THE

NORTH BRITISH

NO. XLVII.

REVIEW.

FOR NOVEMBER, 1 8 5 5.

ART. 1.-Owens College. Annual Report | even this, or, say both in different senses, of the PRINCIPAL, read in the Common have become what they are as they stand Hall, at the Meeting for the Distribution related to that INDUSTRIAL GREATNESS of of Prizes, 29th June 1855.

if

BRITAIN, which, with its bone and sinew, and with its Titan force, rises up new every morning from the bowels of the earth. If then we were in search of the final causes of the railway system, as it now covers the land, or of its efficient causes, or of its historic origin-in search of the first, and of the second, and of the third, we must go whither? we must do what? book ourselves at Euston Square for Manchester.

LAY before you, on the right hand, a map of the Geology of the British Islands, and on the left hand Bradshaw's (much needed) illustration of the mysteries of his "Railway Guide." Volumes of thought are suggested by a comparison of the two sheets! Tell us, any can tell us, how many cycles of centuries, or millions of Telluric millenniums have run themselves out to make up the in- In the present grave aspect of European terval of duration which separates those affairs, who shall come forward and assure physical evolutions that are set forth in the us that, ere long, Her Most Gracious Maone sheet, from those engineering operations jesty will not be called by the voice of the that are set forth in the other! Neverthe- British people to fight the world almost sinless, the causal relationship of the one to the gle-handed, in defence of that one spot on other is obvious and unquestionable. So far earth where liberty, political, civil, and relias the ways and works of man are concern-gious, is truly understood and is fully enjoyed, it is a thesis not needing much argument ed? But should such a time come-and to establish it, that those interlacings and may God avert it!-whence will be drawn perplexed crossings which belt the island the funds and material of so mighty a confrom Birkenhead to Grimsby-from Ripon flict? From the sources whence has come to Stafford or Birmingham, are the direct the iron ribbing which Bradshaw's map consequences of those treasures of the mate- brings under the eye. Let the other sources rials of industry which underlay the same of the nation's surplus wealth be reckoned areas, and which our recent geology has at their utmost, it might easily be shewn mapped out. that the share contributed, directly or indirectly, by the manufacturing energies of the manufacturing districts, is large almost beyond computatio...

But, looking beyond this region, there is a true sense in which these wonders of national wealth and of mechanic art, which Bradshaw's map exhibits-netting with iron the Island, from Falmouth to Aberdeen, receive their explication from the geological chart. Grant it that the agricultural wealth of England has contributed its share to this network: Grant it too, that the colon al greatness of England, and that its vast commerce have furnished a large share; yet D-1

VOL. XXIV.

We need not therefore stay to prove that the prosperity of these districts is every Englishman's concern. Though he be a grower of corn in the eastern or southern counties, or a trader in a dull provincial town, far remote from the din of machinery, he may, nevertheless, from time to time, make the anxious inquiry, "How are things

going on at Birmingham, at Sheffield, at | physical result of their peculiar modes of Leeds, at Preston, at Stockport, at Manches- life. This is true to some extent, but no ter ?" The artillery of England's future safe- more than superficially. The races indigety is at this moment either a-making, or it is not a-making in these towns, and in the hundred towns around them; and it is so whatever their line of business may be, whether in iron or in cotton, or in silk, or in wool, or in clay. It can be no impertinence then, on the part of any one who seeks to inform himself concerning these vital interests, or who even ventures to suggest what he thinks might perhaps promote and secure them, and which at present may be wanting.

limbs upon the pelvis-and, not least, his speech bewrays him; his twang, and the ample justice which he does to certain favoured vowels, and to some much loved diphthongs.

