FOOTNOTES:[3]The French author of the catalogue we allude to (1742) while declaring that it is good for people to know what the books are, counsels them to read very little of them, and to do nothing at all that they recommend.
[3]The French author of the catalogue we allude to (1742) while declaring that it is good for people to know what the books are, counsels them to read very little of them, and to do nothing at all that they recommend.
[3]The French author of the catalogue we allude to (1742) while declaring that it is good for people to know what the books are, counsels them to read very little of them, and to do nothing at all that they recommend.
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The want of a ready means of lowering boats from vessels in distressed circumstances, has been exemplified with the most tragical results in such cases as those of theOrion,Birkenhead, andAmazon. Mr W. S. Lacon, late of the H.E.I.C.'s service, has invented a plan for making them quickly available, which seems likely to be successful. It was tried on the 5th August by the Regatta Committee at Folkestone, with the approval of a great number of persons professionally qualified to pronounce on the subject. The wind was blowing strongly from the southwest, with a heavy surge running. This proved fortunate, for the better testing of the efficacy of the system. In the first trial, a boat was lowered from the steamer by one man, with several persons on board, and alighted on the water, abaft of the larboard paddle-box, with the utmost safety and apparent comfort, the tackle being released momentarily by the weight of the boat's descent, the vessel at the time steaming at the rate of 12½ knots per hour. It was afterwards hoisted up again by two men. At the second trial, the boat was lowered and cleared from the ship by one man, with Mr Lacon and three men on board, the vessel at the time maintaining full speed. The same experiments were performed several times during the day, in a similarly successful manner. The apparatus employed by Mr Lacon is very compact and simple, being fixed under the deck-seats, so as to be not in the least incommodious. In treating of this patent invention, theLiverpool Mercurysays, Mr Lacon has succeeded in 'solving a problem which has hitherto baffled the ingenuity of scientific and practical men, and attaining the "desideratumof lowering boats evenly, and of rapidly disengaging the tackles," by a self-acting contrivance. Mr Lacon takes as his principle the well-known axiom in mechanics, that what is gained in power is lost in time; and although he approves of the method at present in use, as being the best for hoisting up boats: he (seeing that the hoisting need never be a hurried operation) substitutes two single ropes or chains, which, being secured to two broad slings passing round the body of the boat, are then brought inboard on davits, and carried to two concave barrels connected together by means of a shaft. The ends of the ropes or chains are secured to the barrels in such a manner that they will support any amount of weight until such time as the boat has reached the water, when they will disconnect and fall away from their attachment by their own weight, by which means he prevents the possibility of a ship, in its onward progress through a rough sea, dragging forward a lowered boat sideways, and capsizing or swamping it. By means, then, of a friction-strap and pulley round the shaft, one man is enabled to regulate the descent of the boat, which will go down by its own weight; and by means of the parallel action of the two barrels, he lowers both ends uniformly, and insures the boat falling in a proper position on the water.'
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There are, in every fully-peopled country, large numbers of persons whose lives are passed in hardship and misery, and whose greatest exertions can do no more for them than procure the barest means of subsistence. These are greatly to be pitied, and it should be the study of the government, and of all who possess the means, to remove, as far as possible, the causes of their misfortune. It cannot, however, be said that any competition, save only that which they themselves naturally and necessarily exhibit among their class, for obtaining the inadequate amount of employment for which they are fitted, is chargeable with the hardships they endure. It is a melancholy truth, as concerns the individuals, that we cannot extend to them any indirect relief without tending to increase the evil by raising an addition to their number. How, then, is their condition to be mended? The only way, it appears to me, is to fit them for entering into competition with others above them in the social scale by means of instruction, which shall enable them to give a greater value to the services which they render, and thus entitle them to command a greater value of services in return. We need entertain no fear lest, by this letting in competition upon the class above them, we shall lower these latter in the scale of society. So long as the capital in the country shall continue to increase in a greater proportion than its population, there must always be found additional employment and better remuneration for those whose labour is capable of adding to the national wealth. It may with more truth be stated, that the consequence to the community of the existence of any large number of destitute persons, is to keep down the general rate of wages, positively, through the absorption of capital required for their relief, and, negatively, through the absence of those additions to capital which the surplus services of instructed artisans always occasion.—G. R. Porter's Lecture at Wandsworth, entitled 'Services for Services.' London: Clowes.1851.
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Shepherdloquitur.—An' a wee bit name—canna it carry a weight o' love?—Noctes Ambrosianæ, No. lxxii.
A weebit name! O wae's the heartWhen nought butthatis left,But doubly dear it comes to beWhen time a' else hath reft,An' youth, an' hope, an' innocence,An' happiness, an' hame,Are a' concentred in a word,That word—a wee bit name.Back through the weary waste o' yearsMy memory is borne,An' gurglin' streams, an' thickets green,An' fields o' yellow corn:An' lanely glens, an' sunny hillsUpon my spirit gleam,The phantoms o' the past beforeThat spell—a wee bit name.O vision sweet! a fair, fair face,A young, but thochtfu' brow,Twa gentle een o' azure sheen,Are beamin' on me noo.Be still, my beatin' heart—be still;It's but an idle dream:She heeds na though wi' tremblin' joyI breathe a wee bit name.A wee bit name! O lives there aneThat never, never feltIts pathos an' its wizard powerTo saften and to melt?No—callous though the bosom beWi' years o' sin an' shame,'Twill melt like snaw in summer's sunBefore some wee bit name.A wee bit name! the rod whose touchBids hidden waters start,The torch that lichts the pile uponThe altar o' the heart,An' kindles what wad else decay,Into a holy flame:A sacred influence may lieWithin a wee bit name!C.
A weebit name! O wae's the heartWhen nought butthatis left,But doubly dear it comes to beWhen time a' else hath reft,An' youth, an' hope, an' innocence,An' happiness, an' hame,Are a' concentred in a word,That word—a wee bit name.
Back through the weary waste o' yearsMy memory is borne,An' gurglin' streams, an' thickets green,An' fields o' yellow corn:An' lanely glens, an' sunny hillsUpon my spirit gleam,The phantoms o' the past beforeThat spell—a wee bit name.
O vision sweet! a fair, fair face,A young, but thochtfu' brow,Twa gentle een o' azure sheen,Are beamin' on me noo.Be still, my beatin' heart—be still;It's but an idle dream:She heeds na though wi' tremblin' joyI breathe a wee bit name.
A wee bit name! O lives there aneThat never, never feltIts pathos an' its wizard powerTo saften and to melt?No—callous though the bosom beWi' years o' sin an' shame,'Twill melt like snaw in summer's sunBefore some wee bit name.
A wee bit name! the rod whose touchBids hidden waters start,The torch that lichts the pile uponThe altar o' the heart,An' kindles what wad else decay,Into a holy flame:A sacred influence may lieWithin a wee bit name!C.
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