gendering, Tokens, and Effects of all Earth-lightning, had been visible before the earthquakes in general, particularly applied and con- quake: the flashes ceasing a minute or two before ferred with that most strange and terrible its commencement. Some chimneys were thrown Worke of the Lord within the Citie of London," down, and houses injured. A girl was thrown &c. &c., 4to, London, 1580; and again, "A from her bed and her arm was broken. In St. true and impartial Account of the strange and James's Park and elsewhere the earth seemed wonderful Earthquake which happened in most to swell up and to be ready to open, three times. parts of the City of London, 8th September, Dogs howled dismally, fishes thirew themselves 1692," on which occasion also a sermon was out of the water, and a horse that was brought preached by a certain Rev. Samuel Doolittle, no to a watering-place refused to drink. During doubt greatly improving the occasion. We the succeeding two months, similar facts are rehave also, about fifty years later (or about a corded as having occurred several times in century ago), and at intervals ever since, va- various parts of the British Islands. rious accounts of the same nature in different parts of the country, so that it is by no means contrary to experience, although not remembered by many living people, that our very capital should be invaded by this terrible foe. The earthquakes that have been alluded to really deserve notice. The first lasted in London for one minute, occurring at six o'clock in the morning of the 6th of April of the year mentioned; and two less severe shocks were felt in Kent at nine and eleven A.M. of the same day. On the 1st of May following, another very considerable shock was experienced. On the occasion of the first shock, the great bells at Westminster and other places were made to sound, portions of several buildings and very many chimneys were thrown down, in London; and at Sandwich and Dover the sea was so much agitated, that vessels in the harbour were dashed against one another. The disturbance was felt, not only throughout England, but in France, Belgium, and Holland, and even as far as the Pyrenees. The shock felt in 1692 was also very violent, lasting two minutes, and was followed, about three days afterwards, by several more. All these occurred only a short time after a series of extremely violent shocks in the West Indies, during one of which, at Port Royal in Jamaica, three-fourths of the houses were thrown down, and three thousand persons perished. Other violent shocks are recorded as having been felt in London and its neighbourhood in the middle of the last century, by which not only many parts of England, but the countries on the other side of the Channel, were disturbed. For several years, from the middle of 1748 until the end of 1755, when the great earthquake of Lisbon took place, there seem to have been occasional alarms in various parts of England, but the principal shocks recorded as occurring in the neighbourhood of London were on the night of the 18th and morning of the 19th of February, 1750. On this occasion there were several slight shocks during the night, and at about twenty minutes to six in the morning three or four were felt in succession in the space of ten or twelve seconds. They were preceded by a loud noise, compared by some to thunder, by others to the roaring of the wind, by others again to that of a carriage in motion. They moved in a direction apparently from north-east to south-west. The noise was heard at one or two places where no shock was felt. A black cloud, with continual and confused flashes of Now, with these facts staring us in the face as we examine into the records handed down by the Royal Society, we are tempted to inquire whether, on another occasion, the results might not more resemble the awful catastrophe by which Lisbon was utterly ruined, and about a fourth part of the northern hemisphere shaken. If this happened at Lisbon, why should it not happen in England? If it took place a century ago, why not again, now, or at some future period? There are certain statistics from which we can determine, if only approximatively, the degree of probability that we may again have in Europe some great disturbance of this kind. Can we judge where it is likely to take place, and can we in any way foretel when it may be looked for? The prophet of evil who is our authority in this inquiry, the philosopher whose calculations we depend upon, and whose views we propose to put before our readers, is Mr. Mallet, à mathematician, natural philosopher, and civil engineer, who, some ten years ago, proposed to the British Association to collect earthquake facts, with a view to determine if any generalisations could be drawn from them. A French philosopher, M. Perrey, appears to have entertained the same idea at least ten years before, and he collected for the purpose of publication all the information he could find. We have thus had two independent observers working together in this direction, and as their results agree, the conclusions have a greater value than might otherwise attach to them. The first thing that strikes us on looking at the lists and tables obtained is, that there are actual records at hand, with date and particulars, of two hundred and thirty-four earthquakes that have taken place in the British Islands within the last eight and a half centuries, and that of these two hundred and thirty-four no less than one hundred and ten (nearly one half) have been felt during the present century-during the lifetime, therefore, of an important part of the existing population. The apparent increase is in a great measure explained by the much more