nous to this region claim a high antiquity, and their characteristics are manifestly such as must be of a permanent kind. At this present time, and if we are walking the streets and lanes of the principal manufacturing towns, we must of course set off a large percentage of all whom we meet as an alien population, attracted from distant districts by the higher rate of wages which usually, or at certain times, are there to be obtained. On all sides, too, we encounter But it may seem to the reader that man- the people of Scotland, and, alas! abundant ufactures, and that manufacturers might overflowings from the Sister Isle, as well as safely be left to take care of themselves. a mixed multitude always filtering in from Can one push one's way through the sunless the agricultural counties, proximate and restreets of these great towns, or mount from mote. Yet amidst these alloys it is never story to story in the mills, and shops, and dificult to attach the genuine man of the warehouses to the right and left, and then region-the Lancashire man, or the Yorkentertain a doubt as to the energy, or the shire man. His osteology alone would dauntless, untiring, well-skilled determina- mark him; then the set of his muscular tion of the Principals and the subordinates system-his tendency to adipose accumulawhich have been, and which are, the soul of tions-the peculiar hinging of the lower these mighty movements? What need can there be either to stimulate this productive ardour, or to inform it? Is it not firmly resolved, and does it not thoroughly understand its days' work? Is it not eager enough, and bold too, in pursuit of its object? Is it Gentlefolk, inhabitants of the southern, not astute, experienced, and endlessly patient eastern, and south-midland counties, who of toil? All this must be granted, and much seldom if ever visit the manufacturing more to the same purport might be affirmed region, or do so only to rush through it in without exaggeration. Truly it is admirable the "Express," on their way to Scotland or to see with what spirit and courage, with the Lakes, such persons amuse themselves what largeness of view, with what perfection sometimes by talking about the "manufacof method, with what address, with what turing population" in tones of pity, which force, with what niceness, with what power, show strikingly how utterly at fault even with what massiveness and volume, with well-informed people may be concerning what infinitesimal parsimony in the details, broad and obvious facts, a true knowledge with what freedom and nobleness, with what of which might be acquired by a three rigidness and care, the men of these manu- days' sojourn in a region that is not more facturing districts are now working up, and than seven hours distant from their homes. are turning to the best account, those trea- There are, indeed, times of awful stagnasures of fuel and of mineral which were laid tion, and there are also clusters of towns up for their use, and hidden deep beneath and villages devoted to peculiar lines of the soil, at the morning hour of the planeta- business, when and where a manufacturing ry system. population wears the aspect of sad priVery little of the tendency to theorize, vation, of squalor, of extreme wretchedness; or to catch at imaginary relationships, suf- but such times and such spots are excepfices for suggesting the belief that the tional. It should also always be recollected, aboriginal population which occupies the that a dense population will not fail, even at area now in view, strongly marked as it is, the best, to shew its scum, and that it will in its physical and mental characteristics, has a predestinated adaptation to the part assigned to it, as the working force upon this ground. Let those who profess the "Development" philosophy, as applicable to all things, affirm, if they please, that the people have become what they are as the consequence of their occupations, and as the

conceal, until it be searched for, its feculent sediment-the intemperate, the dissolute, the debauched, the blind and the maimed also, and, alas! (it is a grief to say it ever and again) the Irish!

But now let us invite the reader to travel with us a hundred or two miles, and, within the compass of a ten hours' journey, to

