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ANNUAL REPORT 


TRANSACTIONS 


OF THE 


PLY MOUTH INSTITUTION 


AND 


Pebvon and Corniwall 


NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 


VOLUME-IV. PART I. 


1869-70. 


PLYMOUTH : 
W. BRENDON AND SON, 26, GEORGE STREET. 
1870. 


ANNUAL REPORT 


OF THE 


Per MOUTH INSTITUTION 


Hevon und Cornwall Satural History Society. 


1869-70, 


Grustees. 


PETER HOLMES, D.D. 
ALFRED ROOKER. 

JOHN NICHOLAS BENNETT. 
CHARLES SPENCE BATH, F.R.S., F.L.S. 
ROBERT OXLAND. 
HAMILTON WHITEFORD. 


OFFICERS OF THE INSTITUTION. 


—— 


SESSION 1866-70. 


—————eaeeeeeeeeeeeeee 


President. 
Mr. C. SPENCE BATE, F.r.s. 


Vice- Presidents. 


Rev. J. ERSKINE RISK, m.a. Rev. J. M. CHARLTON. m.a. 
Mr. A. ROOKER. Dr. WEYMOUTH. 


Crensurers. 


Mr. J. BROOKING ROWH, r.x.s. Mr. A. P. PROWSE. 


Secretaries. 


Rey. F. E. ANTHONY, m.a. Dr. C. ALBERT HINGSTON, z.sc. 


Curators. 


Library—Mr. T. R. A. BRIGGS. Building—Mr. W. GAGE TWEEDY, sua. 
Apparatus—Mr. J. N. HEARDER, rF.c.s. 
Fine Arts—Mr. P. MITCHELL. 
Antiquitiese—Mr. J. HINE, ¥.n.1.3.a. 


Husenm Curators. 


Zoology—Mx. F. H. BALK WILL. Botany—Mnx. I. W. N. KEYS. 
Geology and Mineralogy—Mr. R. OXLAND, v.c.s. 


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LIST OF 


MEMBERS. 


HONORARY MEMBERS. 


Adams, J. C., F.R.A.S. 


Bowring, Sir John, Lu.D., F.R.S., F.L.8., 
Exeter 


Coleridge, Rev. Derwent 

Fox, R. W., F.n.s., Falmouth 
Froude, W., M.a., c.z., Paignton 
Fuge, J. H., Plymouth 


Gibbs, F. W., c.s., 5, Mount-street, 
Grosvenor Square, London 


Lubbock, Sir John, Bart., F.R.s , F.L.s. 
Pinsent, Rev. J., 8. Erth 

Scrivener, Rey. F., 8S. Gerrans 
Tregelles, 8S. P., 1u.pD., Plymouth 
Vivian, Edward, m.a., Torquay 


Wightwick, George, Clifton 
Walker, Capt., R.N. 


LIFE MEMBERS. 


Acland, Sir Thomas Dyke, Bart., Kil- 
lerton 

Alger, J., Australia 

Alger, W. H., Ford Park, Plymouth 


Bartlett, G., Plymouth 


White, James, m.p., London 


CORRESPONDING MEMBERS. 


Bannister, Rev. Jobn, tu.p., St. Day, 
Scorrier 

Barham, C., m.p., Truro 

Blewett, Octavian, London 

Boase, H., m.p. Truro 

Bowerbank, J. 8., LL.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., 
London 


Couch, Jonathan, F.u.s., Polperro 
Harding, Col., Heavitree, Exeter 
Hennah, Rev. W., Isle of Wight 
Henwood, W. J., F.R.s. 


Letheby, Henry, m.z., Ph.p., F.1.8., 
F.C.S. 


Nelson, Major-Gen., R.E. 


Ormerod, G. W., M.A., F.G.8., Brook- 
bank, Teignmouth 


Peach, W., Wick, n.3. 
Pengelly, W., F.R.S., F.G.s., Torquay 


Rodd, E. Hearle, Penzance 
Towson, J. T., Liverpool 
Vicary, W., F.a.s., Exeter 
Welsford, Henry 


vi LIST OF MEMBERS. 


LECTURING MEMBERS. 


Adams, W., jun., Bedford-street 
Anthony, Rev. F. E., M.A., 18, Wood- 
land Terrace 


Bate, C. Spence, F.R.s., 
grave Place 

Balkwill, Francis H., Old Town-street 

Bennett, E. G., Athenzeum-street 

Bennett, J. N., Windsor Villas 

Bishop, R., Whimple-street 

Boswarva, J., Bedford-street 

Briggs, T. R. A., 4, Portland Villas 


F.L.s., Mul- 


Carkeet, J., c.z., 3, S. Andrew’s Place 

Cater, Saml., 31, Headlands North 

Charlton, Rev. J. M., m.a., Western 
College 

Coffin, T. W., 5, Alfred Place 

Colley, J. L., Portland Square 

Collier, Sir R. P., m.p. 

Collier, W. F., Horrabridge 

Collier, R., Eton Place 


Fox, Reynolds, Westbrook 


Harper, T., m.z.c.s., Park-street 

Hearder, J. N., F.c.s., Union-street 

Hine, James, Mulgrave Place 

Hingston, C. Albert, m.v., B. Sc., 3, 
Sussex Terrace 


Jackson, E. 8., m.a., Portland Villas 
Jackson, Geo., Clifton Villa 
Jago, George, Cobourg-street 


Keys, I. W. N., Bedford-street 


Margary, P. J., The Crescent 

Mitchell, P., Bedford Terrace 

Moore, W. F. , Friary 

Morrison, W., M.P., Malham Tarn, 
Leeds, Yorkshire 

Mount Edgcumbe, The Right Hon. the 
Ear! of 


Oxland, R., Compton 
Oxland, W., B.A., 16, S. Devon Place 


Prowse, A. P., Mannamead 


Risk, Rev. J. Erskine, m.a., Princess 
Square 

Rolston, J., M.D., Devonport 

Rooker, Alfred, Mount View 

Rowe, J. Brooking, F.u.s., Lockyer- 
street 

Rowse, 8. W., Princess Square 


Saunders, William, “ Morning News” 
Office 

Shelly, J., Frankfort Chambers 

Spender, E, London 

Symes, Rev. Colmer Boaz, B.A., Clifton 
Place 

Slater, D., m.a., Braidwood Terrace 

Square, W., jun., Portland Square 


Tweedy, W. Gage, B.a., 19, Torrington 
Place 


Weekes, 8., St. James’ Place 
Yabsley, J. W., Old Town-street 


“The property of the Institution, the privileges of voting, electing Members, 
managing the concerns, and enacting laws, are vested exclusively in the Lectur- 


ing Members.” —Law 2. 


ASSOCIATES. 


Adams, J., Bedford-street 


Bellamy, Rev. F., Devonport 

Bayly, J., Brunswick Terrace 

Bayly, Richard, Brunswick Terrace 

Bayly, Robert, Bedford Terrace 

Rennett, W., M.A., Princess Square 

Bignell, George Carter, 8, Clarence 
Place, Stonehouse 

Brent, F., Clarendon Place 

Brendon, W., George-street 


Brown, Henry, North Hill House 


Cawse, Henry, Old Town-street 
Clark, W., 7, Clarendon Place 
Clay, W. H., m.v., 14, The Crescent 


Klitt, 8., Trafalgar House 
Eliott, J., Trafalgar House 


Gibbons, E. Stanley, Treville-street 
Graham, J. M., Westbury Terrace 


LIST OF MEMBERS. Vil 


Associa TEs—continued, 


Goodwin, M., Union-street 


Hicks, F., Windsor Villas 

Holberton, G. R. O., St. Andrew’s 
Terrace 

Holberton, W., St. Andrew’s Terrace 

Hubbard, A., Portland Square 

Hubbard G., 53, Durnford - street, 
Stonehouse 


James, E. 36, Portland Square 
James, W. C., 36, Portland Square 
James, EK. H., 36, Portland Square 


Luscombe, H. A., Clifton Place 


Markwick, William, Mannamead 
Martin, W. F., Windsor Villas 
Mason, J. E., Courtenay-street 
Merrifield, John, Gascoyne Place 
Mitchell, T., Eton Place 

Mills, J. G., Treville-street 


Pridham, George, St. James’ Place 


Radford, Geo., Bedford Street 

Randle, J., Union-street 

Rodda, R., 10, Windsor Terrace 
Rooney, J., Penrose Villas 

Rundle, R., Valletort Villa, Ford Park 


Soltau, G. W., Little Efford 

Square, William, J. m.r.c.s., Portland 
Square 

Stephens, J. W., 2, Portland Villas 

Stephenson, G., Old Town-street 


Thomas, Jenkin, Cornwall-street 
Thorold, E., m.p., Windsor Villas 
Tucker, Samuel, Union-street 


Watt, F., Torrington Place 
Whipple, C., Mulgrave Place 
Williamson, J., Athenzeum-street 
Windeatt, John, Brunswick Terrace 
Winnicott, R. W., Frankfort Street 


Pearse, T., M.D., Flora Place | Woodhouse, H. B. 8., Gibbon Street 


JUNIOR ASSOCIATES. 


Eliott, S., Trafalgar House Norrington, C., jun., Sussex House 


| 


Harris, W. R., Union-strect | Prance, H. P., 12, The Crescent 


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SECRETARIES’ REPORT, 


1869-70. 


Your Secretaries beg to congratulate the Society on the close of 
what has been in all respects a very successful Session. 

The attendance in the hall, including the Conversazione, has 
averaged nearly seventy-one persons on each evening; and the 
debates have been, with few exceptions, well sustained. 


The following is the list of papers read :— 


1869. 
Oct. 7. Inaugural Address : . Tue PRESIDENT. 
» 14. Cavour, the Italian Statesman . . Mr. E. Spenper. 
»» 21. Seo Englisce Sprzec ; : . Mr. D. Starter, m.a. 
,, 28. Political Economy Mr. W. Apams. 
Nov.4. The Flora of Plymouth: ia Perdana 
Colonists, and Aliens ‘ . Mr. T. R. A. Briaes. 
», 11. Common Salt ; ; ; . Mr. G. W. Ormeron, M.A., 
F.G.S. 
, 18. Bases of History: the Materials . Mr. A. Rooker. 
», 25. The Centenary of the Steam Engine . Mr. R. Oxtann, F.c.s. 
Dec. 2. Is it a Fact? ; : Mr. W. PENGELLY, F.R.S. 
» 9. The Bessemer Process of Manufac- 
turing Steel . a . Mr. J. CarKest, C.z. 


» 16. Mesmerism, and its allied seailiaend . Dr. C. A. Hrneston. 


Jan.13. Conversazione 
,, 20. The Art and Science ae of Phote- 


graphy : Mr. T. W. Corrrn. 
,, 27. Degeneration of our Deo Sea Fish- 
eries , : a . Mr. J. N. Hearne, r.c.s. 
Feb. 3. Cornish Names . Rey. J. BANNISTER, LL.D. 
», 10. Recent Applications of the atime 
Analysis : ; . . Mr. R, Bisxop. 
» 17. Our Brains ; : . Mr. W. Savarg, sun. 


», 24. Philosophy versus Materialiem ‘ . Rev. J. M. Cuartton, M.a. 


x SECRETARIES’ REPORT. 


Mar.3. William Cowper: Poet and Letter 


Writer : : . . Mr. E.S. Jackson, m.a. 
», 10. Additional Evidence respecting Marie 
Stuart ; Rev. J. E. Risk, m.a. 


», 17. On an early English Romance of Sir 
Ferumbras, and the Charlemagne 


Romances generally . : . Mr. J. SHELLY. 
» 24. National Education : : . Mr. W. Apams. 
», ol. Pauperism ; 5 : . A. P. Prowse. 


A new feature has been introduced in the arrangements of the 
Session by the publication of a weekly Journal of the Society, 
containing the programme of the lecture for the week, and an 
abstract more or less full of the lecture delivered in the week 
previous: to these have been added notices of any occurrence in 
science, art, archeology, natural history, &c. which seemed worthy 
of record. 

It was hoped that the Journal would have been more largely 
used by members for this latter purpose than has been the case: 
failing such a use of it, it becomes a question how far the expense 
of continuing the Journal is met by any adequate result. 

At the anniversary meeting, held on the Ist of May, short 
papers were read before the Society as follows :— 


By Mr. T. R. Archer Briggs—On some Plants discovered in the neigh- 
bourhood. 

By Mr. Spence Bate, r.z.s.—On some of the Antiquities of Dartmoor. 

By Mr. A. P. Prowse—On Railway Facts and Statistics, 

By Dr. C, A. Hingston—On the Relation of Temperature to the Health of 
Plymouth. 


The Conversazione was held on January 13th, and was most 
successful, both in the number present and the interest excited. 
Portraits of local worthies formed an interesting feature in the 
decorations of the hall, and included amongst other the following : 
—The late Mr. D. Derry, Mr. Jacobson, Mr. T. Woollcombe, Mr. 
C. Trelawny, Dr. Butter, Mr. 8. Cook. Music, both vocal and 
instrumental, was added to the engagements of the evening, which 
were varied by the exhibition of microscopic objects through a 
powerful oxyhydrogen microscope. 

In August last the British Association held their meeting at 
Exeter. One day was given to excursions to Plymouth and Devon- 
port and the neighbourhood; but beyond the personal attendance of 
many of the members your Institution was not identified with 


SECRETARIES’ REPORT. Xl 


their visit. It was regarded as a very successful day by all who 
took part in it. 

The Obituary of the year includes the death of one of your 
members, who for many years has been connected with the Society. 
Mr. J. Boswarva, at an advanced age, died somewhat suddenly in 
November last. He was for some years one of the Museum curators, 
making the study of the marine alge his special pursuit. 

The acknowledgments of the Society are due to the Librarian 
for untiring and most valuable service in the library during the 
past year. This will be most clearly shown by his own report, 
which is as follows :— 


‘During the past year the shelves in the Library have been 
cleaned, all the books dusted and re-arranged, and many serials and 
other works bound. 

‘‘The Librarian has prepared a new catalogue, which is now in 
the printer’s hands; so he expects to be soon able to distribute 
copies among the members, whose approval he hopes it will meet 
with. 

‘<The Society are much indebted to the Royal Institution of 
Cornwall, the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, the Literary and 
Philosophical Society of Manchester, the Literary and Philosophical 
Society of Liverpool, and the Royal Dublin Society, for having, on 
the application of the Librarian, most generously given numerous 
back numbers of their respective ‘Transactions’ or ‘ Reports’ 
towards completing sets for the library. 

‘‘They have to thank the British Association for their Report 
for 1868 and 1869; the Smithsonian Institution for theirs for 1867, 
and also for a copy of Part I. of Binney and Bland’s Land and 
Fresh Water Shells of North America; the Royal University of 
Norway for several scientific pamphlets; the Geological Society 
for their Quarterly Journal for 1869; the Royal Geological Socicty 
of Ireland for portions of their Journal; the Natural History 
Society of Northumberland and Durham for the first part of vol. 
iii. of their Transactions; and the Devonshire Association for 
their volume for 1869. 

‘‘The Librarian suggests the desirability of establishing a cor- 
respondence with a larger number of scientific and literary societies, 
and so securing their respective publications for the Library. Those 
of the Geological Society of Cornwall would be a valuable addition 
to the geological division. 


xii SECRETARIES’ REPORT. 


‘‘Three corresponding or honorary members—Dr. Bannister, 
Mr. Hearle Rodd, and Mr. Wareing Ormerod—have shown the 
interest they feel for the Society by kindly presenting to the 
library a copy of their respective works—‘ A Glossary of Cornish 
Names;’ ‘A List of British Birds, as a Guide to the Ornithology of 
Cornwall ;’ and ‘A Classified Index to the Quarterly Journal of 
the Geological Society.’ 

‘“‘A zealous naturalist of the north of England, Mr. George 
Tate, has kindly given a copy of his work on the ‘Geology, Botany, 
and Zoology of the Neighbourhood of Alnwick ;’ and the Rev. F. 
E. Anthony, m.a., has presented Part II. of Roscoe’s edition of 
Kirchoff’s ‘ Researches on the Solar Spectrum.’ 

‘‘Mr. Spence Bate, Mr. Hearder, and Mr. F. H. Balkwill, have 
severally shown their regard for the Institution by giving the 
botanical portion of the ‘Journal of the Linnean Society,’ the 
‘South Devon Monthly Museum,’ and a work on the ‘Comparative 
Anatomy of the Teeth.’ 

‘‘There have been purchased during the past year ‘Jeffrey’s 
Conchology’ (vol. 5, to complete a set), ‘Darwin’s Plants and 
Animals under Domestication,’ 2 vols., ‘Owen’s Comparative 
Anatomy’ (vol. 3, to complete a set), ‘Dr. Masters’s Vegetable 
Teratology’ (the volume of the Ray. Society for 1869), and 
‘ Hosack’s Mary Stuart and her Accusers.’ 

‘‘The Librarian regrets to say, that his endeavours to recover 
missing volumes have not been so successful as he could wish, as 
the following list of books that are s¢z// missing will show :— 


American Journal of Science, vols. 39, 40 (1865). 
Aristotle’s History of Animals. 

Bellamy’s Natural History of South Devon. 

British Association Reports for 1844, 1848, 1851, 1852. 
Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, vol. 2. 
Chevreul on Colour. ; 
Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 3 and 7 of Supp. 
Farrar on the Origin of Language. 

Heyne’s Homer, vol. 1. 

La Place’s Théorie des Probabilities. 

Lindley’s Botany. 

Linnean Society Transactions, vol. 9. 

Magazine and Annals of Natural History, vol. 16, second series. 
Rig Veda. 

Reed’s Chemistry. 

Schelister’s History of Music. 


SECRETARIES’ REPORT. Xi 


Singer’s Electricity. 

Theories of History. 

Welsford on the English Language. 
Welsford's Mithridates. 

Zoological Record, vol. 3. 

Zoological Society’s Proceedings for 1855. 


‘‘ He is sorry to say that a work of great local interest, entitled 
‘A Picture of Plymouth,’ of the date 1812, recently disappeared 
from the library; and as there is no entry respecting it in the book 
on the table, he is obliged to consider this also a missing volume. 

‘‘The only serial that has been added during the past year to 
those previously subscribed for is ‘‘ Nature’”’—one devoted to 
science.” 

‘‘Some of the volumes in the library have been injured by 
damp, and the Librarian hopes that before next winter some prac- 
tically scientific member will devise a means for at least occasionally 


heating the room during that season. 


‘“T R. ArgcHer Brices. 
“April 8th, 1870.” 


In the Natural History Department one of your associates, 
Mr. G. C. Bignell, has continued his kind offices in arranging the 
specimens of entomology in the Museum. 