complete accounts obtained since the existence of periodical publications stating the news of the day; but as the whole number recorded in the century ending in 1800 is only sixty-three against one hundred and ten from 1800 to 1850, we feel a little uneasy, and already fancy that we are a good deal more shaky than we had believed possible. But if we are alarmed by this list of British earthquakes, and turn to see how our neighbours fare, we shall have little comfort beyond that of finding that we are no worse off than they. In the Scandinavian peninsula and Iceland, the numbers are rather higher, but not much: 111 have beenrecorded in those countries as felt during the last century, and 113 in the first half of the present. In Spain and Portugal 93 in the eighteenth, against 85 in the nineteenth; in France, Belgium, and Holland together, the figures are 308 and 292, while in the Basin of the Rhine and Switzerland, no less than 557 earthquakes are recorded since the beginning of the ninth century, of which 52 took place in the sixteenth, 120 in the seventeenth, 141 in the eighteenth, and no less than 173 in the first half of the present century. The Italian peninsula and the Eastern Mediterranean we might expect to be troubled with disturbances of this kind, owing to the large amount of volcanic action constantly taking place there; but, excluding these countries, where, indeed, upwards of 800 earthquakes have taken place within the last fifty years, we find a total of 2156 earthquakes recorded as felt at various places in Western Europe since the beginning of the Christian era: of which 773 belong to the present century. Now, as we cannot suppose that we have anything like a complete account of all that have taken place, we may fairly assume that in these districts where, with the exception of Iceland, there is nothing of the nature of volcanic disturbance, there really must be, at least, one earthquake every six weeks, and perhaps more! It is not the case that in this calculation the half-dozen or dozen shocks connected together as parts of one real disturbance are counted separately; on the contrary, where it seemed admissible, a whole group of small movements, spread over several days, is recorded as one earthquake. Such small shocks have been frequently felt at Comrie in Scotland, and elsewhere, and are always recorded in sets. was some distance out in the Atlantic, and there is nothing known that could have pointed to that spot, rather than any other, as one where such an event would originate. England, then, appears to belong to a large tract of country, some of it above, and some under water, the whole of which is subject constantly to earthquake disturbance, and any part of which seems occasionally liable to movements of this nature, so considerable as to rival the most important on record. We enjoy no immunity from the most sudden, the most irresistible, the most destructive, of nature's powers. Another such shock as the Lisbon earthquake may happen this or next year. It may not happen in this country, but it may originate beneath our own metropolis or under the ocean. It may originate near us or a thousand miles away from us, but we are not the less certainly living over a mine ready to be sprung. No one can tell when or where the fatal match will be applied. Let us look again to our figures, to see if we can obtain further information. Taking all recorded earthquakes as the basis of calculation, we find a list of nearly seven thousand separate events ranging over three thousand four hundred and fifty years. Of the whole number, most of those recorded in early times were very serious, and are mentioned for that reason in history as extraordinary and exceptional events. Most of those mentioned within the last century, on the other hand, have been slight, but, à fortiori, the severe ones have also been spoken of, and we have generally had detailed accounts of them. Thus, although the materials for calculation are imperfect, yet the nature of the imperfections is known, and valuable comparative results may be obtained. Out of the whole number (6831), we have 787 distributed over eighteen centuries terminating in the year 1500; 2804 between the years 1500 and 1800; and the rest (2227) during the first half of the present century. From the most recent observations we obtain It is quite true that many of these shocks are a general average of one earthquake in some inconsiderable, and that a disturbance sufficient part or other of the earth's surface every to affect human life and property to a serious six days, and of these it is further calculated extent is unknown in the history of our country. that one fortieth part (one earthquake every Precisely the same remark might, however, have eight months) is of "serious importance," or, been made by the inhabitants of Lisbon at nine in other words, is one in which whole cities and o'clock on the morning of the 1st November, towns, or large portions of them, have been re1755, although before the clocks left uninjured duced to rubbish, and many lives lost. In the I had struck the hour of ten, a large part of the vast tract subject to earthquakes, of which our city had been destroyed, and many thousands of islands form a part, the proportion of serious human beings had passed away to their account. disturbances would probably be below the geThe earthquake that destroyed Lisbon, pro-neral average; but if, instead of one great duced almost as much mechanical disturbance in earthquake in eight months there be only one many places along the coast of Portugal and every quarter of a century, there is yet sufficient Spain, as it did at Lisbon; and, indeed, produced cause for