visit a scene most picturesque, and thence the overshadowed years of childhood and
to pass to a scene through which sensitive youth through those spasmodic years
nerves and delicate fastidiousness will of manhood during which the strugle to
hurry at double-quick time. Yet not so exist wears an aspect of rugged vigor ;-
fast; let us look about us as we go. Our and then through that residue of early de-
ramble in the first instance is through a crepitude, haggard, bent, idiot-like, which is
country agreeably diversified as to its levels, indeed an unblessed end of an unblessed
and which has its picturesque alternations existence. This rural population does
of arable and pasture, bordered by copses, pretty well if the father be able-bodied and
and intersected by streams and rills, by the sober, and the mother managing, through
side of which the angler delights to spend the summer season of wheat-hoeing, hay-
his meditative hours. A deep-rutted and making, and wheat harvest; that is to say,
tortuous lane, which just now as we write when the labour of the mother and her
is hanging out its charming wreaths of dog- children comes in to swell a little the week-
rose and woodbine, and which hides from ly wage. During these weeks something of
the sun its ferns and foxglove, opens at needed clothing is obtained-rent is paid up,
length upon a common around which cot- and a pittance of animal food, weekly, is
tages peep out from among orchards and added to the bread, and the tea, and the po-
a tall hedgegrowth. Have we not come tato of the seven months' diet. It would
upon a very paradise of rural seclusion? is be doing a wrong to our worthy farmer
it not a spot to be chosen by those who are friends, and to the rural, sporting gentry,
intending to while away existence among to affirm that these miserables are actually
the never-tiring sweets of a country life? dying of want: No; they are not dying,
But let us step on a little way, and over- so as that inquest must be held before they
take the group of children that is just now may be buried: would to God that they
crossing the common. Alas!-yet should were: they are the living: they are living
we not refrain from expressing the sad feel- to show what extremities men, women, and
ings which the first sight of these infant children may endure, and yet not die;-or
shadows has awakened?-feelings height- what they hold to be worse-not betake
ened by contrast; for lately we were mak- themselves to "the Union!" But, how do
ing our way through a fourth-class street, these same men, women, and children, pass
where the prime necessities of life are five months of the year? Gladly would
amply provided for. Besides, if we look a one find them curled round like hedgehogs
second time at these shrunken forms-such and hybernating in hollow trees, or in rab-
is the beneficence of the Creator-we see bit burrows-lost to consciousness!
that childhood will have its smiles, its should, indeed, count it a miracle if, on a
laugh, its gambols, under conditions even May morning, we were to see a group of
the most forlorn. Moreover, there is, not-
withstanding that famished, watery look,
there is, taking the group altogether, there
is an air of pure rusticity, there is an inno-
cence, comparatively, and a modest proprie-
ty-there is a respectfulness in their style Infant cheeks are the true indices of the
and deportment, which is greatly in their well-doing or the ill-doing of a people; for
favour, when thought of in comparison with these cheeks show, not only how the urchin
the bold unreverential sauciness of the in- itself is faring, but how father and mother
fant Herculeses of manufacturing towns. are faring at the present time; and more
But look at these unfortunates the infant than this-how the youth and the maiden
serfs of the neglected rural district! look fared in their several homes, long before
at them physiologically-observe their lank they met at church. In no part of these
colourless hair, screening the sunken eye, islands, or in none which it has been our lot
and trailing upon the bony neck; look at to visit, is there to be seen so large a per-
the hollow cheeks, the candle-like arms, and centage of beautiful children-well developed
the unmuscular shanks which serve the dear-every inch of them, as in those streets of
urchins for legs! But are not these child- Manchester which are inhabited by the
ren breathing a pure atmosphere? are they operatives of that city. Grant it that the
not nature's own? Yes, but there is one faces of these sprawling dumplings are not
thing wanting to them:-One ominous word always, or often, in a kissable condition :
clears up the mystery! Starvation! not in- but they are not, perhaps, much the worse
deed such starvation as brings the sorrows for the sooty marbling of their chubby
of a sad lot to a speedy end; but such as visages, and none the worse in the eye of
drags its pining sufferings out, through the physiologist; - nor would they be (so

We

human beings start up alive from the swad, along with the paigles and the cowslips. But, is it much less than a miracle to see the people of a depressed rural district stepping alive out of the winter months?