The Rev. J. Bannister, tu.p., Vicar of St. Day, Cornwall, and 
author of a valuable Glossary of ‘‘Cornish Names,”’ has been elected 
corresponding member of the Institution during the year. 

The best thanks of the Society are due to Mr. E. Lane for the 
gift of a very handsome and valuable portrait of the late Mr. 
Jacobson. As the portrait of one of our own members, and painted 
by a local artist, such a gift is both appropriate and acceptable to 
the Plymouth Insticution. 

(Signed) 
FREDERIC E. ANTHONY, 


Hon. Sxcs. 
C. ALBERT HINGSTON, — 


April 14th, 1870. 


TREASURERS’ REPORT. 


1869-70. 


Presented at the Annual Meeting April 14th, 1870. 


Tue Treasurers of the Plymouth Institution and Devon and Corn- 
wall Natural History Society herewith present the Balance Sheet 
for the year ending March, 1870. 


The total amount received for subscriptions is £102 18s., as 
against £107 2s. last year, and the same sum in 1868. The 
rental for the past year amounts to £51 19s., as against £67 4s. 
in 1868-69. In consequence of the alterations in the law the 
Treasurers have received notice of the intention of the Court of 
Bankruptcy to terminate the existing tenancy. The expenditure 
has been on the whole much the same as in previous years. It 
must be borne in mind that the expenditure exceeds the income. 
Many bills, some not yet delivered and others sent in recently, will 
have to be paid out of the balance in hand. 


(Stqgned,) 
J. BROOKING ROWE, 


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TRANSACTIONS 


OF THE 


Per voOuUTa INSTITUTION 


Hevon and Cornwall Satucal History Society. 


1869-70, 


2 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


The Council by no means wish it to be understood that the 
printing of the abstracts will preclude them from publishing in 
full papers read before the Society that may be thought to possess 
sufficient merit or local interest. 


Although at first the Journal, on account of the expense of 
publication, is necessarily small, yet should it be found to answer 
the expectations of the Council, it may be increased so as to 
contain a report of the discussions that take place at the meetings 
of the Society, and be the means of scientific communication 
between the members and others interested in Science, Literature, 
and Art. 


PRESIDENTS ADDRESS 


AT THE OPENING OF THE SESSION 1869-70. 


ABSTRACT. 


Tue President drew attention to the recent meeting of the British 
Association at Exeter, and more especially to those papers that 
were read at the meeting which bore any relation to Devon and 
Cornwall. He remarked that the experience of the meeting de- 
monstrated that the great landmarks of science were obtainable 
through the study and minute investigation of the common things 
that are met with, of which the life history is unknown to us. 

He noticed the papers of Mr. Godwin-Austin, on ‘‘ The Devonian 
Group, considered Geologically and Geographically;” Mr. David- 
son’s, on ‘‘The Brachiopoda of Budleigh Salterton;”? Mr. Orme- 
rod’s ‘‘ Discovery of Scapolite in Devonshire;’”? Mr. Peacock’s 
memoir, on ‘‘ The Wastage and Probable Destruction of the Warren 
or Natural Embankment of the River Exe;’? Mr. Peach’s notice 
of the ‘Discovery of Organic Remains in the Rocks between Nare 
Head and Porthalla Cove, Cornwall.” 

The President noticed at greater length Mr. Richard Edmonds’s 
communication on ‘‘ Extraordinary Agitations of the Sea,’ and 


PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 3 


stated that the object of the paper was to show that the progressive 
wave riding inland is no evidence of a submarine earthquake, as 
stated by many, or at least but a secondary instead of a primary 
evidence, and is itself dependent on the magnitude of the preceding 
efflux, which in its turn is dependent on the violence and duration 
of the subaqueous shock occasioning it. 

The President also drew attention to the statements that had 
recently been published, that the Great Gulf Stream was by no 
means the important oceanic current that has been generally sup- 
posed, but these, he thought, must be tested by fresh and carefully 
made observations before they can be accepted as correct, although, 
no doubt, much has been attributed to the influence of the Gulf 
Stream that is dependent upon other causes. 

He also drew attention to the interesting results obtained by Dr. 
Carpenter’s and Professor Wyville Thompson’s deep sea dredgings. 
These have been successfully carried on at 2400 fathoms—a depth 
equal to the height of Mont Blanc—a varied fauna is found to 
exist, but its character is influenced by the reduction of the 
temperature to that of Arctic coldness. They moreover show that 
at this time there is going on a submarine chalk formation. 

Mr. Pengelly read a paper on the ‘‘ Clays in the Bovey Basin ;” 
and also on the ‘‘ Vertebre of a Whale washed up at Babbicombe,”’ 
which Dr. Gray has pronounced to be unlike those of any living 
whale, but resemble those of a skeleton found in Sweden by 
Professor Lilljeborg. Dr. Gray has named it Eschrichtius robustus. 
(Lillj.) 

Mr. Etheridge described the bed of Terra Cotta Clay near Tor- 
quay; Mr. Whitley communicated a paper on the ‘‘ Distribution 
of shattered Flint Flakes in Devon and Cornwall;’’ and Mr. 
Townshend Hall gave a paper on ‘‘The Method of Forming Flint 
Flakes used by the early inhabitants of Devon and Cornwall.” 

Mr. Frank Buckland, in his paper on ‘‘The Salmon Rivers of 
Devon and Cornwall,” stated that the entrance of fish into rivers 
depends upon the rapidity of the rise of the river to the colder 
altitudes, the fish preferring those rivers that have a low ascent, and 
avoiding those that have a too rapid slope in the outgoing stream. 

The President then drew attention to the scientific work done at 
the Devonshire Association this last year at Dartmouth. He noticed 
at some length the president’s (Mr. Bidder’s) address on Rivers. 
He also noticed especially Mr. Parfitt’s researches on ‘‘Spontaneous 


4 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


generation,”’ which subject, he thought, will be yet more fully dis- 
cussed in England, as it has been for some years on the Continent. 

He next noticed the Report of the Explorers of Kent’s Cavern 
at Torquay, where this last year a flint flake had been found 
associated with the teeth of the Cave Bear, in a position that demon- 
strated that the flint was much anterior to the period in which the 
Cave Lion and Mammoth were living, thus carrying back the an- 
tiquity of man in England to a date far earlier than geologists had 
previously thought probable. 

After drawing attention to Mr. Phillips’s memoir, on ‘‘The Feasi- 
bility and Advisability of Holding Industrial and Art Exhibitions 
at the Annual Meetings of the Devonshire Association,’ the 
President concluded with a short notice of the removal by death of 
two of the oldest members of the Institution—Mr. Charles Prideaux 
and Dr. Cookworthy,—and of the departure of Dr. Weymouth 
from the neighbourhood. 


A Paper will be read on October 14th on 
COUNT CAVOUR: THE ITALIAN STATESMAN. 
By Mr. Epwarp SprEenpDER. 


Communicated by Mr. A. P. Prowse. 


PROGRAMME. 


Contrast between Cavour and Pitt—Ancestry and Early Years of 
Cavour—A Page at the Court of Charles Albert—Falls into the 
disfavour of the King—Throws up the Army in disgust. Youthful 
ambition and anticipation of fame—Young Italy—The Revolution 
of 1830: Cavour’s disappointment—Travels through Europe and 
to England—A Man of Fashion and Pleasure—A Country Gentle- 
man—A Writer—The Revolution of 1848: the Disaster of Novara 
Election to the Sardinian Parliament, and entrance into official 
life—The Russian War and the Sardinian Contingent—The Orsini 
Plot—The Plombiéres Interview—The Campaign of 1859—The 
Treaty of Villafranca: Cavour’s disgust—The Political Chess- 
board: Cavour v. Napoleon—Annexation of the Duchies—Garibaldi 
__ Annexation of the Two Sicilies—Illness—‘‘ A Free Church in a 
Free State ””—Death. 


COUNT CAVOUR. o 


COUNT CAVOUR. 
ABSTRACT OF MR. SPENDER’S PAPER. 


Tue writer commenced by pointing out that the Revolutionary fire 
of 1848 broke out first in Italy; but while it led to the downfall 
of the French Monarchy, and the abdication of the Austrian Em- 
peror, it left Italy more enslaved than before. History has been 
called the biography of great men: Italian history was for many 
years the biography of Cavour and Garibaldi. The two men, so dif- 
ferent in both character and circumstances, worked towards the same 
end, though in different ways. Garibaldi’s career is known to most 
of us. No satisfactory life of Cavour has been published. Those 
whose theory it is that ‘“‘the child is father of the man,” would 
have found in Cavour’s early years little indication of his career. 
At the age when Pitt was Prime Minister, the first Prime Minister 
of a united Italy was unknown. And yet how different were the 
ends of these two statesmen! Cavour’s death-bed was over- 
shadowed by a cloud of glory; Pitt’s, by a cloud of terrible 
calamity. Cavour could look upon his work, if not as finished, at 
least as well advanced. Pitt sank beneath the bitter stroke of an 
overwhelming defeat. The bloodless capture of Naples was almost 
the last event of Cavour’s life; the bloody rout of Austerlitz was 
the event which broke the heart of Pitt. 

Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, was born at Turin, July 14th, 
1810. His family was antient and distinguished. At three years 
old he was described by his mother as ‘‘a good, romping boy, 
stout, obstreperous, and always ready for play.” As a school-boy 
he was popular, although by that time he had begun to show his 
love for books, and rarely joined in school sports. He studied for 
the Engineers, and passed the examinations with such credit, that 
he obtained a Lieutenant’s commission at sixteen, four years before 
the usual age. He seemed to have a distinguished military career 
before him. But an imprudent remark, expressing sympathy with 
the French Revolution of 1830, offended King Charles Albert, and 
led to a sort of honourable banishment to a fortress in the Val 
d’ Aosta. Disgusted, he threw up his commission, and for ten 
years travelled in Europe and England. At twenty-four he wrote 
to a friend: ‘‘I am enormously ambitious; and when I am 


6 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


Minister, I shall justify my ambition. In my dreams I see myself 
already Minister of the Kingdom of Italy.’? This was a remark- 
able anticipation, seeing that at this time Italy was ‘‘only a geogra- 
phical expression.”” It shewed, too, that Cavour’s predilections 
were for a political career. He never allowed his enthusiasm to 
lead him into any of the dangerous political conspiracies which 
were so rife at that time. Mazzini was then seducing the most 
ardent young patriots; but he could not seduce Cavour, who, as he 
said, loved the juste milieu. During the years that he waited for 
better times he was a man of pleasure. But not only this. He 
became an agriculturist, and spent much time and money in culti- 
vating a large farm. Though little fond of the pen, he wrote on 
political subjects; and among others, the condition of Ireland, and 
Free Trade. He took enlightened views of both matters. At the 
end of 1847 he helped to start a Liberal paper—the Rzsorgemento. 
A few weeks later came the time for action. A new thing was 
seen in the land—a reforming Pope; and the Italians were nearly 
mad with joy and passionate expectation. Then came the darken- 
ing of all their hopes at Novara, where Charles Albert was hope- 
lessly defeated, and abdicated. Cavour did not despair. 


By this time Cavour had become known as a politician, and 
during the next five years he filled almost every important minis- 
terial office. The Russian war gave him the opportunity which he 
needed for ‘‘making”’ Italy. He felt certain that the Western 
Powers would win, and he was equally certain that if the little 
kingdom of Sardinia would but throw in her lot with England and 
France she would then be able to get the Italian ‘‘ question” 
recognised. It was with the greatest difficulty that he could per- 
suade Sardinian politicians or the king to incur the pecuniary 
burden involved by sending an expedition to the Crimea. But he 
succeeded, and the victory of Tchernaya rewarded his efforts, and 
laid the foundation of the Italian kingdom. 

It was not immediately after the Peace of Paris, however, that 
he was able to turn the victory to account. Lord Palmerston gave 
him the cold shoulder, because he supported France rather than 
England at the Congress. It needed the Orsini conspiracy to force 
Napoleon into action. That took place in January, 1858. In July 
of that year there occurred the celebratcd interview, at Plombiéres, 
between the French Emperor and the Sardinian minister which led 
to the war of 1859. The programme of the war was ‘‘ Italy free 


/ y 
SEO ENGLISCE SPRZEC. 7 


from the Alps to the Adriatic.’”’” Napoleon stopped short with it 
only half completed. Thenceforward Cavour determined to work 
alone; thenceforward Italy became a chess-board on which Napoleon 
and Cavour played against each other. Napoleon won Savoy and 
Nice, but Cavour won the Duchies, the Legations, and the Sicilies. 
He hoped to win Rome also; but another player stepped in and 
took possession of the board. That player was Death. Cavour 
was worn out by the protracted struggle and the terrible anxiety. 
On May 29th, 1861, he returned home from the Chambers, after a 
stormy debate, weary and out of sorts. Typhoid fever set in, and, 
in accordance with the barbarous medicine of the country, he was 
repeatedly bled. He gradually sank, amid the distress and lamen- 
tation of all Turin. His last thoughts were for the country, in 
whose behalf he sacrificed his life, no less than if he had died on 
the battle-field. His last words were to the friar who attended 
him, ‘‘ Brother, brother, a free church in a free state.” Fit epitaph 
for the man who uttered them, and who had endeavoured to the 
utmost to realise them. 


A Paper will be read on October 21st on 


SEO ENGLISCE SPRAKC. 
By Mr. D. Starter, m.a. 


PROGRAMME. 

On the propriety of the term Anglo-Saxon. The name by which 
the language was first known according to Grimm, Sed Englisce 
Sprdec.—The relations of the Anglo-Saxon to the other languages 
of the Indo-European family.—The ancient Germans: testimony 
of Cesar and Tacitus.—Bishop Ulfilas and the Meeso-Gothic Trans- 
lation of the Scriptures: the Skeireins.—Fall of the Western 
Empire: the Invasions of Britain.—Divisions of the Gothic stock 
of languages: general view of Ancient Gothic Literature.— 
Characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon Language: details.—Com- 
parison of Anglo-Saxon and Modern English: the grammatical 
categories of the words in a period determined by their relative 
positions, the true characteristic of English as distinguished from 
Saxon.—Anglo-Saxon Dialects: the West-Saxon, the Northum- 
brian, the Mercian.—Importance of the study of Anglo-Saxon. 


8 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


LOCUSTS IN PLYMOUTH. 


PrymoutH has been visited during the last few days by a flight of 
Locusts (dipoda migratoria). 

Under the general name of the Migratory Locust would seem to 
be included more than one species. Whether our present visitants 
are the true @. migratoria or not I cannot just now state con- 
fidently, but I believe them to be so. All that I have seen are of 
the same species; some individuals, however, being much darker 
in colour than others. 

One I have alive now which was caught in Frankfort Street, 
Plymouth, on Saturday last. It is very active, although it has 
suffered an enforced fast since its capture. 

It is to be hoped that the Corporation of Plymouth will never 
be called upon to pay large sums of money for the destruction of 
Locusts, as some Continental cities have from time to time been 
obliged to do. Marseilles one year paid 20,000 francs, and Arles 
25,000 francs, for dead Locusts, at the rate of a quarter of a franc 
per killogramme. If so a special department will have to be 
created, with accommodation in the new Guildhall. I venture to 
say that none of the competing architects have made provision for 
such a state of things. A board in the entrance-hall might run 
thus—‘‘ Locust Destruction Offices to the left.” 

J. Brooxine Rowe. 


A NORMAN DOORWAY IN PLYMOUTH. 


Tue curator of antiquities, Mr. Hine, has called the attention of 
the society to a small but interesting Norman doorway in the St. 
Andrew’s Alms-houses now being pulled down. It has been known 
to a few local antiquaries for some time, but until now there has 
been some uncertainty as to its genuine Norman character, it being 
well known that builders at the period when the alms-houses were 
erected (the 17th century) not uncommonly imitated, though in a 
coarse manner, the earlier styles; but the doorway having been 
denuded of its many coats of lime and plaster is found to be an 
unquestionable specimen of late Norman construction. It has a 


A NORMAN DOORWAY IN PLYMOUTH. 9 


round arch with a bold roll moulding and an enrichment of the 
tooth ornament well carved and undercut, which is continued down 
the jambs on either side. There were small attached pillars and 
capitals to the jambs; but it is evident, from the former being now 
at the base of the masonry, that the doorway was taken from some 
other place (probably an ancient religious house in the immediate 
locality), and worked into these alms-houses of the seventeenth 
century. 


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This doorway is probably the oldest existing architectural frag- 
ment in Plymouth, and belongs to the earliest period of the town’s 
history, when Sutton or South Town was an appendage to the 
monastery of St. Augustine at Plympton, which was founded in 
1121. Amongst the remains at Plympton is a Norman arch of about 
this date; the Plymouth doorway here described was probably 
erected between forty and fifty years later. It is of freestone ; 
and it is a curious fact that the Norman and Early English masons 
appear never to have used granite in their buildings. 

c 


10 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


This interesting piece of ancient masonry has been kindly placed 
at the disposal of the curator by Mr. Price, builder (who bought 
the old materials of the alms-houses), and will be re-erected in 
the garden at the back of the Atheneum. 


A Paper will be read on the 28th October 


ON POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
By Mr. W. Apams. 


PROGRAMME. 
Poxittcat Economy, the Science which investigates the laws regu- 
lating the production and distribution of Wealth.— Wealth, what- 
ever men need and desire to enable them to attain their object in 
life, and which therefore has exchange value.—Three requisites of 
production: natural agents, labour, and abstinence.— Function 
of Capital to make Abstinence possible.—Distribution of Wealth 
between the Contributors to its production.—Theory of Rent.— 
Effect of increase of Wealth on number of Population.—Result 
to a Nation of an exclusive desire for Wealth.—Need and advan- 
tage of the study of the Science at present. 


SEO ENGLISCE SPRAKC. 
ABSTRACT OF MR. SLATER’S PAPER. 


Some have taken exception to the use of the term ‘‘ Anglo-Saxon,”’ 
to designate that form of the English language which was spoken 
before the Norman conquest, on the ground that our ancestors 
called themselves and their language ‘‘ English,” and their country 
‘England.’ The lecturer was of opinion that the difference 
between Anglo-Saxon and English is too essential to allow of 
their being called by a common name. ‘‘Sed Englisce Sprdec”’ 
was the original name, meaning ‘‘ The English Speech.” (Grimm, 
Deutsche Grammatik. ) 

The Anglo-Saxon is a member of a family of languages spoken 
in Europe and Western Asia, whose genealogical relation was first 
seen by Friedrich von Schlegel, who gave them the simple name 


y f 
SEO ENGLISCE SPRAC. ll 


of ‘‘Indo-Germanic,”’ afterwards altered to ‘‘ Indo-European ”’ to 
include the Celtic stock. Max Miiller and M. Pictet propose to 
call them “‘ Aryan” (from a Sanskrit root, applied to the ploughing 
of the ground), believing that it was originally applied to them- 
selves by the remote ancestors of the Indo-European family. The 
Gothic stock of this family, to which the Anglo-Saxon belongs, is 
characterized by the want of any verbal tenses, except for the 
present and the past, and the co-existence of a weak and a strong 
order of inflexion. 

