the escape of the electric fluid might be prevented by enclosing the electrified body in a glass vessel. To effect this, a member of the university, of the name of Cuneus, filled a bottle with water, which he afterwards electrified; and bringing his hand in contact ith the prime conductor THE Condition of some nations, as the while he disengaged it from the machine,

WEAVING IN INDIA.

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS.

he was much surprised by a sudden shock, similar to what is now generally taken by persons of the most delicate temperament. The public exhibition of this new electrical phenomenon, excited in the minds of the early philosophers the most lively emotions of fear and dismay, and contributed materially to the exaggerated accounts they gave of its effects.

One of the most learned of these philosophers says, that on producing the electrical communication, he found his body convulsed in a most violent degree, and that it put his blood into great agitation; he also felt, or, at least, says he felt, a heaviness on his head, as if a stone lay upon it and he further adds, that it produced a profuse bleeding at the nose. His wife, however, whose curiosity was stronger than her fears, also received the shock, and found herself so weak, that she could hardly walk for a considerable time afterwards.

So entire an ignorance of the principle of this simple experiment, and so complete a perversion even of the corporeal experience of these early philosophers, can only be accounted for by reference to that fruitful source of error, a warm imagina. tion, unguided by the light of science. We must still, however, recollect that this experiment was made when the science of electricity was but in its infancy, and when, indeed, the phenomena attendant on charged electrics were but imperfectly known,

A nearly similar instance, however, is recorded by the celebrated traveller Bel zoni, who, during his residence in Egypt, had occasion to employ an electrical machine for the amusement of the Bashaw of that country. With your permission, we will take the anecdote in his own words: "Having heard of electricity, he sent to England for two electrical machines, one with a plate, the other with a cylinder: the former was broken by the voyage, the latter was dismounted. The physician of the Bashaw, an Armenian, did not know how to set it up. Happening to be at the garden one evening, when they were attempting it, and could not succeed, I was requested to put the several pieces together; and having done so, made one of the soldiers mount on the insulating stool, charged the machine, and gave the Turk a good shock; who expecting no such thing, uttered a loud cry, and jumped off, as much terrified as if he had seen the devil."

I have quoted Belzoni's words, and it may be proper to add, that the traveller afterwards repeated the experiment, making his highness, who till then had been completely incredulous, form part of the

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Mr. Partington observed, that he should have previously exhibited the apparatus represented in the above diagram, but it was not prepared when he had the honour to address the members on Monday last. The sun and earth go round their common centre of gravity in a lunar month. These motions are represented by an electrical experiment as follows: the ball S represents the sun, E the earth, and M the moon, connected with wires a c, and b d; a is the centre of gravity between the earth and sun. These three balls, and their connecting wires, are hung and supported on the sharp point of a wire A, which is set upright in the prime conductor B of the electrical machine; the earth and moon hanging upon the sharp point of the wire c, in which wire is a pointed short pin, sticking out horizontally; and there is just such another pin at E, sticking out in the same

manner, in the wire that connects the

earth and moon.

When the working of the electrical machine is commenced, and consequently these balls and wires are electrified, the fluid that flies off horizontally from the points causes S and E to move round their common centre of gravity a; and E and M to move round their common centre of gravity b: and as E and M are light when compared with S and E, there is much less friction on the point b than upon the point a, so that E and M will make a much greater number of revolutions about the point b, than S and E make about the point a. The weights of the balls may be adjusted so that E and M may go twelve times round b, in the time that S and E go once round a.

I have hitherto confined myself, observed Mr. Partington, to that part of the science of electricity, which relates to its more obvious results of attraction and repulsion, and the various phenomena connected with coated electrics; it may now, however, be advisable for us to turn to its practical use when applied to some of the general purposes of life.

Dr. Franklin appears to have been the first who ascertained the identity of atmospheric electricity, or lightning, and that produced by artificial means: and he was not long in applying this ingenious discovery to the protection of buildings during a thunder-storm.

The great similarity between lightning and artificial electricity, is not merely discoverable in a few appearances only, but may be traced throughout nearly all their numerous effects. Lightning destroys buildings, and suspends the animal functions; a similar effect may also be produced by means of artificial electricity. Lightning also burns combustible bodies, and melts metals; both of which we may very readily effect by means of the electric fluid.

But, independently of these and other striking coincidences, their identity has been fully proved, by the matter of light ning having been actually brought down from the clouds, by means of metallic rods; and the fluid thus procured, has charged Leyden jars; and, indeed, produced all the phenomena which arise from the action of the electrical machine.

Το prove the identity of lightning and electricity, Dr. Franklin employed a kite of considerable size, which he raised with a string in the ordinary way; and on the passage of an electrical cloud, he found that a large jar connected with the lower end of the string was readily charged.

The success with which this attempt to employ the very bolts of heaven was attended, induced several philosophers to repeat the experiment, and amongst these we may enumerate Professor Richman, who, in his ardent thirst for the furtherance of this interesting science, fell a sacrifice to one of the most terrific of all natural phenomena.

This unfortunate catastrophe took place during a thunder-storm, in the autumn of 1753. He was examining the electricity of the atmosphere with a rod of considerable altitude, unprovided with any apparatus for conveying away the electricity when overcharged; and whilst attending to an experiment, his head accidentally approached the insulated rod. A thunder cloud passing at the instant, was attracted by the rod, down which the electric fluid

ed, and entering his body, immedi

ately deprived him of life. A red spot was produced on his forehead, his shoe was burst open, and part of his waistcoat singed, while a gentleman who happened to be near him at the time was struck to the earth senseless, and the door split and torn off its hinges.