alarm. almost as much mischief on the shores of Mo- It occurred to M. Perrey, to tabulate his rocco as on those of Europe. It reached north-earthquakes in various ways, in order to discowards so far as to include Iceland, and westwards ver whether any relation existed between them to the West Indian Islands and Canada. Its and the moon's position-whether temperature range in the interior of Europe included Italy, had anything to do with their recurrence-and Switzerland, Bohemia, and the Baltic; and sundry other matters. He soon found that southwards it extended far into Africa. The taking four years, during which his material exact spot where the first disturbance took place was most ample and most accurate (1844 to 1847, both inclusive), the number of earthquakes near new and full moon exceeded the number at the quarters, in the proportion of six to five. Further observations seemed to confirm this curious deduction, but at present it can only be regarded as suggesting future inquiry. It certainly seems to be the result of all observations lately made, that there is some relation between the moon's place and the convulsive paroxysms of the earth. each century: or at least this has been the case for some centuries past. One of these periods is greater than the other, and has occurred near the middle of the century. The other, very serious but not of equal importance, towards the close of the century. It is worthy of notice that two or three great and destructive earthquakes have often happened within a few years in very distant parts of the world at these periods. It would seem that whatever be the cause of earthquake paroxysms, this cause requires a certain time to recover its energy after having exhausted itself by a great struggle. Smaller Out of 5879 earthquakes that have occurred in the northern hemisphere, and of which the exact dates are recorded, as many as 3158 took place in the cold months between the 1st of Oc-movements, from time to time, also convulsive, tober and the 31st of March: only 2721 being felt between the 1st of April and the 30th of September. The largest number-627-occurred in January, and the smallest-415-in July. Turn these unexpected figures as we will, they seem always to point in the same direction, and to intimate that, in all countries liable to change of seasons, the warm season is less subject to earthquakes than the cold. Thus, if we take all Europe together, we find 1153 recorded in the cold, and only 857 in the warm months. If we take the countries separately, the British Islands list shows 94 in the summer, and 123 in the winter. Spain and Portugal, 87 in summer, and 114 in winter. Italy gives the numbers 455 and 438; France, Belgium, and Holland together, 272 and 395 in the warm and cold months respectively. There is another curious result obtained on comparing the number of earthquakes in different seasons. During the two months that enclose the four critical periods of the year, called by astronomers the equinoxes and the solstices, earthquakes seem more likely to happen than during the intermediate months. Thus, in December and January, in the winter solstice, the number is 177; in March and April, the vernal or spring equinox, 151; in June and July, the summer solstice, 129; and in September and October, the autumnal equinox, 164. There are only about 290 earthquakes left for the other four months. This average was obtained from the details of the earthquakes during the first forty-three years of the present century. produce comparatively little effect beyond the alarm consequent on local disturbances. Some of the great earthquakes mentioned in modern history, and the subject of special description, have occurred with remarkable regularity at about the intervals of time mentioned above, but they have affected parts of the world very distant from each other, and without any apparent mutual relations. If, however, we regard the tract including the north of Africa, the whole of Europe, Northern Asia, the North Atlantic Ocean, the North American shores of the Atlantic, and the West Indian Islands, as being that which most interests us, we shall find that during the latter part of the sixteenth century there were numerous and very severe disturbances, accompanied by remarkable appearances of aurora borealis in low latitudes. These earthquakes extended throughout Central Europe, being felt, indeed, from Northern Asia to the Atlantic, including our own islands. They were accompanied by disastrous inundations arising from the great rivers as well as the sea. The shocks felt in London at this time have been already alluded to. In 1626, occurred one of the most fatal of the South Italian earthquakes, by which more than thirty towns and villages were destroyed, and seventeen thousand persons lost their lives. The disturbances continued until 1631, terminating by a great eruption of Vesuvius. In 1657, great earthquakes occurred in Scandinavia, and shortly afterwards in Calabria, the Pyrenees, and Central Italy, and these were felt also in England. ToOn tracing back the accounts of these re- wards the end of the same century there are markable phenomena, we shall find that though many remarkable disturbances recorded, including evidently convulsive and paroxysmal, and follow-that of Jamaica. In 1755 was the great earthing no regular law yet determined, they still show certain general relations worth considering. Thus, small earthquakes ofter recur after short intervals, but between sets of them thus frequently repeated in any one district there are intervals of comparative repose. The smallest of such intervals is not more than a year or two. These small intervals correspond to periods when