Very little is known of the barbarians of Western Europe before 
the time of Julius Cesar. The natives of Gaul, though brave, 
bowed their neck to the Roman yoke, and ultimately adopted the 
language of their conquerors, importing into it some of their 
vocabulary, and infusing into it still more of their spirit. To the 
east of the Rhine dwelt a far different race, destined to play a 
more conspicuous part in the annals of human history. In Cesar’s 
Commentaries we ever and anon catch glimpses of the fierce and 
terrible tribes of Germany, who seem throughout his campaigns to 
hover in the distance like a dark thunder-cloud. When the Roman 
army found they were going to be led against these tribes, the 
fierceness of whose glance no eye could endure, a panic spread 
through the entire camp. While the whole of the ‘‘ Germania” of 
Tacitus is valuable, the lecturer referred specially to the thirty- 
seventh chapter as a remarkable tribute of the Roman historian to 
their indomitable valour and martial spirit. 

The Mceso-Gothic is of great philological importance, as being 
the earliest specimen of any Teutonic language. In it we have a 
translation of considerable portions of the New Testament and 
fragments of the Old, together with portions of an explanation of 
the Gospel of St. John under the name of ‘Skeireins” (Gothic 
Skeirjan, to interpret or make clear). All these we probably owe 
to Ulfilas, or Wulfila (Gothic Wulfs, a wolf), an Arian Bishop of 
the Visigoths (318-388, 4.p.). Mceso-Gothic is considered by 
some to be, like Anglo-Saxon, of the Low-German type, and it is 
casy to find expressions in it very similar to the English; e¢.g., ‘I 
am the door,” ‘“‘Ik im thata daur.”” (H. G. Thiir.) 

In the fourth century after the Christian era, the vast fabric of 
the Western Empire, of which Livy had said, ‘‘ Eo creverit, ut 
jam magnitudine laboret sua,” was falling to decay, and the blow, 
like the rough soldier of Clovis, who shattered in pieces the pre- 


12 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


cious vase at Soissons, came from Germany. One new year’s eve 
the Rhine was crossed by a vast heterogeneous host, who took 
permanent possession of Gaul, and parcelled it out among them- 
selves and their kindred tribes who had preceded them. Not half 
a century later, this island began to fall a prey to a series of 
invasions from the northern shores of Germany, which changed 
Roman Britain into Saxon England. The lecturer maintained that 
the accounts of these invasions, as given by Gildas, Bede, and the 
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, were on the whole to be relied on, and 
protested against their straightforward accounts being confounded 
with the fabulous tales published by Geoffrey of Monmouth from 
his wonderful ‘‘ book written in the British tongue.” 

As the languages of the Celtic stock are divided into two 
branches—(i) the British or Cambrian, and (ii) the Gaelic or 
Erse—so the Gothic are divided into (i) the German proper or 
Teutonic, including the Mceso-Gothic, the High German, and the 
Low German,—embracing Anglo-Saxon and modern English, old 
Saxon (now extinct), Friesian, Platt Deutsch, &c.,—and (ii) the 
Scandinavian, including the Icelandic, Feroic, Swedish, and Danish. 
The Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, who invaded Britain, belonged to 
the Low German division. The Saxons are first mentioned by 
Ptolemy, who places them in Holstein, and the islands of Nord- 
strand, Fohr, and Silt; but they gradually became the head of a 
powerful confederacy, including the Friesians. The Angles are 
first named by Tacitus among certain tribes of the Suevi, and 
Ptolemy, some time after, places them on the banks of the Elbe 
near the Lower Saale, and therefore in the neighbourhood of High 
German races. They subsequently migrated to Angeln, and came 
in contact with Scandinavians, both which facts are important. 
The affinities of the Jutes are obscure. 

The lecturer then passed in rapid review the ancient Gothic 
literature, observing, with reference to the Nibelungen Lied, that 
one celebrated legend of heathen times had left its traces in both 
Germanic and Scandinavian literature,—that of Sigfried the Dragon 
Slayer, who forged his mighty sword in the depths of the primeval 
forest. This saga was borne to Iceland, where it still preserves its 
old mythic shape. It was not, therefore, borrowed by the Ice- 
landers from the Germans, nor by the Germans from the Icelanders, 
but should be regarded as the joint production of these twin sisters 
of the Aryan family. The debt that philology owes to Chris- 


/ / 
SEO ENGLISCE SPRC. 138 


tianity was illustrated by a reference to the old Saxon poem, ‘‘ The 
Heliand,”’ as well as to Otfried’s ‘‘ Krist.”’ 

The Anglo-Saxon language, containing High German, Scandi- 
navian, Celtic, and even Slavonic elements, is less precise and 
uniform than either the Mceso-Gothic or the Icelandic; yet it 
belongs, on the whole, to the Low German division. It differs 
from English both in respect of its vocabulary and its grammar. 
In the first place, its vocabulary is more homogeneous than that of 
modern English. This may be illustrated by a reference to the 
Anglo-Saxon Gospels, where we find ‘scribe”’ is translated 
‘‘hocere ;” ‘“‘centurion,” ‘“‘hundred-man ;”’ ‘disciple,’ ‘‘leorning- 
eniht ;”” and soon. In respect to its grammar, the Anglo-Saxon 
is more inflexional than English, having three genders and four 
cases; so that while the English word ‘‘ good”’ has only one form, 
the corresponding Anglo-Saxon adjective ‘‘god”’ had ten. The 
verb, too, had many inflexions that are now lost. Special attention 
was called to the existence of an ablative first discovered by 
Grimm, as in thy (the), the Latin eo, as well as in hwy (why). 

After reading a few quotations illustrative of Anglo-Saxon litera- 
ture from Beowulf, Cedmon, and King Alfred’s translation of 
Orosius, the lecturer called attention to the three (so-called) Anglo- 
Saxon dialects—the West Saxon, the Northumbrian, and the 
Mercian. It is in the West Saxon, which may be called the 
classical form of the language, that the great body of Anglo-Saxon 
literature has come down to us. The Northumbrian division once 
had an extensive and flourishing literature of its own; but only a 
few fragments have escaped the general wreck produced by foreign 
invasion. It is characterized by the form of the definite article, 
and the omission of —n both in the plural of nouns and the infini- 
tive of verbs. Of the Mercian forms of speech in a definite and 
certain form very little is known. 

The lecturer observed with satisfaction a general tendency in 
the present day to revive obsolete Anglo-Saxon and old English 
elements, as likely to enrich our vocabulary, and especially to add 
melody to verse. The fourteenth century saw the introduction of 
a large number of foreign words from the French, and the sixteenth 
from the Latin; the nineteenth enjoys the honour of having re- 
cognized the superior force and fitness of a Saxon phraseology as a 
medium of literary effort. 


14 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
ABSTRACT OF MR. W. ADAMS’S PAPER. 


Tue object of the lecture was to afford a clear and concise view of 
the nature and subjects of the science of Political Economy, and 
to direct attention to the benefit and importance of its study. 

Political Economy is the science which investigates the facts 
relating to the production and distribution of wealth, that is, of 
things which are capable of exchange, or have exchange value, in 
a given state of knowledge of the physical facts which affect this 
production and distribution, such investigation being for the pur- 
pose of ascertaining the laws regulating such facts. 

Whatever may be a man’s aim or tendency in life, he has certain 
material needs which must be supplied in order that he may attain 
any success, and which he will, of course, try to supply as easily 
and conveniently as possible. This is the source of the laws of 
Political Economy. In all except the very simplest modes of life 
we find that men adopt a division of labour. Instead of every 
man providing for his own wants, a system of commerce is estab- 
lished, men taking up different branches of industry, and supplying 
each other’s wants by exchange. All things which are capable of 
supplying some of the desires of members of the community, and 
are therefore exchangeable, are articles of wealth. Being the 
result of an essential need of mankind, wealth has a true position 
in the normal condition of society, and Political Economy shows 
that in such normal condition, when all men fulfil their true work, 
society naturally assumes an harmonious organization for the supply 
of the articles of wealth required. It is the primary object of 
the science to ascertain the normal function of wealth, and of the 
laws regulating its production and distribution; but it is also 
within its province to consider the confusions introduced into 
society by the abnormal use of wealth, and to trace them to their 
particular sources. It is, however, strictly a science, not an art. 
It does not teach what remedies are best to cure the evils it can 
detect. It is an investigation of facts, showing which are due to 
health and which to ailment, what conditions are necessary for 
the former, and what have been the causes of the latter. 


POLITICAL ECONOMY. 15 


The production of wealth involves three requisites: natural 
agents, labour, and abstinence. Men are dependent for their power 
of producing anything on their ability to avail themselves of the 
powers of nature. Any natural object which is capable of afford- 
ing a man a suitable basis for his efforts is termed a natural agent. 
It may have exchange value or not; that is determined by its 
being either limited in supply and monopolized, or readily acces- 
sible. In order that a man may utilize the advantages presented 
by the natural agent, he must exert his bodily and mental facul- 
ties; and then, that he may accomplish his work, he must abstain 
from the consumption of the result of the labour expended until 
the desired product is brought to completion. In order to be able 
to wait until he has finished his product, a man evidently needs to 
be furnished with some of the fruits of previous production to 
supply his wants in life. Often also, to bring his work to com- 
pletion, he will need the labour of other men, and the use of 
various articles to aid the labour employed. ‘To provide these he 
will require the possession of articles of wealth which will enable 
him to obtain them. These fruits of previous production, or articles 
of wealth employed in the production of wealth, are called capital. 


There are two main laws relating to production. Ist. That 
where there is an increase in the production of any article, such 
increase, so far as it is dependent on natural agents limited in 
supply, will be produced necessarily at a greater proportionate cost. 
2nd. That so far as such increase is dependent on labour, it will 
have a tendency to lessen the proportionate cost of such produce. 
We may therefore state as rules—1st. That additional labour when 
employed in agriculture is less efficient in proportion than that 
previously applied, and therefore, although an increased demand 
may be met, it will be at an increased proportionate cost. 2nd. 
That additional labour when employed in manufactures is more 
efficient in proportion than that previously applied, and therefore 
that an increased demand for manufactured articles tends to lower 
the cost of their production. 

The other branch of the science investigates the distribution of 
wealth, in other words, shows what portion of the produce is 
naturally payable respectively for the three requisites for its pro- 
duction ; that is, what is due to the owner of the natural agent, if 
an article of wealth, for rent, what to the labourers for wages, and 
what to the capitalist for profit. The portion payable as rent is the 


16 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


difference between the value of the produce and the cost of pro- 
duction. Therefore anything which tends to lessen or increase the 
value of production tends to lower or raise rents, as the case may 
be. Thus improvements in agriculture, by rendering land more 
productive, tend to lower rents; and improvements on land have 
the same effect. On the other hand an increase of population, by 
increasing the demand for agricultural produce, raises rents. 

An increase in wealth has no effect on the increase of that class 
of people who have no position in society which they wish to 
maintain. The increase of these is only checked by what are 
called positive checks, such as sickness and hardship. The increase 
of all others, however, is limited by what is called the preventive 
check, which keeps them from increasing beyond the means of 
maintaining their mode of life. Up to this limit, however, they 
will increase. Therefore, if an increase of wealth is regarded as a 
good in itself, its benefit will soon disappear before a corresponding 
increase of needs; and it is only when wealth is regarded by a 
nation as the means for the attainment of high ends in life that an 
increase of it can be of any lasting advantage. 


A Paper will be read on the 4th November on 
THE FLORA OF PLYMOUTH: 


ITS DENIZENS, COLONISTS, AND ALIENS. 


By Mr. T. R. Arncuer Briees. 


PROGRAMME. 
Dirricurries of Phyto-Geography.—Influence of Man on the 
Vegetation of the World.—Explanation of the terms Denizens, 
Colonists, and Aliens.—Purposes for which several Denizens might 
have been introduced.—Old Popular Names of Plants.—The 
Monks as Introducers of Plants.—Popular Names sometimes illus- 
trative of the History of Species.—Grounds for considering a 
Species a Denizen examined.—Particulars respecting Trees, appa- 
rently of the Denizen Class.—Importance of the subject to His- 
torical Painters.—Critical Remarks on the Origin of some of our 
Fruit Trees.—Particulars respecting various Herbaceous Denizens, 
introduced for Food or Domestic Purposes; for Medicine; for 
Ornament.—Vitality of Seeds.—Colonists.—General Remarks on 
Plants of this Class:—Ways in which they have been introduced.— 
Aliens. —The Mistletoe, &c.—Conclusion. 


THE FLORA OF PLYMOUTH. 17 


Tat FLORA; OF PLYMOUTH: 


ITS DENIZENS, COLONISTS, AND ALIENS. 


ABSTRACT OF MR. ARCHER BRIGGS’S PAPER. 


Tuts Lecture may be considered as an attempt towards supplying 
an answer to such a query as the following: Which plants of the 
existing Flora of Plymouth must we reject when questions relating 
solely to aboriginal species are under our consideration ? 

The lecturer commenced by observing that a thoughtful student 
of nature often finds mysteries where a superficial or careless 
observer would suppose that there were none. The Phyto -geogra- 
pher—who studies the distribution of plants over the earth’s sur- 
face, examines and enquires into their respective distribution— 
has, however, to confess that his science, like that of the geologist, 
has problems which he cannot solve; that why this plant is here, 
that there, is sometimes a mystery, as differences of surface, soil, 
and climate, three most powerful influences in controlling vege- 
tation, do not always supply a reason. Moreover, in some quarters 
of the world he has to encounter the difficulty of having to duly 
estimate the extent to which man’s influence has gone to control 
the range of certain species. He sces the lord of creation, especially 
when in a civilized state, selecting and propagating such plants as 
he finds necessary to his well-being, either from their furnishing 
food for himself or for the domestic animals with which he sur- 
rounds his dwelling: cherishing, indeed, all those species that in 
any way contribute to his enjoyments or his pleasures. The 
productions of his own country are not sufficient to satisfy his . 
desires; for, when there are not insurmountable obstacles, he, to 
satisfy them, transports certain species from one part of the world 
to another. Then, to carry out his plans the more fully, it becomes 
his aim to reduce in number, or even extirpate, such others as 
would interfere with the growth or due development of the fa- 
voured ones. Nor is it only directly that he exercises an influence 
on the vegetation of the world; but ¢ndirectly, and often uncon- 
sciously, he has done, and is still doing, much to control or alter 
the range of certain plants. The words Denizens, Colonists, and 
Aliens entering as they do into the title of this paper, suggested 

D 


18 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


the preceding remarks, and it is hoped that their bearing on what 
follows will be clear. 

The following explanation of these three terms, together with 
that of “Natives” (which is added that it might be contrasted 
with the others), is taken from a work by one of our greatest 
British botanists, Hewett Cottrell Watson : 


‘1st. A Native. Apparently an aboriginal British species; 
there being little or no reason for supposing it to have been first 
introduced into this island by human agency. 

‘©9nd. A Denizen. At present maintaining its habitats as if a 
native species, without the direct aid of man, but liable to some 
suspicion of having been originally introduced by human agency, 
whether by design or accident. 

‘¢ 3rd. A Colonist. A weed of cultivated land, by road-sides, or 
about houses, and seldom found except where the ground has been 
adapted for its production and continuance by the operations of 
man. 

‘‘d4th. Alien species are those certainly, or very probably, of 
foreign origin.” 


With regard to many species it is extremely difficult to ascertain 
whether they ought to be considered Natives or placed with the 
Denizens or Colonists; hence occasion is given for nice observation 
or critical remark. 

Among the purposes for which our ancestors may be supposed to 
have introduced various plants belonging to the denizen class are 
for use as food for man or beast, for medicine, or for ornament. 
In pursuing researches in this direction, the old popular names of 
certain plants sometimes assist the student by referring to the 
purposes to which the species bearing them were severally applied. 
We know that in the Middle Ages the monks cultivated simples, 
and the denizens that now cling to the walls of many monastic 
ruins, or thrive best among their crumbling remains, are witnesses 
of their practice of the healing art, and of the care they took to 
provide medicines for the members of their fraternities and such 
rustics as lived near their sanctuaries. Members of religious orders 
who went on pilgrimage to other parts of Europe, or the more 
distant Holy Land, might bring back with them roots or seeds of 
foreign plants. 

The fact of a species being always found about dwellings, or in 


THE FLORA OF PLYMOUTH. 19 


spots where there is good reason to suppose houses have stood, 
would, notwithstanding its propagating itself readily in such places, 
be a sufficient argument for placing it in the category of denizens. 
Supposing all remains of a house had been obliterated, the presence 
of two or three such species in one locality would lead a judicious 
botanist to conclude at once that they mark the site of an old 
garden, or had been introduced in some way. Should they be 
plants that are still objects of cultivation, or historical evidence 
show them to have been this, the case would be still stronger 
against their being considered indigenous. When, too, a species is 
found only sparingly a great distance beyond the bounds of its 
general range, its occurrence, as a native, where it so sparingly 
appears would be held to be very improbable geographically, unless 
the spot afforded peculiar physical features adapted to its require- 
ments, not possessed by the intervening country. 

The love of flowers seems natural to man. We see the child in 
the nurse’s arms trying to get into its baby grasp every bright 
flower it sees near it. It will pull them to pieces certainly, but it 
is its regard for them that makes it do so; a curiosity, we may well 
believe, to know as much about them as its dawning intellect will 
enable it to discover—consequently, it is not surprising to find the 
cultivation of flowers, as objects of beauty, prevailing in various 
parts and at different ages of the world. 

Among the denizens apparently introduced for their uses (ex- 
cluding medicinal, superstitious, or ornamental ones) are several 
forest and fruit trees, two or three fruit bushes, and some potherbs. 

Questions as to the indigenous character, or period of introduction 
of our trees must, it is imagined, be of great importance to his- 
torical painters in cases where they have to introduce scenery into 
their works. 

It is extremely difficult to assign a position to several fruit trees— 
whether to regard them as the originals of cultivated species, or to 
consider them as the degenerated produce of these — individuals 
reverting to a natural condition from a cessation of man’s care. 

Among the herbaceous denizens introduced either for food, 
or for domestic, medicinal, or ornamental purposes, the lecturer 
placed Saponaria officinalis, L.; Smyrnium Olusatrum, L.; Cheno- 
podium Bonus-Henricus, L.; Helleborus viridis, L.; Chelidonium 
mayus, L.; Althea officinalis, L.; Agopodium Podagraria, L.; 
Sambucus Hbulus, L.; some Menthe; Narcissus biflorus, Curt., &c. 