From this, then, it will be seen how much caution it is necessary to observe in the performance of these experiments; so that, on the whole, it is more advisable to employ an electrical machine, than to collect the fluid naturally from the atmo sphere.

From what I have now stated, it will be evident that the phenomena attendant on a thunder-storm arises from the electric equilibrium being destroyed; and it has been found that the clouds are sometimes positively, and at other times neg atively electrified. When the clouds are positively electrified, the lightning will of course proceed downwards to the earth. But if, on the contrary, the electricity is in excess on the surface of the earth, it will pass to the cloud, and the equilibrium will be restored.

Having thus briefly noticed the analogy between atmospheric electricity, or lightning, and that produced by artificial means, it may now be advisable to examine more minutely, the connection between cause and effect, in this most striking of all natural phenomena.

When I charge a Leyden jar, or take a spark from the prime conductor, the report is distinctly heard, and the flash is visible. But this, it may be said, are as nothing when compared to the tremendous reverberations that accompany a thunder-storm. This I think may readily be conceded, and yet the cause may in both cases be precisely identical.

To conceive this, it will only be necessary to bear in mind, that the largest conductor yet employed has scarcely offered a surface equal to one hundred feet in diameter, while the great natural conductors, or rain clouds, frequently occupy a space of many miles in extent.

The nearest approach to the tremendous grandeur exhibited in the phenomena attendant upon atmospheric electricity was, I believe, effected in the apparatus constructed by Mr. Cuthbertson, for the Teylerian Museum, to which I have already alluded. The spark furnished by this machine was more than fourteen inches in length, and so dense, that the mere passage of the spark without a battery was enough to melt a metal wire two feet in length.

Elevated metallic conductors are frequently applied to buildings as a security against the effects of lightning; and

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS.

the way in which these act may be illustrated in the most familiar manner.

If we suppose a representation of the earth, and a cloud above overcharged with the electric fluid, it will be quite evident that a discharge must take place the moment that it comes in contact with any prominent body. Should it encounter an elevated building in its progress, the most tremendous effects are frequently the result.

The cause of this will be obvious, when we recollect that the materials of which buildings are usually composed, though a better conductor than air, are still but little calculated to discharge the immense reservoirs of electricity_contained in a large thunder cloud. By the use of a metallic rod, however, we readily form a communication between a cloud and the earth, so as to protect the less prominent bodies in its neighbourhood. It will, however, be quite evident that the metallic rod employed for this purpose must be higher than the building it is intended

to secure.

To experimentally illustrate the value of a metal conductor, such as was introduced by Franklin, we may employ the model of a small tower furnished with this useful appendage; in which the metallic communication is continuous to the base. The ball resting on the brick is represented in the diagram beneath, a metal wire passing from its upper extremity to the base of the tower.

If, continued Mr. Partington, we now destroy the communication by reversing the brick on which the tower is made to rest, it will be thrown down by the force of the explosion.

That a pointed conductor is preferable to one with a blunt end may very readily be shown. We have seen, that in the usual mode of discharging a coated electric, which is similar to a thunder cloud, a report is heard, and the equilibrium between them is immediately produced by the explosion.

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That a pointed conductor, however, is preferable to the ball we employ for this purpose may readily be shown, for a small point will gradually draw off the whole of the electric fluid without any noise whatever.

We may place the tower as in the former case, and, removing the ball, expose a point to the electrified body. It is now quietly drawn off, so that a large cloud may be gradually emptied of its explosive contents without a chance of concussion.

To fully illustrate this valuable application of the science of electricity the lecturer provided another model, furnished with a similar conductor, but the rod passing through an inflammable material, and this being ignited by the passage of the elec tric fluid, served to show the danger of carrying an imperfect series of conducting rods through the centre of a building.

Mr. Partington concluded his lecture by observing, that with regard to the usefulness of lightning, it was remarkable, that as the passage of this subtile fluid promotes the union of some gases while it decomposes others, the effect produced by lightning must necessarily be that of materially purifying the atmosphere, which would otherwise, in the warmer seasons of the year, be so vitiated, as to be totally unfit for respiration.

I do not mean to say that this is the sole cause of the purifying process, but it must evidently tend to produce such an effect.

NEW VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY.

After

His majesty's ship Blossom has left Portsmouth upon a voyage of discovery and survey in the Pacific Ocean. visiting Pitcairn Island, Otaheite, Easter and Friendly Islands, and settling indisputably the position of all the islands with which that neighbourhood abounds, we understand the Blossom is to proceed to Behring's Straits; and if the season admit of it, to proceed round Icy Cape, (which has not been effected since captain Cook's discovery of it,) along the northern shore of America towards Hecla and Fury Strait, for the purpose of falling in with captain Franklin or captain Parry; and if captain Beechey find the sea open, it is most likely he will not omit so fortunate an opportunity of accomplishing this desirable object. We understand, also, that the Blossom is to complete the survey of the coast of America in such parts about Behring's Straits as are imperfectly known; and after having rendered captain Franklin the assistance he may require, she is to proceed entirely upon discovery, directing her route for such purpose towards those parts of the

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