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that department of fishing, with which alone such facts are concerned.

The uncertainty of success, and other avocations, prevented me from pursuing the idea I had conceived, and I should be glad to be informed whether the plan depends for its success (if it be successful) upon any contrivance not contained in the plan I proposed to myself, which is as follows:-Provide a net in the shape of a bag, about six feet in diameter, of a small mesh, and deep enough to admit of its mouth being drawn close by a string run through the top meshes, without contracting its diameter, which is to have its shape and size preserved by means of a hoop.

ANCIENT AND MODERN LEGISLATION."
50 15cla
that a man should make a stand thereat,
but having found the right way, then
make progression." Now, to point outs
this right way"-to show how far our
forefathers have advanced in, and how
far departed from it, and this by a clear
exposition of principles, illustrated by
apposite examples, is to perform a
double service to the cause of "progres-
sion," or, as it is now more commonly
called, "the movement," since it must at
once help to convert the stubborn, and
to restrain the precipitate. The Lecture
before us offers no more than a slight
sketch of what is to be done in this way;
but, so far as it goes, it is deserving of
great praise. The doctrines propounded
are all perfectly sound; the facts se-
lected for illustration of a very striking
description; the commentaries of the
author dispassionate and judicious; and
his general manner engaging and per

In the centre of this open bag is to be placed a tin tube, to the lower end of which is to be connected a glass tumbler, furnished with a suitable lamp.

The tin tube must have a screw-joint a short distance from the glass, to allow of easy access to the latter, and small tubes (also of tin) must be soldered to its sides, and communicate with the lamp at one end and the external air at the other, that the light may have an ample supply of its essential nourishment.

The whole apparatus is to be placed at the bottom of the water, and to be drawn up (from a boat) by the string before mentioned, at intervals, as the operator may think fit.

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Canons, Edgware, Middlesex,
April 9, 1834.

H. P.

ANCIENT AND MODERN LEGISLATION."*

That the much-vaunted wisdom of our ancestors covered a great deal of absurdity and folly, is one of the prevalent notions of the day, the soundness of which we are by no means disposed to impugn. Next, however, in pernicious influence to a dogged adherence to old modes and practices, simply because they are old, is an excessive fondness for innovation, from a blind contempt for every thing wearing the rust of antiquity. Bacon defines well the just medium between these two extremes of conduct, where he says-" Antiquity deserveth

*The Substance of a Lecture on the Contrast between the Spirit and Objects of Ancient and Modern Legislation, delivered before the Royston Mechanics' Institute. By J. P. Wedd. Royston Press. 1834.

suasive.

That it is of the nature of things that mankind should emerge from a state of darkness into still greater and greater light, is very happily illustrated by the following remarks:

"The truth is, that wisdom has never been the possession of ancestry, but always the slow accretion of the mental riches of posterity. The sources of knowledge have been stated to be intuition, observation, experience, and testimony: of these only the first and the most questionable is equally open to the most remote ancestry. The others have, through every successive generation of men, accumulated the stores of past ages to enrich the present. One of the most prominent of the distinctions which subordinate animals to men, is, that the experience and the discoveries of one individual cannot be communicated to its successors. With them posterity all start from the origi nal level; nothing can be added to the knowledge of an individual, but the discoveries of a single life. With respect to man, on the other hand, all the acquirements of an indi vidual become immediately part of the common property of society. The most valuable discovery is poured into the stream of knowledge, and enriches and augments it as it floats down to the succeeding generation. Thus what in one age is the happy and bold speculation of a master mind, is, in the next, the common property of all educated men. The discoveries of Newton are, in the next age, part of the acquisitions of every senior wrangler. The steam engine, which occupied the life of Watt to perfect, can a few years

"6 ANCIENT AND MODERN LEGISLATION."