20 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


The fact that the class of Colonists consists of species that are 
weeds of cultivated land, and so are seldom found except when the 
ground has been adapted for their production and continuance by 
the operations of man, makes a British botanist regard such species 
as strangers; for, when there was no cultivation and the entire 
land was wood, heath, or undrained marsh, scarcely a suitable 
habitat for a single plant of this category could have been afforded 
by the whole country. Thus he is driven to conclude that com- 
merce introduced them, and that agriculture has fostered them ; 
and these opinions are confirmed by the fact that the first appear- 
ance and subsequent naturalization of several species of the same 
character are on record; moreover, many at present are becoming 
naturalized. He knows too, how species settled in this country are 
constantly being conveyed into some of its colonies. A large 
number of this class were doubtless introduced with grain, and 
seeds of other kinds. Cattle may have brought others in their 
wool or hair, as well as in other ways. Papaver Rheas, Fumaria 
officinalis, and Alopecurus agrestis will serve as examples of colonist 
species. 

Among the Aliens, or certainly introduced species, of the Ply- 
mouth Flora are Koniga maritima, Br.; Gnothera odorata, Jacq. ; 
Gnaphalium margaritaceum, L.; Polemonium ceruleum, L.; Scrophu- 
laria vernalis, L.; Mimulus luteus, L., species grown for ornament. 
Medicago sativa, L.; Trifolium hybridum, L.; Trifolium incarnatum, 
L., plants cultivated for fodder. Carum Carm, L.; Petroselinum 
sativum, Hoffm.; Melissa officinalis, L., employed in domestic 
economy. Lepidium Draba, L.; Barkhausia taraxacifolia, D.C.; 
Barkhausia setosa, D.C.; Crepis biennis, L.; Veronica Buxbauma, 
Ten., apparently accidentally introduced, or unintentionally sown. 

The lecturer placed Viscum album (the Mistletoe) with the 
Aliens, as he considered it had been introduced into the Plymouth 
Flora through a mistake, and that it does not exist in the neigh- 
bourhood, except where originally planted. 

At the conclusion of his lecture, he asked those present to take 
into consideration the very difficult nature of his subject, before 
they criticised his paper. 


A paper will be read on the 11th November on 
COMMON SALT. 
By Mr. G. W. OrmeERop, M.A., F.G.8. 


COMMON SALT. 91 


A paper will be read on the 18th November on 
BASES OF HISTORY—THE MATERIALS. 


By Mr. Rooxer. 


PROGRAMME. 

Hayine spoken in the previous lecture of the Authenticity of Early 
History as derived from contemporary testimony under different 
forms, it is reserved for the present lecture that we should consider 
the sources from which historical testimony is derived; as from 
tradition ; from pictorial representation ; from inscriptions, whether 
mural or monumental, or from coins and medals; from treaties and 
state papers; from statutes and codes of law; from private 
biography and the speeches and letters of public men, and from 
more formal historical records: the gradual construction of history ; 
its development and perfection. 


COMMON SALT. 


ABSTRACT OF MR. G. WAREING ORMEROD’S PAPER. 


’ is procured for the most 


Tuts mineral, ‘‘the Chloride of Sodium,’ 
part from fossil or rock salt, mineral springs, or the evaporation of 
sea water. The use of salt in connexion with sacrifices by the 
Jews, the Greeks, and Romans, and its symbolical applications, 
were noticed. The amount of salt consumed by each person, the 
necessity of using it by human beings, (with certain exceptional 
cases, ) the great importance of the mineral to the agriculturist, and 
the fondness of many animals for it, were then mentioned. The 
manner in which salt was placed on the tables in former days 
occupied the next part of the paper. The duty on salt in France, 
England, and India; the abolition of the duty in 1825; the cost 
of salt in England from 1314 to 1727, and the produce of the 
Cheshire works, were then referred to. The next portion of the 
paper contained descriptions of the localities in the Continent of 
Europe, in Asia, Africa, and America, where salt was procured. 
As there was not sufficient time to allow of these being read, the 
names of the places were shown on diagrams, and the author pro- 
ceeded to a more extended account of the salt of England. This, 


22 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


it was stated, was found as brine or salt springs in the silurian rocks 
of Cumberland and Radnorshire, and in the carboniferous and triassic 
rocks of Northumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Cheshire, Leicester- 
shire, and Worcestershire; as rock or fossil salt in Cheshire, Wor- 
cestershire, and Durham; and was procured by evaporation of sea 
water at Salines, as at Lymington. The author then gave an his- 
torical sketch of the rise and progress of the salt trade, commencing 
at the time of the Confessor, and particularly noticing the discovery 
of the rock salt at Northwich in 1670, and the subsequent exten- 
sion of the trade. The geological position in Cheshire, and some of 
the physical results arising from the extensive workings, were then 
mentioned, and the paper concluded with an account of the manner 
in which the salt was manufactured at the salt works in Cheshire, 
and at the Salines. 


A Paper will be read on the 25th November on 
THE CENTENARY OF THE STEAM ENGINE. 


By Mr. R. Oxtanp, F.¢.s. 


PROGRAMME. 

Earty History of Steam Power.—Different methods of using 
steam previous to the production of the Steam Engine by James 
Watt in 1769.—Description of Watt’s Low Pressure, High Pres- 
sure, and Locomotive Engines.—The principal Improvements 
introduced since the time of Watt.—The purposes for which the 
Steam Engine has been employed.—Effects already produced 
thereby and probabilities of the future. 


THE BASES OF HISTORY. THE MATERIALS. 


ABSTRACT OF MR. ROOKER’S LECTURE. 


Tus lecture, on the Materials available for the construction of 
History, was supplementary to previous lectures on the Bases of 
History, in which the lecturer, having considered early legendary 
traditions, —the myths of history, and its doubtful or insoluble 
facts, —the enigmas of history,—had endeavoured to show that 
history, as being the relation of political events in their order of 
succession, is distinct from the past conditions of social life—from 


THE BASES OF HISTORY. THE MATERIALS. 23 


isolated facts which have no historical continuity—or from evidence 


that only establishes the existence of national or political asso- 
ciation; and having traced the controversy which, originating in 
the seventeenth century, has been continued to the present time, 
as to the authenticity of early history, and pointed out the disturb- 
ing causes that affected historical testimony, and the distinction 
that exists between judicial and historical evidence, he sought to 
indicate the legitimate limits of historical testimony. 

The previous treatment of the subject led the lecturer in the 
present lecture to consider more fully the sources from which 
historical testimony is derived; in a word, the materials of history. 
Dealing principally with the secondary and less direct sources of 
information, he referred to tradition, on which alone but little 
reliance could be placed, but gaining value when tradition is 
accompanied by continued observances, illustrating this by refer- 
ence to sacred rites, or to popular commemorative festivals, and to 
several instances in connection with English history. He then 
referred to early pictorial representation, independently of writing, 
such as the Mexican picture writing (if authentic), the pictorial, 
hieroglyphic, and the Bayeux tapestry. Then to pictured or sym- 
bolic writing, as the Egyptian Hieroglyphics in the pure Hiero- 
glyphic, the Phonetic, the Hieratic, or the Demotic forms. He 
pointed out the difficulty which arises with reference to these early 
historical signs from unacquaintance with the character in which 
they are presented, or the language they express, as in the Arrow- 
headed writing at Nineveh, and the old Etruscan Alphabet The 
evidence derived from mural and numismatic inscriptions was con- 
sidered, and its value as well as its limitations. Then the evidence 
afforded by statutory enactment and legal decisions as illustrated 
from several sources, but particularly by reference to the historical 
facts indicated in several of the early English Statutes. Treaties and 
State Papers were regarded as sources of history, but these in general 
are comparatively of late date, and as to the latter subject to 
destruction, and often burdensome from their fulness. The lecturer 
traced the history of the English Records and their publication, 
and further illustrated the subject by describing the repository of 
Spanish state papers at Simancas, and their recent investigation, 
in aid of English history. He further showed that history is 
illustrated by private biography, and the public acts of individuals, 
and by reference to general unhistorical literature; but that the 


24 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


foundation of history must necessarily depend on the facts origin- 
ally collected by annalists and chronologers, and which have been 
subsequently arranged and compared with other evidence by the 
historian. The lecturer concluded with a reference to the special 
ends and objects of history. 


A Paper will be read on 2nd December entitled 


IS IT A FACT? 


By Mr. W. PENGELLY, F.R.S. ETC. 


PROGRAMME. 

Necessity for verification.— Russian scandal.—Is it a fact that 
flint implements are manufactured at Westward Ho, and sold to 
Museums at a great price ?—that there is a subterranean passage 
from Kent’s Hole, Torquay, to the County of Kent ?—that the 
Fellows of the Anthropological Society believe in the Ape-origin 
of man ?—that Marazion is the oldest town in Cornwall, and was 
named by Jews shipwrecked there from the fleets of Hiram and 
Solomon ?—that human skulls have been found zz the Devonshire 
limestones — that toads and frogs have been found alive in solid 
rocks ?—that newspaper reports are trustworthy ?—that Florence 
of Worcester stated that St. Michel’s Mount, in Cornwall, was 
once in a wood six miles from the sea?—that Carew was the 
earliest writer who mentioned the supposed Cornish name of the 
Mount ?—that a silicified basket of eggs had been found forty 
feet deep in solid chalk?—that the name ‘‘ Robert Hedges” is 
inscribed on the Stalagmite in Kent’s Hole ?—that the concurrent 
and independent testimony of credible witnesses must be taken 
as conclusive evidence ?—that the scrapings of Irish books are an 
antidote to the poisonous bite of serpents?—that the Bernicle 
Goose is developed from the Duck Barnacle ?—that current stories 
and anecdotes are trustworthy?—that the public ultimately 
disbelieve the continued cry of ‘‘ Wolf’’? 


CENTENARY OF THE STEAM ENGINE. 25 


CENTENARY OF THE STEAM ENGINE. 


ABSTRACT OF MR. R. OXLAND’S LECTURE. 


Tae year 1769 was noteworthy for the births of the two greatest 
soldiers of modern times, but much more so for the publication of 
the improvements of the Steam Engine by James Watt, and of 
Arkwright’s Patent for the Spinning Jenny. 

The present year will be memorable for the accomplishment of 
two very important enterprises—the Great Pacific Railway, tra- 
versing the continent of North America—opening a daily route 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and the opening last week 
of the great ship canal, uniting the Mediterranean and Red Seas, 
and reducing the voyage to the East Indies to one-half of the time 
hitherto required. 

As the Steam Engine has been the great agent in producing 
these results, a sketch of its history during the past hundred years 
has been made the subject of this paper. 

As early as 124 3.c., Hero invented an engine in which motion 
was produced by the elastic force of steam issuing from the ex- 
tremities of radial arms fixed on an axis. 

In 1629, Branca caused a wheel to rotate by the force of a 
jet of steam striking on vanes fixed on its periphery. 

In 1663, the Marquis of Worcester described the receiving of 
water into a close vessel, and then forcing it up to a higher level 
by steam conveyed into the vessel from a separate boiler. 

In 1698, Savery describes the use of steam for producing a 
vacuum in such a manner that the pressure of the atmosphere 
would lift it about 20 feet, and then by the further admission 
of steam on the surface of the water, it would drive it up to a 
height of about 40 feet, making a total elevation of 60 feet. This 
was the first practical application of steam power. 

Newcomen and Cawley are said to have obtained a patent in 
1707 for the use of steam in a cylinder, with a moveable piston 
attached by a rod to the vibrating beam of a pump, for lifting 
water out of mines. 

The steam was used for the production of a vacuum, so that the 
atmospheric pressure on the piston at the top of the cylinder made 
the piston descend, and with it the end of the beam to which it 

E 


26 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


was attached, thus causing the lifting of water in the pump. This 
was not a steam, but an atmospheric engine. 

James Watt’s attention was directed to the Steam Engine, by 
having to repair a model of it for the University of Glasgow. 

In 1769 he obtained his first patent, and in the specification he 
describes the principles involved. In another patent, dated 1782, 
the perfect Steam Engine was described. From that date, the use 
of the Steam Engine for mining purposes rapidly increased. 

In 1808, Fulton in America applied the Steam Engine to the 
purposes of inland navigation. Bell, in 1812, was the first to 
introduce steam navigation in Great Britain on the Clyde. 

Coasting vessels soon followed. In 1824, the Sir Francis Drake 
commenced running from Plymouth to Portsmouth and the Channel 
Islands. In 1837, ocean steamers began to run regularly between 
Great Britain and the United States. Now there are two lines of 
steamers to the East Indies and China starting in opposite direc- 
tions, making regular voyages round the world. 

The Steam Engine for locomotives, first employed 1825, has 
now been extended to every quarter of the globe; and by the aid 
which it has afforded in the production of materials and in the 
provision of means of action, has enabled railways to be carried 
over and under rivers, over and through mountains, until even the 
crossing of the sea is become a project for serious consideration. 
The application of the Steam Engine in the working of iron and 
other metals, in the manufacture of cotton and wool, of paper and 
for printing, for agricultural operations, and for many other pur- 
poses were glanced at. 

The feasibility of great improvements was suggested by the 
fact, that although a pound of coal is capable of producing power 
sufficient to lift ten million pounds a foot high, as yet the highest 
duty accomplished has not exceeded one and a quarter millions. 

Some of the possibilities of the future suggested: Deeper 
mining for minerals with improved engines; the improvement of 
the ventilation of mines, and the certain prevention of colliery 
explosions ; locomotives for tramways and common roads; improve- 
ment of health and enrichment of the soil by sewage utilization : 
but in order to the utilization of the power at hand in the Steam 
Engine, there must be greatly extended education throughout all 
classes of the population. 


Is IT A FACT? 27 


IS IT A FACT? 


ABSTRACT OF MR. PENGELLY’S PAPER. 


Tue author commenced by remarking that ‘‘ Every one who has 
had occasion to verify a statement, or has watched the progress of 
a story as it passes from one person to another, must have had his 
faith shaken in much that passes as history, and have felt himself 
drifting more or less rapidly towards that state which asks re- 
specting, at least, very many a statement, ‘Is it a Fact ?’” 

Having recommended the game of ‘‘ Russian Scandal” to those 
who wished to cultivate the verifying spirit, he proceeded to notice 
discrepancies and untruths arising from subjectiveness, partizanship, 
untruthfulness in ‘‘small things,’’ a tendency to ‘“‘improve’”’ or 
““complete’’ narratives, a habit of bolstering up favourite but 
slenderly-supported hypotheses, a tendency to generalize from in- 
sufficient or ill-understood data, the introduction of the trading 
instead of the scientific spirit, newspaper reports of technical 
questions, the inconclusiveness of ‘‘legal evidence,” and untrust- 
worthy current opinions and beliefs. 

The several positions were illustrated and enforced by instances 
which had occurred within the author’s experience and reading, 
the latter including the works of Bede, Florence and William of 
Worcester, Carew, Camden, Boece, Gerard, and others. 


A Paper will be read on December 9th, on 


BESSEMER PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING STEEL. 


By Mr. J. Carkext, c.2. 


PROGRAMME. 


Inrropuction — Popular idea of the Bessemer process — Early 
methods of producing Steel—Patented processes of Mushet, Krupp, 
and others—Decarburization by blowing atmospheric Air through 
molten Pig Iron, commonly known as the Bessemer process— 
Description of the Apparatus—Manufacture of Bessemer Steel 
Rails, Engine and Carriage Tyres, Crank Axles, &c., &c.—The 
Siemens-Martin process—Conclusion. 


28 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


Obituary. 


Ir is with regret that we have to record the death of one of the 
oldest members of our Society. Mr. Boswarva was elected a 
member of the Natural History Society in 1842, and in the amal- 
gamation which took place between it and the Plymouth Insti- 
tution, he joined the latter as a lecturing member. In the early 
years of his membership, Mr. Boswarva occasionally lectured on 
his favourite subject, the Marine Algx, of which he was a diligent 
student. 

The Report for the years 1861-2 contains from his industry, ‘‘A 
Catalogue of the Marine Alge of Plymouth,” arranged according 
to Harvey’s ‘‘ Manual of British Algze and Phycologia Britannica,” 
which has been of considerable service to the students of that de- 
partment of Botanical science. The zeal and attachment that he 
always exhibited to his favourite branch of natural history affords 
an example that most of us might follow with advantage. 

Mr. Boswarva was until recently a constant attendant at the 
lectures of the Society, and occasionally took part in its discussions. 
He appeared to be in excellent health and spirits up to Tuesday, 
Nov. 30th, when some friends spent the evening with him. Soon 
after retiring to rest he was taken ill and died, at the ripe age of 
about 80 years. 

In a Society like ours, where the numbers are limited and most 
of us familiarly known to each other, the loss of one who has been 
for many years so constantly amongst us must necessarily be a 
source of deep sorrow. 


AN INSTANCE OF THE MOUNTAIN ASH 
(Pyrus Aucuparia, Gaertn.) 
PRODUCING TWO SETS OF LEAVES AND BLOSSOMS 
IN ONE YEAR. 


As the drought of last summer was remarkable, we need not be 
surprised at seeing unusual effects, as regards vegetation, among 
‘ its results. To it, I believe, is owing the fact that a large Moun- 
tain Ash (P. Aucuparia) growing in the piece of ground within 
Portland Square, Plymouth, is now (Nov. 20) fully decked with 
young leaves and several dozen cymes of blossoms—the second lot 


BESSEMER PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING STEEL. 29 


of both yielded by the tree within nine months. At quite the 
other end of this plot, a large Laburnum seems to be following 
the example of the Pyrus, for it is now arraying itself in a mantle 
of green. It is not unusual for some species of spring-flowering 
deciduous shrubs to push out a few poorly-developed leaves, or 
even a bunch or two of flowers, in autumn (though among the 
number I have never noticed the Mountain Ash), especially after 
a dry summer; but for a species to bear a full set of either at this 
season is a sufficiently unusual circumstance to warrant special 
mention. I believe both the shrubs to be in an unhealthy state, 
and think it likely that the extraordinary effort that produced 
these second leaves, and in the case of the Mountain Ash flowers 
also, will be most prejudicial to them. Doubtless the drought of 
last summer acted on them, from their being unhealthy, to a much 
greater extent than it did on their stronger neighbours, which have 
already shed all their leafy honours; and hence, when rain followed 
the drought, a reaction took place within their prematurely-denuded 
branches, the result of which is the present unseasonable verdure 
and bloom. 


T. R. Arcner Bratiaas. 
November 20th, 1869. 


BESSEMER PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING STEEL. 
ABSTRACT OF MR. J. CARKEET'S PAPER. 