there are on the whole fewest earthquakes; and generally, but not always, such earthquakes have not been of the most destructive kind. On the other hand, the average interval is five to ten years, and the earthquakes that then occur are more serious and more numerous. Two marked periods of extreme paroxysm, or greatest earthquake intensity, seem to occur in quake of Lisbon, preceded by numerous smaller convulsions all over Western Europe, and followed by others of great significance. Later in the century (in 1770), were fearful earthquakes in the West Indies, and afterwards again in Calabria. The century closed with a severe convulsion over the whole of the north-west of France, and many shocks in Scandinavia and Russia. During the present century, there have been many not unimportant disturbances of this kind over the whole of Europe and Northern Asia-more, in fact, than would easily be credited, if we had not the record before us. Perhaps the frequency of shocks has prevented the accumulation of force which terminates in one grand convulsion. Although, however, it really appears to have been the fashion of our ancestors to indulge in self I seem to have been only like a boy playing the excitement of severe earthquakes towards on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now the latter part of each century for some centuries and then finding a smoother pebble, or a prettier past, we may make use of our figures to some-shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of what more comforting purpose: inasmuch as it truth lay all undiscovered before me." also seems that in every third or fourth century there is a general lull, and that the present ought to be one of these quiet periods. We may, therefore, escape altogether, having fallen upon less excited times than have been experienced since the middle of the sixteenth century. However this may be, our position is serious; we stand, as it seems, between fire and water -liable to be blown up at a moment's notice, if not certain to be drowned at the end of the six thousand years. But there is another and a very curious result of these statistics that is worth looking at. If it be the case that earthquakes are to a certain extent periodical; if, as we have seen, they occur most frequently at certain times of the year, at certain periods of the moon's age, in certain magnetic conditions of the earth, and in certain relations to the sun; we must see whether this extends further, and whether we may not, perhaps, discover some distinct influences exerted by various heavenly bodies on what goes on in the interior of our earth. There is much sound philosophy hidden under this quaint conceit. Newton collected the facts in his own department of science, put them together, thought about them, and, by bringing to bear upon them the full force of his rare and powerful intellect, arrived at conclusions, many of which have never since been reached by his method, though confirmed by other methods less intellectual and more mechanical. But even Newton's marvellous generalisations do but serve as the basis of still higher generalisations, arising from the rapid increase since his time in the number of facts accurately observed. Newton's so-called laws, once looked on as universal, are now becoming recognised as only subordinate to some other laws yet to be made out. All the recent facts about earth-magnetism are new; all the workings out of electricity in every department, are new; all we hear about certain rays of the sun not communicating light or heat, but having chemical effects, illustrated in what we call photography, is new; and what little is known about the interior of the earth has been learnt since Newton lived. Others, since he showed the way, have been picking up pebbles and shells, and many, not content with picking up and admiring, have also endeavoured to arrange them as he did. It is true that no second Newton has yet arisen, with an instinct beyond ordinary intellect, grasping the shadowy law before it is near enough to be recognised by ordinary vision; but the tendency of discovery is to prepare for such a result, and perhaps before long we ourselves may see many branches of science, now apparently without mutual relations, brought together to explain each other. One or two matters of this kind are now within the range of direct observation. The face of the sun, for example, is occasionally observed with spots, and these spots have been noticed to increase in number and obscurity until they attain a maximum, and then to decrease to a minimum. Between ten and eleven years is the time taken for the complete cycle of changes, and the changes are now admitted to have direct influence on the magnetism of the earth. Thus, the magnetism of the earth-one of the most important and universal of the forces, producing marked results on all matter, animal, vegetable, and mineral-is governed by some condition of Thus, these investigations about earthquakes the sun's atmosphere, observed only by the astro- are not mere matters of curiosity; they also renomer who watches carefully with a good tele- present pebbles on the shore of the ocean of scope, and of which nobody suspected the exist-truth; they are not without beauty, and cerence a few years ago. So, also, the moon, in some way as yet little understood, has decided influence on the magnetism of the earth. It may, also, directly affect the mass of the interior, if in a fluid state: producing a tide, on a smaller scale, perhaps, but resembling that occurring in the open ocean of water. tainly not without interest. Let us hope that it will not be long before they are placed in their proper niche in the cabinet of