after be constructed by almost every mechanist. Every generation starts in the extent of its knowledge, from the point where the preceding one left off. The acquisitions of science are like the discoveries of an unexplored country; what has been already mapped and surveyed, is to be deducted from the labour, and added to the knowledge of subsequent explorers. It is true there have been exceptions to this progression in the history of mankind. Such was probably the Deluge; such we know to have taken place on the irruption of the northern barbarians over the Roman empire, and such, in a limited degree, was the situation of Egypt, when the baths of Alexandria had been lighted for six months with the manuscripts of the library of all the Ptolemies. These exceptions, however, do but prove the rule. When an individual professes his respect for the wisdom of our ancestors, we are tempted to ask him, whether, if he wanted a steam-engine, he would order one to be constructed on the model of the original one in the Tower, the exemplification of the original idea of the Marquis of Worcester, or whether he would go to the Soho manufactory, and order one of the latest patent, with every modern improvement, and we would take his answer as the real test of his opinion."-pp. 29, 30, 31.

Of the meddling - to - mischief - spirit which distinguished the ancient legislation of this country, we have the following amusing summary :-

"The language in which their regulations were expressed was indeed concise, but the objects of legislation were most multifarious. They regulated the terms of contracts, the processes of manufactures, the obligations to labour and the amount of its requital, and the performance of the duties arising out of the relations of social life. They declared the truth or falsehood of opinions even on the subject of revealed religion, and it was never doubted that belief could be regulated by the decisions of the legislature. They extended to the minor morals, to duties of imperfect obligation; they condescended to prescribe dress, and to regulate amusements. extent of these spheres of legislative duty, may have been derived as well from total ignorance of any rights in the common people, as from the patriarchal origin of civil government. When the sovereign, who is now contented to be the chief magistrate of the country, considered himself the father of the community, he naturally took on himself the duties of that relation. It has been the course of modern legislation to abandon one after another of these fields of duty. Some

The

of the subjects of ancient legislation are left tos individual choice, as matters which no

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considerations of the general welfare make it necessary to sacrifice on the altar of the public will. Others are referred to the tribunal of public opinion. Some were given up as unauthorised invasions of the undelegated authority of God; others, perhaps the most slowly receded from, were abandoned because they arrayed in a rebellion, always in the end successful, the intractable power of conscience. No idea, however, arose in ancient times of a limit to the power of the legislature, and if the benevolent wish of Henry IV. of France, that every peasant in his dominions might have a fowl in his pot for dinner on Sunday, had occurred to any of our Plantagenet or Tudor monarchs, we should probably have found it imperatively embodied in a short act of parliament.”—pp. 8, 9.

Take in addition a few curious instances:

Laws to restrict the use of Tools and Machines.

"In the 5th and 6th years of Edward VI., however, an act passed for pulling down gig mills, in the manufacture of cloth; and in the 2d and 3d of Philip and Mary, an act was passed, declaring that no cloth-maker should have more than one woollen loom, and no woollen weaver more than two looms, in unincorporated places. The effect of these laws was to prevent the expeditious performance of work, and to restrain the division of labour. If every weaver was to be the proprietor of but one loom, he must unite in himself the character of buyer and seller, with that of the operative manufacturer; a portion of his time must be given to the duties of that situation; he could, consequently, effect less in his manufacturing department, and more individuals must be employed to produce the same quantity of the article. Under the modern system, the master manufacturer may have any number of looms, let them out to any applicant, supply them with the raw material, and receive back the manufactured article, which the undivided attention of the operative is given to produce. The effect of the two improvements which these enactments were intended to restrain, the employment of machinery, and the division of labour, are similar. Both economise labour. Both increase production and render it cheaper. Both attain by different processes the same end. The utility of machinery and the possibility of its too universal application, have been overstated, both by those who affirm, and those who deny the truth of these propositions."-pp. 12, 13.