Tux popular idea of the Bessemer process is simply the production 
of cast steel by blowing atmospheric air into fluid cast iron. This 
definition is, however, far too limited, and by no means comprechends 
the whole scope and principle of that invention. In order, there- 
fore, to ascertain its true extent, and to understand how widely it 
differs in other respects from all previously known processes, it 
will be necessary to carry our thoughts back to a period prior to 
Mr. Bessemer’s invention, and to keep in view one important fact; 
viz., that in all known modes of producing steel throughout the 
world, prior to Bessemer’s invention, there was a necessity for 
employing a powerful furnace for the purpose of increasing and 
continuing the heat of the metal by the combustion of coal, coke, 
or charcoal, from the commencement to the termination of the 
process. 


30 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


The following short abstract from the paper read before the 
British Association will show how completely Mr. Bessemer was 
aware of the true principle involved in his process, even at that 
early period of the invention. Speaking of the results of the 
various furnaces he had used for his early experiments, he says :— 
‘¢These results all tended to confirm an entirely new view of the 
subject, which at that time forced itself on my attention; viz., 
that I could produce a much more intense heat, without any 
furnace or fuel, than could be obtained by either of the modifications 
I had used; and, consequently, that I should not only avoid the 
injurious action of mineral fuel on the iron under operation, but 
that I should at the same time avoid the expense of the fuel.” 

Mr. Bessemer does not confine himself in his patents to the 
use of atmospheric air, but shows that oxygen gas may be used in 
leu thereof, or a mixture of oxygen with other gaseous fluids; or 
he employs any gaseous fluid or matter, containing or capable of 
evolving oxygen, for the purposes of his invention; but he prefers 
atmospheric air on account of its cheapness and efficiency. Nor 
need we wonder at this preference, when we remember that about 
one-fifth of the whole atmosphere is pure oxygen gas, which abounds 
everywhere on the earth’s surface, and is the common property of 
all mankind in quantities unlimited and free of all taxation, and 
can be obtained at the required pressure with the necessary ap- 
paratus at much less expense and inconvenience than that of 
separating oxygen from nitrates or other costly materials, which 
must first be purchased, carted, and stored at a much higher cost 
than the mere forcing of atmospheric air. 

Only the best Hematite irons, as a rule, such as West Cumber- 
land, Whitehaven, Barrow, and others, can be used for this process, 
as only carbon and silicon get burnt out by the passage of air 
through the molten metal, and when these are out the oxygen 
attacks the iron itself in preference to either the sulphur or phos- 
phorus, and thus in analysis we find that the percentage of sulphur 
and phosphorus is slightly higher—very slightly—in the steel than 
in the pig iron before the blast has been passed through it. 

The principle, therefore, on which the invention is based, as has 
been already stated, is the passing upwards of atmospheric air or 
oxygen gas through the fluid mass above that alone makes it suc- 
cessful. It is not simply an improvement or alteration in the 
details of a previously known and established mode of making 


MESMERISM AND ITS ALLIED CONDITIONS. 31 


east steel; on the contrary, the Bessemer process stands alone on a 
basis of its own, conspicuous alike for its extreme simplicity, its 
rapidity of action, and for the immense quantities it is capable of 
dealing with at a single charge. . 


A Paper will be read on December 16th, on 
MESMERISM AND ITS ALLIED CONDITIONS. 


By Dr. C. AtBert HinesTon. 


PROGRAMME. 

SomnamButism —Its relationship to dreams—Causes of its occurrence 
—Cases illustrating the phenomena produced by it—Explanation 
of their nature—Double consciousness a form of somnambulism— 
Illustrative cases—Relationship of somnambulism to mesmerism— 
Record of cases traced back through some centuries—Cause of its 
study during the early part of this century—The methods employed 
for its production—The character of those susceptible to its action 
—Phenomena occurring under its influence— Attention, faith, 
imitation, imagination, and hysteria, considered in connection with 
mesmerism— Reichenbach’s Odyle theory considered—The true 
nature of mesmerism, and the dangers involved in its frequent 
application. 


MESMERISM AND ITS ALLIED CONDITIONS. 


ABSTRACT OF DR. C. ALBERT HINGSTON’S PAPER. 


Tus lecture was a continuation of that delivered last year on 
“Sleep and Dreams.” After directing attention to the various 
phenomena occurring during sleep, the lecturer described somnam- 
bulism as a kind of incomplete sleep; consciousness and memory 
being asleep, whilst the power of muscular movements, and one 
or more of the senses, were not only awake, but developed to a 
degree which appears almost miraculous to the somnambulist when 
conscious. When somnambulism is associated with or actuated 
by dreams, the dreamin is remembered, but the actions excited by it 
are forgotten, or remembered merely, not as real actions, but as 
part of the dream. 

When the somnambulistic condition is prolonged beyond those 


32 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


hours usually allotted to sleep, and when there is a direct transition 
from the one condition to the other without an intermediate sleep, 
two separate existences appear to alternate, and this is spoken of 
as double consciousness. The term is, however, misapplied, inas- 
much as only one of these existences is a natural one, the other 
being due to a morbid condition capable of removal. 


The passage from the consideration of natural somnambulism to 
artificial somnambulism or mesmerism was shown to be a natural 
one, seeing that the chief distinction between the two lies in the 
mode of their production. Mesmerism had been known during 
many centuries, but was first scientifically studied during the 
latter part of the last century, and the early part of this. Any 
means by which the attention could he strongly attracted was 
proved to. be capable of producing the mesmeric condition, various 
manipulations, known as passes, being those most commonly and 
most easily applied. Those who possess high nervous suscepti- 
bilities were shown to be most readily mesmerized, whilst it was 
unpossible to reduce many of strong will and character to that 
condition. The various phenomena produced by mesmerism were 
divided into three stages; first, the soothing stage, in which gentle 
sleep is produced; secondly, the noisy or talkative stage; thirdly, 
that of complete insensibility. The close accordance between 
these results and those produced by chloroform was noticed. The 
second or talkative stage presented certain peculiarities worthy of 
consideration; namely, the extraordinary exaltation of some of 
the senses, and particularly the muscular sense. This latter was 
so highly exalted in many cases, that mere arrangement of the 
muscles would excite corresponding emotions. The emotion of 
pride, for instance, by straightening the muscles of the back and 
raising the head; the emotion of humility, by curving the body 
forwards. During the third stage the insensibility was so profound 
as to permit severe surgical operations to be performed without 
any evidence of pain being produced. 


The effect of directing the attention to any portion of the body, 
or to any particular organ, was then discussed, and it was found 
that not only was it capable of producing peculiar sensations of 
temperature and tingling, but, if long continued, actual structural 
changes. The numerous instances in every-day life of involuntary 
imitation were referred to, and the extreme difficulty in controlling 
or preventing them even by an exercise of the will. The principle 


THE ANNUAL CONVERSAZIONE. 30 


of suggestion was found to be a powerful agent in those without 
fixed or settled habits, or strong will in determining their actions, 
or even their thoughts. In considering Professor Reichenbach’s 
Odyle Theory, it was shown that not only were his so-called facts 
founded on most insufficient data, but that they were actually dis- 
proved by Mr. Braid’s investigations. The lecturer concluded by 
stating his belief that the mesmeric phenomena were produced by 
attention, this attention being of various kinds. It may either be 
the involuntary attention directed to any organ or series of organs, 
or it may be of an intellectual variety, having to do either with 
objects of sense, such as distant sounds, or obscure images requiring 
a concentration of the faculties for their perception, or with its 
own thoughts, giving rise to reverie, abstraction, and imagination. 
Attention may also be of an emotional character, such as that pro- 
duced by extreme anxiety or by great terror. Mesmerism is then 
a condition of mind, only differing from that produced by attention, 
by its being prolonged far beyond the momentary action of the 
former. 


THE ANNUAL CONVERSAZIONE. 


Tue Annual Conversazione will be held on Thursday, January 
13th, at half-past seven. The engagements of the evening will 
include music, vocal and instrumental, microscopic and other 
objects, choice chemicals, &c. 

_ It is intended to secure a collection of portraits of local celebri- 
ties for the walls; and, with the permission of the municipal 
authorities, the plans for the new Guildhall for which the first 
premium was awarded—an honour in which the Institution, 
through one of its members, claims a share—will also be exhibited. 

Coffee will be served at eight o’clock. 


CAPTURE OF A KITE. 


Mr. Epwarp Heartre Ropp, of Penzance, writes, Dec. 4th, 1869: 
‘‘It may be interesting to your Society to record the capture, at 
Trebartha this week, of an adult example of the common Kite, a 
species I have failed to obtain during the last half a century from 
any part of the West of England. There will be a notice of this 
fact in the /veld in the present or next weck’s copy.” 

F 


34 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


DARTMOOR CELT. 


Dvrine the past summer, whilst at Hill Bridge, on the upper part 
of the Tavy, Mr. Thomas Dawe, the farmer at whose house I was 
lodging, brought me an interesting specimen of a flint hatchet. 
He stated that he had found it in his turf ties, near the source of 
the Walkham, when cutting turf some four years ago. The head of 
the Walkham being a part of the moor I was unacquainted with, 
I resolved on accompanying him on his next visit for a load of 
turf, in order that I might see for myself the ground and the 
position in which the implement was discovered. 

The distance of the Walkham Head from Hill Bridge is four 
and a half miles, the road ascending nearly the whole way. We 
passed the solitary hamlet of Waspworthy, leaving Browson Tor 
on our left, and skirted the edge of the deep valley, in which 
is Bog-a-tor farm. From this point you have a magnificent 
panorama. On the North Stannon Down bounds the horizon; 
beyond, and across the river, the grand range of Hare Tor and 
Tavy Cleave, Great Lynx Tor, and the Lydford Tors, stretch far 
up to the north-west of Devon—almost to the Bristol Channel. 
Turning due west is seen Black Down with its white cottages and 
mining houses. A little lower are the woods and rocky valley of 
Horndon, with its village crowning the hill. In the valley, here 
and there among the foliage, small streams of water, glistening in 
the sun, tell where the river wanders. All this backed up by 
Brent Tor, Hingston, and Kit-Hill, with the further ranges of the 
Cornish hills, fading away in beautiful and numberless gradations 
of blue distance; and over all a sky of great rolling masses of 
clouds, whose giant shadows chase each other over hill, tor, and 
plain. 

But we now have to turn our backs on all this beauty, as we 
pass through the gate, where roads cease: we entered on the 
moor, where the ruts are scooped out by lomg use, and filled up 
with stones but once a year. In these our wheels sank down to 
the axles, making it quite easy to step from the waggon on to the 
bank. We were travelling due east, with Lints Tor on our right. 
Another mile of this rugged way brought us to the table land, 


where rise the two rivers, on the north the Tavy, on the south the 
Walkham. 


DARTMOOR CELT. 30 


The turf ties of the upper Walkham are of some extent, and 
reach as far as the eye can see, in black, purple, and brown masses, 
in a southerly direction. 

The ground in which the implement was found has an area of 
about six acres, and is of a somewhat semi-circular shape, not 
unlike an amphitheatre, being cut from the surface in a series of 
steps to the depth of about ten or twelve feet. 

The turf is in layers alternating with a rich black mould, much 
of which is brought down by the floods that dye our rivers with 
every shade of brown and amber. The implement, which is of 
polished flint, was discovered embedded in the solid peat, at the 
depth of six feet from the surface. I asked every kind of question 
that occurred to me at the time, to ascertain if it had been placed 
there, etc., and was assured it was simply impossible, my guide 
giving it me as his belief that it must have been there from the 
most ancient*times, ‘‘ nearly as old as the world;” that he cut it 
out himself, and had retained possession of it from that time until 
I saw it, thus confirming my own opinion that it belonged to some 
very remote period of man’s history. 


= Po 
——— ee ee 


ER : SSSSSSSSSSSSSS sD 


SSS 
SSS SSS 
——— == ———— 


The sketches, representing the side and edge of the implement, 
are half the size of the original. Pp M 

aitie MircHe.. 

A flint weapon of similar form and size was found some months 
since beneath the peat near Prince Town. Of this, with others of 
different shapes from the same locality, we hope shortly to give a 
fuller description. Cvs B: 

F 2 


36 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


LUNAR RAINBOWS. 


AttHoveH I have witnessed many of these, not one, I believe, has 
ever been observed when the moon was less than 4 or 5, or more 
than 25 days old, her light at these ages being probably insufficient 
for their production. For this reason, and because she is so often 
and so long above the horizon during daylight, her rainbow must be 
much less frequent than that of the sun. 

Seldom or never has a brighter lunar rainbow been observed than 
that which was seen at Plymouth and Devonport, about eight 
o’clock on the night of Sunday, the 19th of December last, exhi- 
biting the prismatic colours most distinctly and clearly. The 
bright moon, not a day after the full, was then shining on an un- 
usually dark cloud during a very showery night of heavy hail and 
rain. 

Asa great many persons must have seen it whilst returning from 
their places of worship, and as some of them may have observed 
whether it was or was not accompanied with a secondary bow, how- 
ever faint, the notice of such an observation would be a destderatum. 

Rp. Epmonps. 


MEMORANDUM. 


Earty in December, 1869, some hazel nuts in excellent preserva- 
tion were found about 18 feet below the surface in Tregilso Stream 
Works, in Saint Hilary. The formation of the ground in the 
stream works is described by workmen employed in it as 

Surface mould. 

Clay. 
‘¢ Rab,” ‘‘ Shingle,” ‘‘ Run,” or Waterworn stone. 
‘ Turfy,” qy- Peat. 

Stream tin stuff. 

The nuts were found in the ‘“‘turfy” formation. This stream 
work lies in the valley between Hayle estuary and Marazion 
marsh. 

The workman who found the nuts and gave the above informa- 
tion states, that some few years ago he worked in a stream work 


rd 


ART AND SCIENCE CLAIMS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 37 


near Wheal Darlington in the same valley as the above, and about a 
mile west of it (the pit with the remains of an engine on it south 
of the railway, about half-a-mile east of Marazion station), the 
formation there was 
Marsh surface. 
“Tuny,’ qy.* Peat’ soil. 
Sand mixed with small white shells in great numbers, 
but mostly much injured. 
“Turfy,” qy. ‘‘ Peat”’ soil. 
Tin stream. 
In the lower turfy or peat soil were found nuts and quantities 


of some hard wood. 


Tuomas CornisH. 
Penzance, 21st December, 1869. 


A Paper will be read on the 20th January on the 


ART AND SCIENCE CLAIMS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 
By Mr. T. W. Corrin. 


PROGRAMME, 


Tue discovery and application of Photography—Present cause of 
depression—Science—Science of Photography—Photographs in 
Natural Colours—Permanence—Experiments of Professor Mach— 
The Art Claims of Photography—Qualities to be looked for in an 
Artist and a Work of Art—What is meant by Art—Art Study— 
Art Critics—Technics— Asthetics—Admiration—Photography as 
applied to Portraiture—Hardness not Sharpness—Wordsworth— 
Sir Joshua Reynolds—Ruskin—Criticism—Detail—Perspective— 
Combination Printing—Pictorial Composition—Conclusion. 

The lecture will be illustrated by a large number of landscape 
and composition photographs, kindly selected and lent by Mr. H. 
P. Robinson, of Tunbridge Wells, and include the well-known 
pictures, ‘‘ Sleep,” ‘‘ Returning Home,” ‘ Waiting for the Boat,” 
** Rusthall Common,” &c., &e. 


~~ 


38 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


THE 


ART AND SCIENCE CLAIMS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 
ABSTRACT OF A PAPER BY MR. T. W. COFFIN. 


Tue lecturer commenced by observing that photography claims an 
equal recognition, as steam and electricity, as one of the features 
which draw the line of demarcation between the nineteenth 
century and the grand epochs of the civilization of antiquity; 
whilst its art progress had been fully commensurate, if it had not 
surpassed the expectations formed in advance. 

Photography, as we now practise it, is exclusively an English 
invention. By a strange coincidence, experiments were carried on 
simultaneously in France and England, with the same end, but by 
essentially different means. Mr. Fox Talbot read a paper on the 
subject before the Royal Society on 31st January, 1839, six 
months earlier than the publication of the Daguerreotype process. 

The present depression felt by those who practise the art is, in 
a manner, caused by the fact that photographers as a body have 
not set up their standard of excellence sufficiently high. This 
may arise from two causes; first, from the fact that ‘‘a miscel- 
laneous audience is best conciliated by that sort of talent which 
reflects the average mind;”’ and in the second place, in most cases 
the professional photographer has taken up photography as a pro- 
fession, and so long as it pays he is content. The remedy, to a 
certain extent, is in the hands of the public, who, by demanding 
more art in the picture and more style in the composition, could 
materially assist those who were striving to uphold for photography 
the high position to which it is eminently entitled. 

Compared to painting, its range is necessarily limited, and no 
extravagant claims are advanced; but if it were purely a mechani- 
cal operation, then mechanics could work at it with success, and 
not fail so lamentably as they do. Anyone can, by practice and 
attention, produce perfect chemical results; but it requires a real 
love of true art, and a just appreciation of the beautiful, to obtain 
a picture. 

Science is simply knowledge, but is generally understood to 
mean systematized knowledge, —facts verified and arranged, their 
relations ascertained, their laws deduced, their principles and im- 


ART AND SCIENCE CLAIMS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 39 


port understood. Photography has illustrated the general history 
of science in an especial manner. The early explorers had no 
other source of reliance but the results of tentative experiment. 
When a few facts were established, chemistry was enabled to offer 
a valuable helping hand, and photography has well repaid the loan 
by bringing to light chemical laws before only dimly dreamed of. 
The science of photography treats of that property that light 
possesses of changing the colour of objects, so that it may be used 
for pictorial purposes. 

The progress that had been made towards producing photographs 
in natural colours was then noticed, and attention drawn to the 
researches and experiments of M. Becquerel, M. Poitevin, and Mr. 
W. Simpson, in all of which one fact was worthy of notice,— 
that violet sub-chloride of silver was recognised as the common 
starting-point. 

The experiments of M. Ducos du Hauron and M. Chas. Cros 
were then referred to. These gentlemen, instead of endeavouring 
to reproduce on one and the same surface all the natural colours 
indistinctly, sought to analyse and separate them, so as to obtain 
three impressions corresponding to the three primitive colours— 
red, yellow, and blue; and these three monochrome results, pre- 
senting all the gradations of tint which photography re-produces 
so accurately, being combined by some system of synthesis, are 
blended together, and yield all the other colours, inasmuch as the 
three together contain all the elements of the spectrum. 

With regard to the question of permanence, which happily had 
been solved by science, durability unquestionably was an impor- 
tant merit ; but it was to be prized upon grounds entirely distinct 
from an abstract admiration of art. The more durable a work of 
art was, the more durable it was as a possession; but considered 
simply as a work of art, it was neither better nor worse than that 
which possessed the quality in a minor degree. 