science. CONVICT CAPITALISTS. MR. SMILES'S Self-Help is a book that has been extensively sold and adopted as an educational text-book by certain American colleges. Its success has been well deserved. The world can never hear too much in praise of application and perseverance, energy and courage, industry and ingenuity, self-culture and the dignity of work. As the taste of a nation is purified by looking upon the best models of art, so the character of a nation must be strengthened by looking upon the best models of living men. Some have even attempted to go beyond the sun and moon, connecting the cycle of magnetic variation with the period of the planet Jupiter, finding coincidences betwen that planet's periodic return and those of the solar spots, and thus assuming a combined, and therefore increased, magnetic influence on our own planet. It has occurred to us, while investigating this subject, that Sir Isaac Newton was, perhaps, not far wrong when he described himself as a mere collector and arranger of superficial facts thrown by chance in his way. "I do not know what I may appear to the world," he is reported to have said, shortly before his death, "but to my-l side. The task which Mr. Smiles has performed for virtue, ought to be performed for vice. The rising generation gains nothing by being admitted to view human nature only on its brightest Without going the length of saying that whatever is, is right, I assert that whatever has been, is worthy of a record. quick to discover the weakest point of the trading system in which they were placed—and, with one exception, almost ended by becoming convict millionnaires. Walter Watts, who stands first in the history of this class of modern fraud, was a humble checkclerk in the office of the Globe Insurance Company, at a salary of two hundred pounds a year. He was the son of a former honourable but subordinate clerk in the same establishment, and he entered upon his duties some time about 1844. When his frauds were discovered in 1850, he had succeeded in abstracting about seventy thousand pounds. Criminals, of nearly all kinds, are great practical demonstrators. The burglar shows us, by experiment, the weakest point in our dwelling; the fraudulent bankrupt has a use in pointing out the traps and pitfals of trade; the forging bank-clerk directs the attention of men to the blindness of business professors, and the inutility of so-called business checks. It is not enough, for the purposes of perfect education, that the career of such great teachers should only be stamped upon the ephemeral pages of the daily and weekly press; the modern Plutarch should seize them, as they rise He seems only to have discovered who were to the surface, and hand them down for imperish- in reality the city "men of straw." They were able infamy and fame. The compilations of this not the "stays" of Capel-court, the professional character that have been already attempted, are bill acceptors, or the presentable directors who too wanting in simplicity, too overloaded with gained a precarious livelihood by lending their technical details, to stand as the model his- titled names to boards of management and protories of men who have helped themselves." spectuses; but those singularly deceptive beings, We want something more concise, more bio- those wooden guardians of property-those Gogs graphical, and less apologetic-a Newgate Ca- and Magogs of trading guilds and associations lendar, in fact, for the use of schools. If, in-the appointed auditors. He seems early to addition to teaching wisdom and caution to ignorant holders of property, it should teach crime to a few budding criminals, it would work out a beneficial mission, notwithstanding. It seems to be a law of social nature that crimes shall reach a certain point of enormity, or excellence, before they are put down by the aroused energies of their victims, or retire upon the laurels of satisfied ambition. There was a time when burglary, both with and without violence, was the nightly phantom that haunted the pillows of all who had anything to lose. It reached its climax in certain murders committed some twenty years ago, since which period it has gradually declined, until it may now be considered almost a lost art. The leading delinquency of the present day, is the robbery of joint-stock companies by confidential servants. From Walter Watts to William George Pullinger, it shows every sign of a vigorous and progressive youth. It may have been cast a little in the shade by the frauds of certain merchants, private bankers, and bank directors; by such leviathan "self-helpers" as Strahan and Paul, as Davidson and Gordon, as J. Windle Cole, John Sadleir, Hugh Cameron, and Humphrey Brown of the Royal British Bank; as Colonel Waugh, and certain directors of the Liverpool Borough Bank, the Western Bank of Scotland, and the Northumberland and Durham District Bank (amongst whom there is upwards of two millions of sterling money to be accounted for); it may have been cast a little in the shade by such colossal monuments of fraud, but, for all that, it is well able to hold its own. The relations of master and servant impose many difficulties in the way of ambitious forgers. Such men as Walter Watts, as William James Robson, as Leopold Redpath, and William George Pullinger, are the purest examples of "men who have helped themselves." They started from very humble positions-were born with no directorial silver spoons in their mouths-were have analysed one of these highly curious pro- This being the result of Walter Watts's ana lysis of auditors, it can hardly be wondered at, that he gained courage to "help himself." He took thousands after thousands, through the |