Laws to regulate the Colours of Cloth. "The wisdom of our ancestors, in the reign of Edward VI., appears to have been dissatisfied with the unnecessary varieties of colours,

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“ ANCIENT AND modern legišLATION.”

and thought it a duty to expunge the superfluous ones. It passed an act, giving a list of the colours in which only cloth should be dyed. There was, however, some latitude in the choice, as the colour of a lion was one which was permitted. Whether they meant the natural hue of the inhabitant of Libya, or any other in which heraldry had blazoned him, does not appear. Probably, however, fashion was as supreme over legislation in 1552, as it is in the present day, and if we had the January number of 'La Belle Assemblée' for that year, we might possibly find in the winter walking dress, the legislators doing homage to the very colours displayed around the form of beauty, which they had directed to be superseded by the sad new colour,' or the iron grey,' or the sheep's colour,' the favourites of their legislation. In the litter part of this act the legislature appears to have had some misgiving that they had made trade an uncomfortable employment, for they enacted, that if any cloth maker should, within a given period after it passed, leave off his trade without a license from three justices (one being sufficient to send to trial for murder), he should never after be allowed under an alteration of his circumstances to resume it." pp. 19, 20.

Laws to prevent the use of Hops in Beer.

"The brewing trade may here detain us for a moment. In the reign of Henry VIII., the city of London petitioned parliament against the use of hops, as a noxious weed, and against the introduction of Newcastle eoals. In the reign of Henry VI. an act was passed to restrain the excessive making of malt. In the 2d year of William and Mary, it was enacted that no home-brewed beer should be made in a town where there was a public brewer; and we are told by Mr. Locke, in his work on toleration, that, under the test act, the publicans were required by law to partake of the most solemn ordinance of religion, as a qualification for entering on their calling. Thus the way in which the wisdom of our ancestors regulated brewing was, in attempting to prohibit the use of hops, to lessen that of malt, and to discountenance home-brewed beer. The spirit of these departed acts for restricting the use of malt and hops has been supposed in later times to have haunted the scenes of their former regulation, to have walked in the breweries, to have hovered over the coppers, and presided over the processes of more modern establishments."-p. 28.

Law forbidding Merchants to make Profit !

"In the 37th of Edward III., a law was passed, enacting that merchants should not engross goods to sell again at a greater price. One would like to ask the wisdom of our ancestors, for what other motive than the one

they repudiated, merchants would ever buy? It was also enacted, that no merchant should deal in more than one article, and that every one who had done so, should clear off all his stocks but one, before a day limited in the act."-p. 26.

Laws to punish Foreigners for enriching the Country.

"By a law passed in the 5th year of the reign of Henry IV., that foreign merchants who brought goods into England, should sell them in three months, without any regard to whether there was a demand for them or not. In the 6th of Henry IV. this law was repealed, but it was enacted that foreign merchants who brought goods into England, should not carry them away, but should leave them behind. Several other laws enacted, that when foreign merchants brought goods into England for sale, they should lay out all the money they obtained in buying English goods, and should carry no money out of the kingdom. Another law, in the 8th of Henry VI., declared that Englishmen should not trust foreign merchants, and should only sell to them for ready money. This was speedily found to be very inconvenient, and another law was passed in the 9th of Henry VI., allowing Englishmen to sell cloth to foreigners at six months' credit."-p. 22.

We subjoin one extract more, which relates to a subject concerning which, we regret to say, there is nearly as much absurd prejudice existing among our manufacturers as ever. We allude to the exportation of machinery-for enforcing the old laws against which, committees were formed but the other day at Nottingham and Leicester, to the serious injury of some of the best artisans of the country, and to the certain detriment of those very ma nufactures in which the anti-exportationists themselves are engaged :

"Another subject of legislation as to trade is the duty imposed on imported manufactures. In examining the principles of an. cient legislation on this subject, we are told, that in the carliest periods a duty of five per cent. was imposed equally on goods exported and imported. In imposing this duty the object of the sovereign was, probably, merely to obtain revenue, and the interest of the people was neither known nor inquired into in the imposition. It might be considered that goods imported could not bear a higher duty than five per cent., and that by extending the same duty to exports, the revenue could be doubled. The system has however gradually changed, and important impositions upon exported goods have nearly ceased. The principles which tended to produce this change

RECENT AMERICAN PATENTS.