The photo-relief printing processes of Mr. Woobury and M. 
Obernetter were then described, together with that of Herr Albert, 
the most perfect lately presented to the public (an admirable illus- 
tration of the process being handed round for inspection). 

The scientific claims of photography were then closed with a 
notice of the researches of Professor Mach of Gratz, who by its 
means was enabled to make his experiments on the effect upon 
the retina of masses of light distributed over certain spaces, the 


40 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


results of which were valuable to physiological optics, and in the 
construction of explanatory geometrical figures. 

In discussing the art portion of the subject, it was found neces- 
sary to define to some extent what was understood by the term art. 
In a great artist imagination, taste, and technical knowledge must 
combine; and Mr. Ruskin observes that ‘‘ means are nothing; the 
thing expressed, by whatever means, is everything.” Painting, 
then, is a language, with all its technicalities and difficulties, in- 
valuable as a vehicle of thought, but by itself nothing. Dryden 
observes that ‘‘the most important thing in art is to know what is 
most beautiful.’”’ All ideas of beauty are borrowed from nature. 
Nature is not only intellectual, but is endowed with a soul, and 
she appeals to our sympathies, because we also are creatures of 
emotion and impulse. The mind reads nature through kindred 
sympathy of spirit; and although it has within its finite sphere an 
originating power, it cannot create out of nothing, wholly inde- 
pendent of existing elements; it must gather the primal elements 
from actual experience, and construct from the known, not create 
from the unknown. 

The main fallacy into which art critics fall is in the assumption 
that, because the photographic camera has no soul, the photo- 
grapher’s work must therefore lack the impress of soul. The error 
is obvious—‘“‘ they mistake the tool for the workman.” The art 
faculty is in the producer, not in the materials or the method of 
working them. This is the whole position for which we contend. 
It depends upon the man whether the results of his labour shall 
be a work of art or not. Photography, without doubt, was one of 
the fine arts, but it cannot compete esthetically with painting. No 
one has ever claimed for it the capability of competing with high 
or ideal art. But is there no fine art but ideal art? If so, what 
are the works of Landseer, Frith, Creswick, and others whose 
especial charm is ¢ruth in the delineation of nature. In glancing 
at photography as applied to portraiture, one of the common forms 
of depreciation was that of complaining that photography had no 
power to idealize. The notion that the artist should invest his 
sitters with a grace or a nobleness not their own seems never to 
have been doubted. 

In Paris, in 1867, in this branch of photography we were utterly 
beaten; and to what conclusion were we forced by this salutary 
lesson ?—that in those countries where art had been most fostered 
were the best photographs produced. 


ART AND SCIENCE CLAIMS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 41 


Attention was now drawn to the passage from Wordsworth— 


** Ah then, if mine had been the painter’s hand, 
To express what then I saw, and add the gleam, 
The light that never was on sea or land, 

The consecration, and the poet’s dream.” 


Now, if this ‘‘light that never was on sea or land”’ is anything 
more than poetical license, it is the expression of a dissatisfaction 
with the delineations of nature as she is, and is, as Ruskin calls it, 
a craving for the ‘‘ audacious liberty of that faculty of degrading 
God’s works which man calls his imagination ;” and is an illustra- 
tion of the position we find continually enforced, that painting 
receives its perfection from an ideal beauty superior to what is 
to be found in individual nature. This is maintaining in idea that 
the artist is greater than the Divine Maker of nature. It is difficult 
to perceive that any valid objection really exists against combina- 
tion printing; or to understand why adding a sky to a landscape 
from a second negative should be designated a trick. Further, 
because photography is less plastic than painting, and attempts at 
pictorial composition therefore all the more difficult, why we should 
be told that ‘‘ combining two or more negatives is not a legitimate 
application of photography.” 

On the subject of skies critics seem to overlook one point—that 
however truthfully a sky may be photographed in conjunction with 
a landscape, it rarely happens that it is the best for pictorial effect. 
It becomes then necessary, in order to give any value to the picture, 
that a carefully selected sky from a second negative be used. 
Again, there are a vast number of cases in which a slight alteration 
of the original, for instance, the elimination of some artificial object 
in the foreground which destroys keeping. The introduction of 
such figures as may serve to carry on the idea of the picture, &c., 
&e., may be just the one touch which throws life and vigour into 
the whole composition. 

The lecturer contended that whilst the painter is allowed to draw 
on his imagination, and put in groups of pleasing figures where no 
figures were, and add to the scenery he paints thoughts sought for 
in nature, and secured in his sketch book as studies culled here and 
there,—sunny skies, cattle, trees, rocks, and all that nature and 
art judiciously selected can furnish to enrich his canvass and 
enhance his reputation—the photographer, with the conception 
pre-arranged in his mind [a sketch is made for every composition 

G 


42 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


picture] ought, with equal fairness, to be judged by results, not 
condemned for combining several negatives, but his works tested to 
see if by ‘‘these means he has laid open noble truths, or aroused 
noble emotions.” 


On the 27th January a Paper will be laid before the Society on the 
DEGENERATION OF OUR DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 


By Mr. J. N. HEearper, F.C.s8. 


PROGRAMME. 

Tue deterioration of our deep sea fisheries a matter demanding 
prompt and serious investigation—Comparison between past and 
present productiveness—Fish formerly very plentiful, now exceed- 
ingly scarce—Whilst our fishing appliances are improved, and our 
trawlers increased in number, the total produce of fish is steadily 
diminishing, the hook and line fishing in particular—The three 
following questions arise in the enquiry: First, Can any cause or 
causes be assigned for this mischief? Second, Why has it been 
allowed to get so far ahead? ‘Third, What can be done to check 
the devastation ?—Discussion of the first question: Two essential 
requisites are necessary to ensure abundant produce; namely, 
maintenance and protection of both feeding and breeding ground— 
Circumstances which interfere with these conditions — Shrimp 
dredging and its mischievous consequences—Devastating effects 
of trawling and ground seining—Wholesale destruction of food- 
producing pasturage, ova and fry, by these reckless modes of 
fishing—Answers to arguments adduced in extenuation of trawling. 
Second question: General apathy on matters in which we are not 
individually concerned—Economic interests and railway returns 
alike affected by the success or failure of sea fishing. Third ques- 
tion: Mode of prevention ready at hand, and perfectly practicable 
—Employment of the coastguards to watch trawling operations, 
which should be restricted to certain localities in succession, whilst 
others are allowed to rest and recover—No trawling should be 
allowed within two or three miles of any headlands, nor within 
the bays included between them—Extra expense, if any, to be 
met by a tax on trawling, which would be more than covered by 
the increased produce—General summary—Conclusion. 


DEGENERATION OF OUR DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 43 


DEGENERATION OF OUR DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 


ABSTRACT OF MR. HEARDER’S PAPER. 


THE progressive degeneration of the produce of our deep sea 
fisheries is equivalent to the abstraction or loss of an immense 
amount of national wealth in the form of food, and demands 
investigation and legislative interference. 

In respect of one single species of fish—viz., the hake—it is 
reported that in 1832 as many as 100,000 were caught in one 
week; whilst it is questionable now if that number is taken 
in a whole season, notwithstanding the increase in number, and 
improvement in construction of our trawlers. 

A single drift boat, which accompanies the pilchard seines, 
brought in 84 dozen hake, all taken with hook and lhne, as the 
produce of one night, and this was only one out of fifty boats thus 
engaged. 

These hakes could be bought for 2d. or 3d. each; now they 
fetch from ls. 6d. to 2s. 6d. each. Other fish have degenerated 
in like proportion, and fishing is only maintained by the exorbitant 
prices of small quantities of best fish. 

Formerly small fish were thrown overboard; now bushels of 
small fry, of four or five inches long, are retained for sale; whilst 
eart-loads of still smaller fry, collected along the coast, are destined 
for manure. 

In 1814 there were about fourteen trawlers in the Port of 
Plymouth; now there are sixty, each of which is equal to three 
of the old ones, and yet fewer fish are caught now than at the 
former period, whilst the long line fishing is almost abolished. 

Question first—-Whence arises this mischief? Several causes 
conspire to produce it, and self-interest stands much in the way of 
getting at the truth. Some feel that they have nothing to gain by 
disclosing the truth, and are therefore apathetic. Others feel that 
they have everything to lose, and therefore conceal it. Hence it 
is difficult to get at the precise amount of mischief done by certain 
fishing practices. 

The wholesale capture of shrimps, involving the destruction 
of fish fry by shrimp dredging, is a most fertile source of mis- 
chief. Thousands of tons of fry of our most delicate fish are 

G 2 


44 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


thus destroyed annually in these shrimp nets. Shrimps are the 
food of cod and other fish. Remove this source of food, and the 
fish desert the localities where they were accustomed to find it. 

The maintenance and protection of both breeding and feeding 
ground are the essential requisites for abundance of produce in 
fish and re-production of stock. The bottom of the sea is an 
immense pasturage, affording every class of vegetable life suitable, 
not only for food for certain classes of marine creatures, but shelter 
for the crustaceans, which live chiefly at the bottom. Here all 
the lower orders of zoophytes, which serve as food for the higher 
orders of fish, thrive in rich abundance, until the ruthless, ravag- 
ing trawl scrapes them all clean out of existence, and lays waste 
the ground, which is quickly deserted for want of the food which 
it formerly supplied. Rocky spots here and there, which defy the 
inroads of the trawl, remain to show, by the fish which still haunt 
them, what might be again the abundance if proper management 
were adopted. 

Fish are known to spawn usually in shallow waters; and here 
also weeds grow most luxuriantly, affording both shelter and food 
for the young fry. The trawl sweeps over these spots, and count- 
less millions of the ova of fish, which would be brood for the 
forthcoming season, are thus annually destroyed. 

The ground seines, which scrape our bays and estuaries with 
impunity, some having meshes small enough to catch prawns, do 
an equal amount of damage. Cart-loads of the fry of soles, plaice, 
whiting, haddock, codlings, &c., are turned out from them fit only 
for manure. 

The drift nets, which are spread at night to intercept our 
migratory fish, such as mackerel, pilchards, herrings, &c., are at 
the mercy of these ruthless ocean rangers. Under cover of the 
night, the trawler does not hesitate to sweep over these nets, and 
tear them to pieces, thereby sacrificing at one fell swoop the con- 
tents, worth perhaps hundreds of pounds, and the owners have no 
redress. One night not long since 200 drift boats withdrew their 
immense string of floating nets, to prevent having them torn to 
pieces by the trawlers, one of which had already destroyed one 
lot of nets. Of course the produce of that night was entirely 
missed, and the loss sustained by the poor fishermen very Leavy. 

Not only does the trawl thus directly interfere with this very 
important fishing operation, which is one of the most lucrative 


DEGENERATION OF OUR DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 45 


while it lasts, but the mischief which it does indirectly is even 
more formidable. 

While some of the crustaceans live at the bottom, and are food 
for ground fish, others, such as the sessile-eyed, and some of the 
stalk-eyed crustaceans, come to the surface during a certain 
stage of their development, and, if spared, return again to the 
bottom to complete their growth. Whilst at the surface, however, 
they constitute the food of the migratory fish which periodically 
visit our coasts in search of them; and the more abundant this 
class of food, the greater are the numbers in which their pursuers 
assemble to feast on them. The produce, then, of our mackerel, 
pilchard, and herring fisheries, is at the mercy of the trawl; for if 
these creatures are destroyed at the bottom of the sea before they 
are hatched, they are prevented from appearing at the surface in 
quantities sufficient to attract large shoals of the migratory fish, 
which consequently desert our waters for more prolific localities. 

The following table, kindly furnished to the lecturer by Mr. 
Frank Buckland, and selected expressly for the present paper from 
an immense number of similar results collected by him with great 
care and assiduity, will serve to show the enormous loss occasioned 
by the destruction of ova as they lie deposited in the sand. 


Resutts oF Mr. FRANK BuckLANpn’s OBSERVATIONS ON THE NUMBER 
oF Eces In vARIovus FiIsu. 


Name of Fish. Weight of Fish. | Weight of Roe.| No. of Eggs. 
Salmon : : ; 12 lbs. yt 10,000 
Trout , : ; 1 lb. paeiet 1,008 
Carp , . ‘ 145 lbs. 633,350 
Perch : . , 3 lbs. 2 oz. 85 0Z. 155,620 

ak ne 1 1b. fate 20,592 
Jack Se lt. kt 98 Thee ait 292,320 
a ‘ ‘ - 43 lbs. A Regt 42,840 
Roach ‘ : : $ lb. fe 480,480 
Congereel . ‘ ' 28 lbs. 23 oz. 15,191,040 
Cod ; : ‘ dart 7 lbs. 6,867,840 
Cod , ; ; 20 lbs. Se 4,872,000 
Smelt , ; , 2 oz. ae 36,652 
Lump-fish : ; 2 Ibs. ii a 116,640 
Brill ; . ; 4 lbs. nek 239,775 
Sole b ’ ‘ 1 lb. uel 134,466 
Herring rn ; : 3 Ib. Aare 19,840 
Mackerel ; : j 1 Ib. ae 86,120 
Turbot ° , ; 8 lbs. ioe 385,200 
* ; : ‘ 23 lbs. 5 Ibs. 9 oz. 14,311,200 
Lamprey : ; ‘ 24 lbs. re 136,800 


Plaice é ‘ ‘ 4 lbs. 15 oz. ies 144,600 


46 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


A second question—Why has this evil been tolerated so long? 
is easily disposed of; the answer to it may be found in the dis- 
inclination which men have individually to interfere in matters 
which do not directly affect their own pockets. If the poor rates 
are increased by the demands for relief of destitute fishermen, 
the tax is paid with a grumble, and that is all. There is no co- 
operation to investigate and remove the cause of the destruction. 
If railway companies find their returns for fish traffic falling off, 
they utter lamentations, and hope for better things. If the fish- 
market is scantily supplied, and the buyer has to pay shillings 
where the same number of pence formerly sufficed to make the 
requisite purchase, one only hears the remark, What an extrava- 
gant price we are obliged to pay for fish! 

With regard to the third question— What can be done to remove 
the evil? the lecturer considers the remedy at hand. He would 
restrict trawling operations to daylight. He would have no trawl- 
ing or ground net fishing in any of our bays or estuaries, nor 
within three miles of any line stretching from headland to headland. 

By these means almost all the breeding ground and the nurseries 
for the young fry would be preserved for stock producing purposes, 
and for the benefit of the hook and line and floating net fishermen, 
whose operations are perfectly harmless. 

With regard to the open sea fishing, he would have the ground 
divided into districts, which should be fished in succession; one 
district being allowed to rest and recover, whilst the others were 
free for fishing. Trawlers should be watched by cruisers or by 
the coast-guard service, and if any expense should be thus incurred, 
it should be met by a tax upon the trawler, by whom it would not 
be at all felt, as his increased produce would more than cover it. 

In taking a review of the facts which he had the honour of 
laying before the Society, though conscious of his inability to 
treat the subject as its importance deserves, he had endeavoured 
to establish the following facts :— 

1st. That our sea fishery is undoubtedly degenerating, and that 
many causes conspire to bring about this effect, all more or less 
attributable to the practice of unrestrained and reckless fishing, 
regardless of economic provisions for the reproduction of stock. 

2nd. That if some steps be not taken to check the evil, it will 
go on in an increasingly rapid ratio, until our once productive sea 
borders are reduced to sandy deserts. 


DEGENERATION OF OUR DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 47 


3rd. That the present practices of netting for one class of fish 
involve the destruction of the embryo and fry of others, which 
constitute an immense source of wealth to the nation. 

4th. That the system of trawling as at present practised is not 
only extremely destructive to the wealth of the community, but 
prejudicial to the best interests of the fisherman, since the trawls 
not only catch the fish, but destroy 10,000 times as much brood 
for the coming season, by raking up and laying waste the pastur- 
ages and nurseries in which food is produced and protected. 

5th. That since the bottom of the sea may be looked upon as 
the primary source from which the wealth of our sea fisheries is 
derived, its careful protection is of the utmost importance, and 
opens up a field for marine husbandry as important as the hus- 
bandry of our food-producing soils on shore. 

6th. That for the attainment of such a desirable end restrictive 
legislation is needed—not restrictive as to the amount, but as to 
the mode of fishing. 

7th. That the means of carrying this legislation into operation 
are already at our command in the existing coast-guard service, 
whose labours would not be materially increased. 

8th. That any extra expense that might be incurred could be 
met by a small tax in the form of a license for all trawlers, which 
would be more than covered by their increased prosperity. 

9th. That this subject is of peculiar importance to the commu- 
nities of all fishing ports, who would do well to memorialize 
Government to take these matters into immediate consideration, 
and bring the same amount of energy to bear upon them as they 
already have upon the salmon and oyster fisheries. 

10th. This can be easily accomplished by the appointment of a 
fishery inspector, whose business should be to visit the various 
fishing stations, to receive reports from local sub-inspectors, and 
go out in trawling vessels and take notes of their operations, as 
well as examine the contents of their nets. The Government 
would do well to provide a trawler, manned by a trawling crew 
thoroughly up to the work, and commanded by a local sub- 
inspector, who should be well acquainted with marine zoology, 
and should go out in the vessel and superintend the trawling. 
He should also keep an accurate record of the results of his ex- 
aminations of the contents of the nets, which he should furnish 
to the inspector at his periodical visit. If the fish produce of 


48 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


the trawl were distributed amongst the crew, there is very little 
doubt that it would ensure success, and put an end to all specula- 
tion as to the real mischief done by the trawl. 

11th. A close time for sea fisheries, as well as for river fisheries, 
would be extremely desirable, and the most suitable time for this 
would perhaps be the months of February, March, and April; but 
this would require further consideration, and would greatly depend 
upon the results of the examinations of the trawling produce, 
when conducted under competent supervision. 


The lecturer expressed his disappointment that the Plymouth 
Chamber of Commerce do not feel the importance of this subject 
sufficiently to give it any attention, since their necessary con- 
nection with all marine matters which influence the prosperity of 
the port would have rendered them a most eligible body to assist 
in the investigation. If they will not lead, however, they will 
perhaps find that they will have to follow in the wake, for the 
subject must proceed. 


A Paper will be read on February 8rd, on 
CORNISH NAMES. 


By Rev. J. BANNISTER, LL.D. 


PROGRAMME. 

CornwaLt a peculiar county—The Cornish a peculiar people— 
Cornwall the first, the last, and the best, or at least next to the 
best, county in England, though once not in England at all—The 
Cornish once Celts, now Saxons—become so by a change of 
language—Three great families of languages.—The old Cornish, 
Aryan, and Celtic—once the vernacular of all the south of 
England—Died out about 100 years ago—Literary remains few— 
Much of the old tongue preserved in names—TZre, Pol, and Pen— 
Names with these prefixes do not outnumber all others—they are, 
however, ‘‘the most Cornish’’—The prefix the generic term, and 
has a plain signification—suffix mostly adjectival—Thousands of 
names easily interpreted—more of uncertain signification—dis- 
guised by false spelling—No very old records written by natives 
in the vernacular—Manumissions of Celtic serfs by Saxon lords— 
Domesday—Conjectural renderings—Analogy of other names— 
Physical characteristics of a place noted—Help required. 