we are bold to think) much the better, as to | In aristocratic England, the nobly-born, and health, for a thorough clearing off, twice in the wealthy, noble or not-owing to the the twenty-four hours. It is not the soap much improved domestic habits of these which the nursemaid applies to the outer times, and to the taste for the pleasures of man, in his infancy, that does him good; a country life, and to the usage of incessant but it is the fat and the fibre freely adminis- travelling, enjoy advantages so highly contered, which a healthy stomach so quickly ducive to animal wellbeing as to counterconverts into soap (or something like it,) balance the downward tendency we for replenishing the forces of the inner man speaking of, and to secure for the upper -it is these which indeed work his wel- ranks a bodily development, a breadth, and fare. a beauty of form, which has become the usual characteristic of the English gentleman and the English lady.

are

Amid the annoyances of a walk through these crowded ways, it is with a heartfelt pleasure that one fixes the eye so often upon infant forms, wanting nothing which the painter or the sculptor could desire. A symmetrical set of rotund limbs, neatly stitched up at the joints, although so full between joint and joint; heads of hair rich in colour, and spontaneously curling; complexions (say, if washen) warmly blending the genuine hues of a firm arterial circulation, with a not sluggish venous return; and both well scumbled down, as painters say, with a clear semi-translucent integument. It will not be supposed that we are speaking of more than a percentage of the infant population which is now in our view; -but the proportion is strikingly large; and especially if a comparison be instituted Yet the course of things, as the social with almost any rural population which we system is constituted in this country, brings are acquainted with. Nor is it affirmed up a remedy, and it is a remedy which, to that the symmetry, the rotund proportions, a great extent, balances the physical tendenthe rich colouring of infancy, of the second, cy toward an enfeebled animal condition in third, and fourth year, hold out undamaged the middle classes. Our free institutions through later childhood, and youth, pressed permit, and our energies as a race give upon always by rude influences, and by a effect to, a process which is perpetually too early entrance into mills, dye-works, renovating the middle and exhausted stock and the like. Nevertheless, this manufactur- by intrusions from beneath. Healthier blood ing population reaches maturity in a condi-more of bone-more of muscle-better tion of robustness, far surpassing that ordin- stomachs-better livers-a harder cerebral arily found among agricultural labourers. mass; these things are continually cropThis comparative physical superiority of the population of the manufacturing counties has a bearing of incalculable importance upon the well-being of the community at large, and, in truth, upon the perpetuity of the British position among the nations, as foremost in animal energy. This point deserves a moment's attention, especially as it has a near connexion with our immediate object in this article.

It is chiefly within and throughout the middle classes-or, to borrow a phrase from geology-the "Miocene" of the Social "Formations," that this physical gravitationthis animal subsidence displays itself the most distinctly. Those who have lived long enough to have watched the course of things in industrial families, will often have put to thomselves and to their compeers, the ques tion" How is it that the young people of this present time-youths and maidens-are so often ailing, and are so little able to do and to bear what their parents did;-and are still less able to undergo the labours, or to encounter the hardships, which their grandsires thought little of?"

ping up from under the spent alluvium of the mercantile and the shopkeeping strata. The rising man who marries "above him," or better still, who has married early in his own class, comes forward to do a service to society which was not in his view when he aspired to make a fortune, and to give his children an education.

But from whence are drawn these much needed importations of fresh animal vigour ? Seldom from the country. The instances are extremely rare in which those who were born to the soil, and destined to the plough, rise above their native level. Such instances-two, three, or five-might be hunted up, if an agricultural county were ransacked for the purpose; but the agricultural labourer, even if he had the brain and the ambition requisite, and if otherwise he could effect it, would seldom bring with him that