were early introduced. In the 39th year of Elizabeth, 1593, an act was passed, declaring that the importing foreign wool carding implements had destroyed the livelihood of many makers of them in England, and their im portation was totally prohibited. The restrictions on the exportation of goods have been since principally applied to the raw materials of our manufactured articles, as raw hides and wool; and to articles not completely manufactured, as white cloth, for as this would require dyeing, the dyers caused its exportation to be prohibited.-Another class of prohibitions on the exportation of goods was still less defensible. It included goods perfectly manufactured, but which were wanted for other trades, as clock-cases, watchcases, and dial-plates. The legislature, by restraining their exportation, in attending to the interest of the general watch-makers, whe wanted them to work up, forgot that of the case-makers. On the same principle the exportation of all metals was, by acts of Edward III., and several subsequent reigns, prohibited, except lead and tin, which formed at that time a large part of our export trade. The encouragement of mining produced the acts of 5th William and Mary, for the allowance of the exportation of iron and copper. Brass unmanufactured was not so fortunate, and its exportation continued to be prohibited."-pp. 17, 18.

RECENT AMERICAN PATENTS.

(Selected from the Reports in the Franklin Journal, by Dr. Jones, the Superintendent of the Patent Office at Washington.)

or

SPINNING MACHINES.-Joseph Riptra. In the smooth cap used as a substitute for fliers, in what is called Danforth's filling frame, an attraction adhesion of the thread to the surface of the cap takes place in certain states of the atmosphere, which occasions great difficulty in the spinning, and a frequent breaking of the thread. To obviate these evils the present patentec, instead of leaving the outside of the cap of a plain continuous surface, forms thereon three or four more beads, fillets, or rings, projecting about a sixteenth of an inch. Suppose, for example, there are three suchings, he forms one of them on the lower end of the conical cap, another on the upper end, just where it begins to curve in towards the spindle, and the third about two-fifths of the distance between the two former, measuring from the lower edge. The distance, how

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ever, is stated to be a point of no importance.

MACHINE FOR DOUBLING, TWISTING, AND LAYING CORDAGE. John Drummond.-A main shaft is to revolve he rizontally, and this is to carry three other shafts parallel to itself, and sus tained upon arms projecting from it. Upon these shafts are to be placed the bobbins containing the yarn. A gearing of wheel-work gives motion to the main shaft by which the laying is effected, and also to the secondary shaft by which the yarns are levelled and twisted. The cords are delivered by holes in the cen tre of the respective shafts, and the whole thus effected at one operation.

A specification for a similar machine, invented by a gentleman in Philadel phia, was sent over to England about seven years since, for the purpose of being patented here; but it was found that an apparatus, operating on the same principle, was in use in the ropery of the dock-yard at Woolwich, as well as in other places. The design of obtaining a patent was therefore abandoned.

PRESS FOR COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS ARTICLES.-Henry L. Conner.→ This press is intended to operate upon two bales at the same time. The pressure is produced by causing an endless screw to revolve vertically. This screw is of considerable length, and is fixed in the centre of the frame-work of the press, so that horses or other power may be applied to the lever by which it is turned. A stout nut is adapted to the screw, and rises or falls as it revolves, serving, by means of jointed levers, operating upon the principle of the toggle joint, to act upon a follower. The follower is a long beam, the ends of which work in grooves in the cheeks of the press, which are at a sufficient distance, on each side from the screw, to act upon a bale of cotton, placed between it and the bed. The levers which act upon the bed are on each side of the nut two in number, and they may be of equal length. They are connected with each other by a single joint; one of them also is united to the nut, and the other to the upper beam of the press in the same way. When the nut is down upon the follower, one of the levers lies upon it, and the other against the cheek of the

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press, consequently they are then at right angles with each other. To cause the jointed part to slide readily over one follower friction-rollers are employed.

It is said, that with the power of the small horse thirty-four bales were pressed in a day, two at a time, so closely, that 530 lbs. were contained within two feet square. Twelve bales a day is considered to be fair work with the ordinary double-screw press.