CORNISH NAMES. 49 


CORNISH NAMES. 
ABSTRACT OF REV. DR. BANNISTER’S PAPER. 


Cornwall is a peculiar county: from its geographical position, it 
may be called ‘‘the first and the last”? in England, and ‘one and 
all”? good Cornishmen will maintain that it is also ‘‘the best;”’ 
and even the inhabitants of Devonshire, ‘‘ the garden of England,” 
claiming, with excusable and natural partiality, this latter title 
for their own beautiful county, cannot but allow that it is next to 
the best, though so late as the time of Queen Elizabeth it was 
spoken of by Stowe, the annalist, as not in England at all, but ‘‘a 
fourth part of Britaine,’”’ the other three being England, Scotland, 
and Wales; and time was when Devonshire was part of Cornwall, 
with Exeter, it is thought, for its capital, which city was till the 
tenth century inhabited conjointly by Cornish and Saxons. The 
Cornish were driven across the Tamar by Athelstane, and it was 
declared death for one to be found east of its banks—a fact that 
militates strongly against Professor Huxley’s idea that the peace- 
able and law-loving Devonshire men have as much Celtic blood in 
them as the violent and lawless Tipperary boys. According to 
Professor Max Muller, the Cornish, too, are peculiar as a people. 
They were once Celts, but by the extinction of their old vernacular, 
without any change of blood, they have become Teutons. 

The old language of Cornwall, which did not altogether cease to 
be spoken till the end of last century, used to be thought Semitic, 
and allied to the Hebrew, having been introduced by the Phoeni- 
cians. Some also have questioned whether the aboriginal inhabi- 
tants were not akin to the people now inhabiting the Basque 
provinces, Lapland and Finland, whose ton ue belongs to the 
Turanian class of languages. But though the literary remains of 
the old vernacular are yery scanty, yet, embracing as they do a 
vocabulary of the language as it was spoken before the conquest, 
and another (and also a grammar of it) as it was used about a 
century before its final extinction as a spoken language, philologists 
are able to assert with confidence that it belonged to the Aryan 
family, was Celtic, and very much resembled the languages of 

Hl 


50 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


Wales and Brittany; the three—Cornish, Welsh, and Armoric— 
forming, in fact, the Cymric branch; while the Irish, Scotch, and 
Manx, formed the Gaelic branch of the Celtic tongue. Many 
genuine Cornish words very much resemble words with the same 
meaning in the three last languages, and very many more are the 
same, or all but the same, as those in Welsh and Armoric; and the 
same may be said with regard to proper names, especially names of 
places; so that when, in consequence of the scantiness of Cornish 
literary remains, we are in doubt as to the meaning of a component 
part of a name, we are justified in going to the other members of 
the same family for help. 

That many names in common use here and everywhere are signi- 
ficant, nobody can deny, though no one, in using them as names, 
now may think of them as having any meaning in themselves. 
Names of persons and families were originally either mere sobri- 
quets or nicknames, or descriptive of some peculiarity of person, 
or circumstance in life, or trade, or occupation, or office, or rank ; 
or they were derived from the father’s name, or from some place 
where the first person who bore it was born, or some remarkable 
object near which he lived, or the estate which he owned. Hence 
we get such names as White, Long, Fox, Wolf, Smith, Knight, 
Hill, Thomas, Williams, Newton; and these and such like common 
English surnames are very common throughout Cornwall, mixed 
up with their Celtic equivalents—viz., Wynn = White, more com- 
monly, Angwin the (an) white, showing that the name was first 
used us a soubriquet to distinguish the person bearing it from some 
one else having the same forename, or else as a nickname, the man 
being very dark. So also we have very common Annear (? = an hir, 
the long); Angove, the (an) smith (gof); Lewarn=luern, fox; 
Blight (? = bleit, a wolf); Marrack = marheg, a knight ; Opie = Offie, 
v.¢., Theophilus, or Hoby, 7.e., Robert; Raw or Rowe = Ralph; 
Bray = bre, a hill; Trenoweth, «¢., Newton; Chynoweth = new 
(nowedh) house (chy). 

There is an old couplet found in Carew’s Survey, 55— 


“By Tre, Pol, and Pen, 
You shall know the Cornishmen.”’ 
And as Camden (Remaines 114) gives this— 


“By Tre, Ros, Pol, Lan, Caer, and Pen, 
You may know the most Cornishmen,”’ 


CORNISH NAMES, 51 


it has been thought that the names of families most common in 
Cornwall are those beginning with these Celtic prefixes. It is not 
so, however; they are far outnumbered by other names equally 
Celtic with them, common English names, such as I have given 
above, and patronymics. These last are very common. Nor is 
this surprising, when Tonkin tells ‘us that he had heard of cases 
last century where the sons bore their father’s Christian name as 
their surname, and gave their own Christian names as surnames to 
their children; while others were distinguished by the name of 
their estate or residence. ‘‘I remember,” he says, ‘‘one of the 
Tregeas of St. Agnes having three sons; himself was called 
Leonard Rawe; his eldest son was William Leonard; the second, 
John a’n Bans, from the place he lived in; and the third, Leonard 
Tregea.”’ 

The meaning of the couplets given by Carew and Camden is, 
that a great number of Cornish names are of local origin derived 
from names of places, and a great proportion of these begin with 
these common prefixes. According to Carew, Zire, Pol, and Pen, 
mean respectively ‘‘a towne, a top, and a head;’’ while Camden 
more correctly says of Zre, Ros, Pol, Lan, Caer, and Pen,—they 
‘‘sionifie a towne, a heath, a poole, a church, a castle or citie, and 
a foreland or promontory.” Some of these, however, admit of 
other meanings. Zire = tref, a dwelling, or a collection of dwellings, 
and so comes to mean a town, as town formerly was tun, an inclo- 
sure, and so might be a farm; and in Cornwall now a farm- yard 
with its buildings is called ‘‘a town place;” and a very small 
village, a few houses near the parish church, is Church-town ;* 
thus we have Gwennap Church-town, Redruth Church-town—this 
last a mile from the town of Redruth. Again, Zan is not always 
a church ; it is found prefixed to names of places where there is no 
reason to suppose there ever was a church; it originally meant an 
enclosure; and in Wales to this day, its Welsh equivalent L/an, 
while it is commonly prefixed to the name of a saint, and so forms 
the name of the church or parish, is also used in its original signi- 
fication; thus they have perlan, a pear enclosure, 7.e., orchard ; 
idlan, a corn enclosure, or stack-yard. 

Most names of places in Cornwall are compounds, those of 
Teutonic origin having the generic or common term last; thus 


* Cirie tun =church town, was used by the Anglo-saxons for the church- 
yard, or, as it is called in Cornwall, church-hay, formerly eglos hay. 


un 3 


52 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


we have Stanton (Stone-town), Milton (either Mill, Middle, or 
Michael’s-town), Padstow (St. Petroc’s-place), Millbrook, Alverton 
(the tun or enclosure of Alnuard, tenant at the time of Domesday), 
Wadebridge (where formerly there was a ford), Burnt-house (a 
very common name for villages where formerly there were tin 
smelting-houses), Highway, Northill, Southill; while those of 
Celtic origin, as a rule, have the generic term first, followed by 
the specific, or qualifying, or adjectival term, intended, as is the 
Teutonic prefix, to distinguish one town, brook, bridge, valley, 
headland, estate, field, church, &c. from others by some descriptive 
term, pointing out some noticeable peculiarity, such as size, situa- 
tion, colour, age; or its productions; or having a personal name 
attached,—that of a person who has been connected with it, as its 
builder, owner, occupier, &c. Thus we have Trewartha, higher 
(wartha) town; Trewolla, lower (wollach) town; Trenhale, the 
dwelling by the (a) moor (hal); Tresare, the carpenter’s (saer) 
dwelling; Trengove, the smith’s (an gof) town; Choon and Chy- 
woon, house (chy) on the down (gwon); Chynals, house on the 
cliff (an als); Chyandowe, house by the water (an dour); Cheg- 
widden, white (gwydn) house; Tywardreath, house (¢2) on (war) the 
sand (¢raith); Bodwin, white (gwyn) house (bod); Boswallock, 
lower (gwalloch) house (60s); Bohurra, higher (warra) house; 
Busvargus, the kite’s (bargus) house; Ponsnooth, new (nowedh) 
bridge (pons); Ponsandane, the man (an den) 7. ¢., foot bridge; 
Melangoose, wood (cus) mill (melin); Vellanoweth, new mill; 
Pensignance, head of the dry (sech) valley (nans); Penventon, 
spring (fenten) head; Penpons, bridge head or end; Penhale, head 
of the moor (hal); Penhallow, moors (hallow) head; Peninnis, 
head of the island (enys); Pengelly, head of the grove (cell) ; 
Pengover, head of the brook (gover); Borlase, green (glas) summit 
(dor); Vounder Vor, sea (mor) lane (bounder); Crowz an wragh, 


witch’s (gwrach— Welsh) cross (crows); Crowsanvean, the (an) 
little (d¢han) cross; Kellycoff, the smith’s (gof) grove (celli); 
Kelligog, cuckoo’s (yog) grove; Nanceavallen, apple-tree (avallen) 
valley; Nansagollen, hazle-tree (collen) valley; Hallaze, green 
(glas) moor (hal); Hallenbeagle, the (an) shepherd’s (d¢gal) moor ; 
Egloshayle, church (eglos) on the river (hayl), or of St. Heli; 
Kgloskerry, the church of St. Keri; Heglosenuder (Domesday), 
the church of St. Enoder; Goonlaze, green (glas) down (gwon) ; 
Woon Bellas, pillas or huskless-oat down; Woondrea, home (tre) 


CORNISH NAMES. 53 


down; Goonvrea, hill (dre) down; Browngelly, grove (ceddz) hill 
(ron); Burnawithan, the hill with a tree (gwedhen); Carn Near, 
the long (an hir) carn; Carnbargus, kite’s (bargus) carn; Polguin, 
white (gwyn) pool (pol); Polscatha, boats (scathow) pool; Poladrick, 
Hydroe’s pool; Lanhydrock, Ydroc’s church, or farm, or enclosure ; 
Lanner, long (Air) enclosure; Lannarth, high (arth) enclosure. 
Names thus formed are found everywhere in the county, and 
thousands more than these, with equally plain and simple signi- 
fications, requiring very little change to be made in the spelling, 
in tracing them to their roots, except such as is always made in the 
Celtic language in forming compound words. Perhaps the names 
about which one can speak most positively as to the meaning are 
those of fields, of which thousands are to be found in the Tithe 
Apportionments of the several parishes, either pure, just as they 
were given by those speaking the old Cornish, or in various stages 
of corruption, resulting from their having been handed down orally, 
without their signification being known, and often so turned into 
some English word with a meaning, or from the difficulty the 
surveyors found in catching the exact sounds, and then accurately 
expressing them. The most common word for a close or field is 
Park. Gweal is also frequent, and Hru and Hay also are found. 
Names beginning with the two former have frequently an, the 
article before the qualifying word, and this is often corrupted into 
en, or in, or and; and Parkan is often contracted to Pen. A few 
examples may be given. Park an Skeber, barn (sceber) close; 
Parkenvor, field by the road (fordh); Park Vean, or Bean, little 
(dihan) close; Park Vore, great (mawr) close; Park Wartha, or 
Warra, higher close; Park Wollas, lower (wollach) close; Park 
Crase, middle (eres) close; Park Venton, spring (/fenten) close ; 
Gweal Scawen, elder-tree (scawen) field; Gwealon, ash (on) field ; 
Gwealnayne, the (an) lamb (ean) field; Gweal Lanchy, field by the 
(@n) house (chy); Gweal an Vez, the outward field; Gweal Darras, 
field before the door (daras); Gweal Dren, thorn (draen) field ; 
Gweal Dues, sheep (devas) field; Gweal Yate, gate (yet) field; 
Gweal Paul, pit (pol) or Paul’s field; Ero Fenton, spring (fenten) 
field; Erra Penhale, moor (hal) head (pen) field; Erra Gear, camp 
(caer) field. A few of the grossest corruptions of these may be 
interesting. I find fields named Dry Sock, Dry Sack, and Dry 
Suck; these are plain corruptions of Dreisic, brambly (dreisic) 
[close]. Whale Drain is =.Gweal Drean, thorn field; Clamp Park 


54 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


(in the eastern part of the county Park is almost always put last) 
is foot-bridge (clam) close; Park and Hall= Park an hal, the moor 
close, or else Park an Tol, hole (¢o/) field; Park and Nothing = 
Park an eithen, furze close. In some cases the surveyor, having 
heard so many strange-sounding outlandish words without a meaning, 
seems to have mistaken English words badly pronounced for Celtic 
ones, and thus we get such names as Sopid (?=sawpit) meadow ; 
Half figure (? = half acre). 

Such corruptions, made in our own days, enable us to see what 
corruptions would be made in olden times, by strangers who had 
to write down names they knew nothing about, and which perhaps 
never before had been written or spelled. With the exception of 
occasional references to the county in Welsh and Anglo-Saxon 
writers, the oldest source of personal names I have met is the 
Record of Manumissions of Cornish serfs by Saxon lords in the 
Bodmin Gospels, now in the British Museum; and that of local 
names is the Domesday Survey; the former written by Anglo-Saxon, 
and the latter by Norman, scribes. We have after this a series of 
charters, deeds, and other documents, in which we find the same 
names spelled in no end of ways, varying even in the same docu- 
ment, showing that the scribes had no idea of the true orthography 
or of the meaning of the words. As a consequence the translating 
of the names of many of our towns, villages, manors, &c., is very 
uncertain: we cannot do, as may be done with Anglo-Saxon, 
Welsh, and Irish names, refer to records, histories, poems, &c., 
written more than a thousand years ago by natives in their 
vernacular, preserving the true orthography of the names, and so 
enabling the student to fix with a great deal of certainty the 
derivation and original meaning. All that we can do is to take the 
names as they stand, or with such. conjectural amendments as the 
various spelling of the name, analogy of other names, and know- 
ledge of the locality—its history, traditions, &c. enable us to make, 
and so fix the probable meaning the names bore to Cornishmen when 
they spoke the Cornish language. 

In the glossary of Cornish names, now -publishing in parts, I 
have been charged with giving too many meanings of the same 
name. But I have done this in order that others may from these 
various meanings be able to discover the true one, always making 
it a point to give the Cornish or other words whence I suppose the 
name to have been derived. Where any recognized authority has 


CORNISH NAMES, 55 


given a meaning, I give this on his authority, without vouching for 
its correctness. Some very absurd meanings have been given by 
very learned men. Thus Lostwithiel is made by Carew to mean 
“a lion’s (guitfil) tail (lost), as absurd as the vulgar meaning 
assigned ‘‘ Lost i’ the hill.” The probable meaning seems to be, 
“The Irishman’s (gwydhel) encampment.’’ We know the Irish 
did make inroads into Britain, as well as send missionaries here. 
The not distant parish of Withiel may be from an Irish saint; or 
this name and the latter part of Lostwithiel may be the same as 
the Welsh gwyddwal,—a place full of bushes, briars, &e. Cary- 
bullock Park was a deer park of the duke’s, and, says Carew, ‘‘it 
hath lost its qualitie through exchanging deere for bullocke.’? Ton- 
kin makes this ‘‘ Prince’s (dudach) town (caer) ;”’ it may come from 
the Welsh dwich, a pass. Of Pennance, a very common name, 
meaning simply ‘‘ vale (mans) head (pen),’’ Drew says, ‘‘a name 
supposed to have been imposed when the place was given to the 
church as commutation for sins committed.” Trescobeas is ren- 
dered by Hals ‘‘treble or threefold kisses” (bave, to kiss); but 
Tresco is elder (scaw) town (tre), and beas may = vez, outside. 
Tresamble in ‘‘Gwennap, a poem,’’ by Francis, a native of the 
parish, is rendered, ‘‘The house (ére) on the burdensome (sam) 
big-belly (d0/) hill;”” but Sambol is a family name (?=St. Paul), 
so it may be Sambol’s dwelling. And very many names of places 
are in this latter way to be explained. Many of the suffixes are 
composed of names that may be recognized as those once common 
in Wales, names of British saints and princes recorded in Welsh 
genealogies, and Cornish serfs in the Bodmin Manumissions, and 
tenants, both Celtic and Teuton, named in Domesday; so that it is 
useless to attempt to force other signification upon them, though 
many, doubtless, that originally came from this source have been 
intentionally or unintentionally altered, to make them bear an 
apparently fitting meaning. 

With regard to Cornish saints bearing names as strange and out- 
landish as Cornish placcs, and altogether ignored by the Roman 
calendar, it must be remembered that Christianity was established 
here before the mission of St. Augustine from Rome; that, accord- 
ing to the Welsh Triads, Cornwall was an archiepiscopal see before 
the foundation of Canterbury; and that many eminent men who 
fled from constantly encroaching pagan Saxons would find a refuge 
in Cornwall, and give themselves up here to a religious life, as 


56 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


they did in Wales, building hermitages and founding churches ; 
and though these have been swept away by the hand of time, and 
other structures have taken their place, dedicated to ‘‘ orthodox” 
saints, yet the names of parishes still preserve the names of these 
original founders. 

In conclusion, I beg to solicit co-operation from all interested in 
this kind of study. All Cornishmen may help by supplying omitted 
names and correcting mis-fits; 7. ¢., where from want of local 
information I have given a meaning to a name which, though 
apparently justified by the sources to which it is referred, is not 
justified by the peculiarities of the place; while the general 
philologist may render important assistance by detecting in some 
of the names, as to the meaning of which I have ventured to make 
‘Ca guess,” traces of some other languages which may have found 
their way into this extreme corner of Britain. I have given a good 
many pure Saxon names, and have been blamed for doing so in a 
professedly ‘‘ Cornish Glossary;”’ but many such names are found 
in all parts of Cornwall, especially in the east; and it is possible 
that a Turanian scholar may find, more particularly in the lists of 
unexplained names given with each part of the Glossary, proofs of 
a Turanian element. 


A Paper will be read on the 10th February, on 
RECENT APPLICATIONS OF THE SPECTRUM ANALYSIS. 


By Mr. R. Bisnopr. 


PROGRAMME. 