the status quo in the Muscovite dominions | land, torn from Sweden at the peace, and comprised many arrangements alike iniqui- still Swedish at heart and by affinity; and tous and impolitic, which it was immoral to and finally, Poland annexed and blotted from sanction, and would be criminal actively to the map in defiance of the treaties of 1815. uphold; and which, being the result of recent Thus, if there was an Empire in Europe spoliations, could not plead even the poor whose status quo is indefensible according to excuse of lapse of time or long acquiescence any principle but that of might, that Empire in support of the claim of conquest. The was Russia; and yet we declared our intenstatus quo in Turkey stood upon the ground tion to respect that status quo, and, by so of four centuries of duration; and the impos- doing, deterred Sweden from joining us, and sibility of its continuance was a question Poland from rising to take advantage of the more of to-morrow than of to-day. The sta happy crisis at once to aid us and to serve tus quo in Russia was only from twenty-five herself. By their determination to confine to seventy-five years old; was founded rath- this war within the narrow limits of an arer upon robbery than upon conquest; was rangement instead of suffering it to expand much of it an open defiance of European trea- to the healthier dimensions of a principle, the ties and of public law; and had been the subject allies debarred themselves from all chance of of a series of armed and diplomatic protests ultimate and permanent success: if they perwhich entirely barred any plea of title arising sist in adhering to that determination out of long and peaceable possession. There- which, however, we do not anticipate-the fore, we hold that the original proclamation war had better never have been undertaken. of the allies, "that they had not the slightest To quote again from the "Traveller in intention of altering the territorial bounda- Italy. ries of Russia," was an error in policy and in principle, and a fruitful source of mischief and embarrassment.

"Now, are the measures of our statesmen dictated by any fixed principle which they can assert The reasons which prompted this an- Do they themselves see the way to the desired goal will, if persevered in, lead to ultimate success? nouncement are obvious enough. No doubt -a lasting peace by the path they are treading? they appeared cogent at the time, and they Does any one? I may safely answer No! Their were dictated in part by a generous spirit. policy is but one of temporary expediency, and, It was essential that France and England, neither in the negotiations at Vienna, nor in their embarking in a war against unjust aggres conduct of the war, do they aim at anything besion, should go into the contest with clean yond a local and momentary check to the growth hands, and should guard themselves absoof Russian power. Either their views extend not lutely against the slightest suspicion of seek-lasting peace can only spring from a seed of justo the future, or they do not comprehend that ing their own aggrandizement. It was desi- tice and morality; hence one fatal error pervades rable also to avoid all risk of quarrelling all their measures: They oppose Russia in the over the spoils of war,-and what way of interest of that which is, instead of that which securing this could be so effectual as deciding ought to be. Thus they expend the blood of our that there should be no spoil to quarrel over? brave soldiers, the tears of English mothers, and It was considered indispensable, also, with a the Danaides; and even if our arms be successful the treasures of England, but to fill the sieve of view of obtaining the aid of Austria, to disclaim in the Crimea, and a temporary peace be estaball design of carrying matters against Russia to lished, the real cause of war will be confirmed and an extremity which a fellow-despot might strengthened, and its renewal certain." disapprove as likely to make European liberalism more than a match for European au- Nowhere in Europe are the existing politocracy, if ever the battle should come to be tical and territorial arrangements more utfought out between them. Still, we think terly indefensible or more obviously tran- · few will now hesitate to pronounce this pro-sient than in the Austrian empire; nowhere clamation an unfortunate and injudicious are so many foreign and malcontent elements one; to rejoice that events have exonerated compressed under one abhorred dominion; the allies from all obligation to adhere to it; nowhere have arrangements, so defiant of and to regret that they have not already an- all right, to be forcibly maintained by a sysnounced, as probably they soon will, that tem of government so at war with all moraltheir intentions in this respect have entirely ity; nowhere, over the wide earth, is sentence changed. For what did the "existing terri- of death so clearly and so justly written on the torial arrangements" involve in Russia? status quo. Yet the maintenance of this They embraced, as we have seen, the Trans- very empire, with all its heterogeneous eleCaucasian provinces, lately wrested from ments, and all its hideous anomalies, is rePersia; the Crimea robbed from the Tartars; garded by most veteran statesmen as a EuBessarabia and the mouths of the Danube, ropean necessity-nay, as nearly the most both recent spoilations from Turkey; Fin-limperative and undeniable of all European