We apprehend that a large portion of the advantage derived from this press results from the toggle-joint action. At first the cotton opposes scarcely any resistance, and the follower may then descend rapidly, which it will do by the action of the levers, whilst at the period when the greatest power is wanted their descent is proportionably slow.

HORSE-POWER FOR PROPELLING MACHINERY.-Charles Keller.-A lever, to which the horse is to be attached, is fixed to the vertical shaft of a cog-wheel, and the teeth of this take into an endless-screw, formed upon a horizontal shaft, which carries a band-wheel or whirl, a strap from which may be extended to drive machinery. The cogwheel, and the horizontal shaft which it drives, may be placed below the horsewalk, and the apparatus be thus confined to a small space, and rendered portable. The claim made is to "the application of the well-known principle of the endlessscrew and cog-wheel to a portable horsepower for driving machinery."

The advantage which may be expected to result from this contrivance, is the obtaining the required speed by no farther gearing than that described. The difficulty to be apprehended is the great friction to which the endless-screw must be subjected, which, if the materials are not extremely hard, and the rubbing parts are not constantly supplied with unguents, must soon wear it out.

The application of the endless-screw to a portable horse-power, is, we believe, new; it, however, has been used for driving boulters in flour-mills, and for other purposes. Mr. Nairne, the wellknown philosophical instrument-maker of London, manufactured, about sixty years ago, many globe electrifying-machines, which were turned by a toothedwheel, acting upon an endless-screw.

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NOTES AND NOTICES.

An esteemed correspondent thinks "Mrs. Somerville bas acted not very handsomely in describing Mr. Saxton's magneto-electric apparatus, înasmuch as she has omitted all mention of that gentleman's name, and has spoken of it as though it were merely an improvement on Mr. Faraday's methods, and put forward in detraction of his justly acquired fame."-" It was," he proceeds, "by its means that Mr. Saxton was the first person-in this country at least-to elicit the first spark from the magnet alone, while Mr. Faraday, however easy it may appear to Mrs. Somerville, was unsuccesful in all his efforts to accomplish this point. The proof of the identity of the magnetic and electric fluids by producing the spark' was incomplete, till it was exhibited by means of this apparatus. Mr. Faraday expressed bimself highly pleased with it, when it was shown to him at Cambridge, and has never manifested aught that is contrary to the kind and generous feelings congenial to his character, and so becoming in the eminent man of science."

A Subscriber, who is obliged, from the nature of his occupation as a brewer, to get up at all hours of the night, complains that his alarum often fails to awaken him, and that he has applied in vain to several watchmakers for some simple and effectual mode of producing more noise than is made by a common alarum. He hopes that some of our readers will be able to suggest a sufficient remedy, and we trust he will not be disappointed. If he should, however, we can refer him to an eminent mechanic, who invented a contrivance by which, when his alarum failed in rousing him of a morning, the bed-clothes were first dragged from his shoulders, and in the event of this failing also to bring him on his feet, a bucket of cold water was emptied upon him.

The Blackfriars-bridge Repairs' Committee have, we understand, resolved to enlarge the roadway to nearly the width of the New London-bridge.

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Communications received from Mr. D. R. Saunders-A-Mr. Routtem-J. P.-Mr. ChevertonMr. Busby-Mr. Mackinnon-P. H.-Mr. Bayley.

The Supplement to Vol. XX., with a Portrait, of William Symington, is now ready, price 6d.; also Vol. XX., complete, in boards, price Ss.

Errata in Mr. Cowell's Papers. Page 42, col. 1, line 39, for "41 additional" read "57 additional." 6 from the bottom, for " clete" read "correlate."

43,

2,

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3, for" required a new bill' read" again cabal."

34, for "and 28 juvenile assistants, total 35 persons," read" and 21 juvenile assistants, total 28 persons.'

LONDON: Published by M. SALMON, at the Mechanics' Magazine Office, No. 6, Peterborough Court, between 135 and 136, Fleet-street. Agent for the American Edition, Mr. O. RICH, 12, Red Lion square. Sold by G. G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, Saint Augustin, Paris.

M. SALMON, Printer, Fleet-street.

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