Sxercu of the history of discovery of the properties of the solar 
spectrum—Spectra of various bodies: solid, liquid, and gaseous— 
Construction of the spectroscope, and method of using it—Appli- 
cation to chemical research—The dark lines of the solar spectrum 
explained—Discovery of their nature by Kirchoff, and their appli- 
cation to solar and stellar chemistry—Evidence of motion in the 
‘‘fixed’’ stars afforded by the spectroscope—Spectra of comets and 
nebulee—Conclusion. 


RECENT APPLICATIONS OF THE SPECTRUM ANALYSIS. 57 


A Paper will be read on the 17th February on 


OUR BRAINS. 
By Mr. W. Savarese, June. 


PROGRAMME. 


Lecture naturally divided into two sections, abstract and phy- 
sical—Nervous system not all contained in the skull—Roughly 
divided into two parts, white and grey matter—White fibres 
described — Grey matter described — Anatomy —Spinal cord— 
Medulla oblongata—Sensory ganglia—Reflex action—The cere- 
bellum—Functions of the cranio-spinal axis—'I‘he cerebrum— 
Anatomy—The convolutions—Termination of fibres—Connexion 
with the external world—Comparative anatomy—Instinct and 
reason—The skull—Psychology—Large brain an evidence of 
intellectual power—Genius generally a small brain, but active— 
Causes of development—The nerve cells reservoirs of thought— 
Memory—Reason not confined to man, nor instinct to animals— 
Phrenology — Science vulgarized—Dr. Gall’s discovery — Argu- 
ments pro and con—The organ of acquisitiveness—The influence 
of experience and education—The future of the physiologist— 
Conclusion. 


RECENT APPLICATIONS OF THE SPECTRUM ANALYSIS. 


ABSTRACT OF MR. R. BISHOP’S PAPER. 


Tue lecturer commenced his Paper with a sketch of the history of 
discovery of the properties of the solar spectrum. The dark lines 
of the spectrum first seen and described by Dr. Wollaston in 1802. 
The celebrated German optician, Fraunhofer, in 1814, published 
his map of the solar spectrum containing 576 lines. He ascer- 
tained that all solar light, whether direct or reflected, as the light 
of the moon and planets, contained the same lines, while the hght 
of the fixed stars varied in this particular. 

The spectra of various kinds of bodies were then noticed; 
important difference of character in the spectra of solid, liquid, 
and gaseous bodies. 

I 


58 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


General notion of the construction of the spectroscope, and the 
mode of using it. Application to various purposes, as the Bessemer 
process of manufacturing steel, and its use in combination with 
the microscope in detecting the presence of exceedingly minute 
quantities of many bodies. 

Kirchoff’s researches into the nature of the dark lines of the 
solar spectrum were explained, and the application of the spectro- 
scope to various interesting and important astronomical subjects 
was considered. 

The lecturer noticed the independent discovery by Lockyer and 
Janssen, of the possibility of determining, by the aid of the spec- 
troscope, the presence of those remarkable red prominences in the 
sun, which had till recently been visible only during total eclipses, 
and concluded with a reference to the observations made on the 
fixed stars, nebule, and comets. 


OUR BRAINS. 
ABSTRACT OF MR. W. SQUARE’S PAPER. 


Tis paper may be considered as naturally divided into two parts 
—abstract and physical, immaterial and material; the first is con- 
veyed in the phrase, ‘‘So-and-so has brains;’’ the second in the 
sense of brain-matter, the actual contents of the skull. In order 
to come to any understanding at all of the abstract, the material 
must first be explained, and afterwards, as far as possible, its con- 
nection with the abstract. 

In the term ‘‘ brains”? we must not merely include the contents _ 
of the cranium, but all the nervous system. Roughly speaking, 
we may divide the whole into two parts—white and grey matter ; 
the white for conduction, the grey for reception and perception of 
impressions, and for origination of ideas and nervous force. 

The lecturer described the nervous system as analogous to the 
electric telegraph—the nerves being the wires, the centres the 
battery. The centres described were the spinal cord, the medulla, 
and pons varolii; the special centres, the cerebellum; and lastly 
the cerebrum. Their anatomy in the human subject, and after- 
wards their comparative anatomy, and the way in which, by the 
development and addition of the various organs, the attributes of 
the individual whole are increased, culminating in man, were then 


OUR BRAINS. 59 


illustrated. As a matter of course, in animals the faculties for 
search of prey, for acuteness to recognize quickly the approach of 
enemies, and to guide them surely and swiftly out of danger, are 
of the highest importance. The centres presiding over these 
faculties constitute the great mass of the brain. In a diagram of 
the brain of a cod-fish was shown their predominance over the 
cerebrum, the organ of the reasoning faculty. In men of inferior 
type the skull in shape approaches more nearly to the skull of 
lower animals than in highly intellectual races. It is not, however, 
that the cranio-spinal axis is developed only to a small degree in 
man, but that the vast predominance of the cerebrum throws it 
into the shade. The cerebellum used to be looked upon as the seat 
of the passions—anger, love, hate, &c.; but physiological research 
has proved this wrong. This centre presides over the co-ordination 
of muscular action, or, in other words, the production of actions 
in accordance with one another, and the requirements of the motion 
to be made. 

The difference between the human brain and that of the highest 
brute is seen at a glance. In man we have developed to its greatest 
extent the cerebrum. In man the cerebrum overlaps all the rest, 
and forms the great bulk of the contents of the skull. It consists 
of two lateral halves, known as the hemispheres, and a connecting 
band, the corpus callosum. The grey matter lies on the surface, 
forming a coating over the white. The surface is not uniform, as 
in many lower animals—the rabbit for instance, but everywhere 
covered with convolutions. The depth and number of these deter- 
mines the amount of grey matter. The convolutions are most 
marked in the prime of life, and in persons of great intellectual 
energy. In old persons and children they are comparatively flat. 
They are not constant, but offer every variety of configuration. 

That the brain is the organ of the mind, the lecturer thought no 
one for a moment would question. If it were not so, what would 
be the use of this large organ, so largely connected with the rest 
of the body? In animals, as the various attributes that are com- 
monly supposed to belong to the mind increase, the brain increases. 
If the nerve supplying any particular part be divided, the connec- 
tion between the mind and that part ceases. Therefore he held the 
brain to be the organ of the mind. Reason and faculties, such as 
feeling and the various emotions, are the attributes of that invisible 
essence the mind. A large brain, like a large man, is capable of 

12 


60 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


being largely increased. A small man can never beat a large one, 
their powers being relatively equal. A large brain indicates a large 
mind that has great force of character. A large brain may be 
associated, however, with an indolent mind. Such a brain would 
have more white and less grey matter than the average. It would 
indicate an individual who had capabilities for great things, but who 
from want of opportunities, laziness, or want of application, has 
not used his power or developed his grey matter. Such a brain is 
generally combined with the lymphatic temperament. The mind, 
in its relation to the brain, is like a player upon an instrument. If 
the instrument be bad, the tunes are harsh and discordant; and 
equally so if the player be not skilful; while, if both be good, we 
listen with pleasure to the full-toned harmony of a well-ordered 
whole. 

Within the lifetime of all present the great gulf that stood 
between the various great divisions of nature has been bridged 
over, and they have been shown to fade imperceptibly one into the 
other. By the microscope bodies have been discovered which 
puzzle the best observers to say whether they are plants or 
animals; and in the laboratory the chemist can manufacture out of 
inorganic substances products of the animal world. The physiolo- 
gist, then, has to determine how the brain acts, the relation of the 
nerve-cells to one another in their chemistry; their nervous elec- 
trical and psychological status; to attempt, and I hope with 
success, to bridge over the great gulf that at present stands 
between those two widely separated, yet closely connected, ele- 
ments—Mind and Matter. 


A Paper will be read on the 24th February on 
PHILOSOPHY versus MATERIALISM. 


By Rev. J. M. CuHaruton, M.a. 


PROGRAMME. 


Two modes of contemplating the manifestations of conscious life ; 
namely, through the bodily organism, and by means of self-con- 
sciousness—The fallacies resulting from exclusive attention to 
either of these two kinds of manifestation—The tendency of 
certain scientific men to materialism—Preliminary propositions: 


: 


PHILOSOPHY VERSUS MATERIALISM. 61 


(1) It is utterly impossible to identify the objects of sense- 
perception with those of self-consciousness—(2) Life, as far as 
we are concerned with it in this lecture, must include conscious- 
ness—(3) Philosophy must, in its essential principles, be deduced 
from the primary data and laws of consciousness— Particular 
examination of Mr. Huxley’s theory of Protoplasm, and its natural 
properties—The fallacy of his reasonings founded on the alleged 
analogy between water, as consisting of a chemical union of 
oxygen and hydrogen, and life as supposed to result from the 
constituents of Protoplasm—Materialism of his whole theory. 


PHILOSOPHY versus MATERIALISM. 


ABSTRACT OF MR. CHARLTON’S PAPER. 


‘Tuts Lecture might have better borne the title of ‘‘ Philosophy 


versus Huxleyism,” as the objections urged against the principles 
of Materialism are founded chiefly upon an article by Professor 
Huxley in the Portnightly Review. 

The lecturer commenced by referring to two different ways of 
contemplating the operations of mind—namely, through the bodily 
organism, and by means of self-consciousness—and endeavoured to 
show that exclusive attention given to either of these modes of in- 
vestigation leads necessarily to one-sided and partial conclusions. 
Observing that the tendency of scientific inquiry at the present 
time is greatly in the direction of Materialism, the lecturer laid 
down three preliminary propositions :— 

1. That it is impossible to identify the objects of sense-perception 
with those of self-consciousness. On this ground he argued the 
impossibility of obtaining any knowledge of the real nature of 
mind from mere chemical or physiological analysis, and the ab- 
surdity involved in making the attempt. 

2. That for the purposes of this lecture, life is considered only 
as far as it may be understood to include some degrce of conscious- 
ness; or, in other words, if in the proper sense of the word life 
may exist in some cases apart from all consciousness, the lecturer 
is not concerned with it. 


62 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


3. Philosophy must in its essential principles be deduced from 
the primary data and laws of consciousness. 

The lecturer then proceeded to consider Mr. Huxley’s main 
position; namely, that as the properties of water must be con- 
sidered as resulting from those of its chemical constituents, so the 
phenomena of life and consciousness, exhibited in connection with 
Protoplasm, must be regarded as the physical results of the chemical 
properties of Protoplasm. In reply to the reasoning on which this 
theory is founded, the lecturer argued :— 

1, That we know not what constituents diving Protoplasm may 
include; for we are able to analyse Protoplasm only when it is 
dead. 

2. That there is no analogy between diwing substance and any 
dead chemical compound. 

3. That, between the properties of water and those of its 
chemical constituents, there is a correspondence in nature; whereas 
there is an absolute incongruity between the phenomena of con- 
sciousness and the physical properties of the chemical constituents 
of Protoplasm. 

The lecturer then particularly examined Mr. Huxley’s mode of 
extricating himself from the ‘‘slough of materialism,’’ and showed 
its insufficiency, and proceeded to point out some other fallacies in 
his argument. 


A Paper will be read on the 3rd March on 


WILLIAM COWPER, POET AND LETTER-WRITER. 


By Mr. E. STEANE JACKSON, M.A., F.G.S. 


PROGRAMME. 


Cowrrr’s surname and christain name—Certain incidents in his 
life which shaped his career, and modified his temperament—His 
position as an original English poet—Characteristics of his style : 
his pathos, satire, humour, and originality——His claims as a 
scholar—Vincent Bourne—Passages from his Homer diligently 
compared with former translations—His excellence as letter-writer. 


WILLIAM COWPER: POET AND LETTER WRITER. 63 


WILLIAM COWPER: POET AND LETTER WRITER. 


ABSTRACT OF MR. JACKSON’S PAPER. 


Tae question of the pronunciation of the name Cowper was dis- 
cussed. The conclusion was, that a man has a right to pronounce 
his name as he likes. It*was suggested that the Christian name 
may have some influence in moulding the disposition of the bearer 
of it. William Cowper was by nature timid, constitutionally 
morbid, and in the fear of a public appearance before the House of 
Lords attempted self-destruction. The same feeling drove him into 
seclusion and a recluse life, and directed his thoughts to a contem- 
plative rather than to an active life. 

The lecturer insisted on the distinction drawn by Aristotle be- 
tween the contemplative and active life, which in modern terms is 
the same as between subjective and objective. Cowper appeared at 
an opportune time, when no great writer filled the public mind. 
His merit is not to be judged by the manner in which his first 
volume was received. His second attempt a year or two later was 
fully appreciated. 

His style was free from the conceits of his predecessors, easy, 
plain, and simple, but showing much elegance. He wrote the most 
pathetic poem in the English language. His satire was pointed 
and sharp, but not spiteful or ill-natured; meant to correct, not to 
wound; lashing vices and not men. He had an original vein of 
humour, which displayed itself most when he was in spirit most 
depressed and melancholy. So extremes meet. His originality 
may be tested by the ‘immortality of quotation.”” Following 
Vincent Bourne’s example, he successfully tried Latin versification. 
He translated Homer into a metre, which had not been attempted 
before his time. The translation was close and faithful, but not 
elegant. Chapman and Pope were his predecessors; both had their 
peculiarities, but neither represented Homer correctly. His private 
epistolary correspondence contained all the excellence of such com- 
position, and was not penned, as Cicero’s and Walpole’s, with the 
view of after publication. 


64 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


A Paper will be read on the 10th March on 
ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE RESPECTING MARIE STUART. 


By Rev. J. Erskine Risk, M.A. 


PROGRAMME. 


A previous lecture on Marie Stuart having stated the evidence 
against her as confirmed from the Spanish records at Simancas, 
the present lecture is intended to state and balance the evidence for 
her.—The additional evidence on the subject since the publication 
of Froude’s ninth volume is as follows: 1. The Book of Articles of 
Accusation presented at the Conference at Westminster in 1568— 
2. The Journal of Proceedings at Westminster on the day when the 
Silver Casket of Letters was produceed—3. The Inventory of Queen 
Marie’s Jewels before the birth of her son in 1566—4. Ascertain- 
ment by Professor Schiern, of Copenhagen, of date of capture of 
‘¢French Paris’—In connexion with this fresh evidence are 
discussed, first, the authenticity of the Casket Letters to Bothwell; 
and secondly, the evidence of witnesses.—Summary, and balance 
of testimony on the whole evidence—Conclusion. 


ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE RESPECTING MARIE STUART. 


ABSTRACT OF PAPER BY REV. J. ERSKINE RISK, M.A. 


Arter the enumeration of the additional evidence specified in the 
programme, Mr. Hosack’s argument respecting the Casket Letters 
to Bothwell is first examined. 

I. The date of No. 1 is objected to by that industrious writer on 
the ground of alleged contradiction to dates of the Regent Murray’s 
Journal. Mr. Hosack also maintains the reference to “the bring- 
ing on of the man’’—assumed to be Darnley—‘‘to Craigmillar” 
is incorrect, because at the time Bothwell was preparing Kirk 0’ 
Field for Darnley’s reception. The objection answered by the 
supposition that Bothwell may have provided another lodging for 
the king in the event of his refusal to go to Craigmillar, only 
desiring the queen in the first instance to bring Darnley on to 
Craigmillar without specifying his further views. 


ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE RESPECTING MARIE STUART. 65 


As regards the second letter, the close agreement between the 
account it gives of the queen’s interview with the king, and 
Crawfurd’s deposition on the same subject, is used by Hosack as 
evidence against its genuineness. This, however, so far from 
carrying such a conclusion, is maintained to be a more likely proof 
of genuineness. The queen would, most likely, give a minute 
account of everything as it took place to Bothwell, to enable 
him to carry on the plot, and Crawfurd, Darnley’s servant, would 
have everything connected with his master’s last moments indelibly 
stamped on his memory. Supposed cause of the ridiculous mis- 
takes in some of the French and Latin copies of the letters. 
Sergeant Barham, at the trial of the Duke of Norfolk, alludes to 
the Queen of Scots occupying herself in re-translating into French, 
English, or Scotch, copies of her letters, surreptitiously obtained 
for her by Maitland, of Ledington. Barham speaks of ‘this 
subtlety of practice, from some variance, coming to light.” 

As to the third, fourth, and fifth letters, Hosack maintains their 
genuineness, but that they were written to Darnley. The internal 
evidence is not quite consistent with this theory. In proof of 
letter ‘‘four”’ being Marie’s, and to Darnley, Hosack alludes to the 
passage where, according to Hosack’s rendering, she calls herself 
“the second love of Jason, if her correspondent should still think 
more of other ladies than herself.’’ This Hosack supposes to be a 
classical error not likely to be made by “Buchanan, and therefore to 
be a woman’s oversight. But the French shows the writer did 
not call herself the second love of Jason, but @ second love. This 
would only imply that she was a second Medea, or a second person 
in a similar position to that of Medea, and not that Jason had a 
second love, whose fate hers might resemble. Hosack’s admission 
respecting the occurrence of a suspicious passage in fifth letter, 
where the writer says ‘‘she will get rid of some obstacle if she 
does not receive his (her correspondent’s) instructions.’’ Hosack’s 
proposal to strike out the passage as ‘‘ unintelligible” is not satis- 
factory. 

As to the sixth, seventh, and eighth letters, Mr. Hosack quietly 
ignores Froude’s discovery of the original French of two letters. 
The Book of Articles is referred to as evidence of the specific 
charges laid against Maric Stuart, and much of it is found to 
coincide with Buchanan’s ‘ Detectio.” The evidence from the 
‘‘minutes’”? supposed by Laing to be “lost,” but now printed as 

K 


66 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


the journal of proceedings of the Westminster commissioners on 
the day of production of the Casket Letters. Notice in minutes of 
production of Casket and Letters by Murray and colleagues after 
some hesitation respecting consequences, and reference particularly 
in these minutes to letters one and two. 

II. Notice of objections to testimony of French Paris. Paris 
not produced at Westminster; not relied upon by Buchanan in his 
‘Detectio.”” Professor Schiern, from records of Danish govern- 
ment, believes him to have been delivered up to Capt. Clark, 
Murray’s agent, on the 30th October, 1568, in time to have been 
at the Westminster conference, which did not close till the middle 
of December, 1568. But Murray may have relied more, in the 
first instance, upon Nelson and Crawfurd’s evidence as being ser- 
vants of Lord Darnley ; and he expresses his confidence to Queen 
Elizabeth, that Paris’s testimony, late as it was produced, could not 
be impeached. 

Hosack next attempts to invalidate Nelson’s evidence on the 
ground of inconsistency with the recently- discovered inventory of 
the furniture of Kirk o’ Field. The inventory states the king’s 
chamber was furnished with ‘‘a violet velvet bed, ornamented 
with gold and silver lace.’’ Nelson states the queen had substi- 
tuted ‘‘an old travelling bed”’ for ‘‘a bed of black figured velvet.” 
But where is the inconsistency? Might not a violet-coloured 
velvet bed be easily mistaken for black? Hosack’s reference to 
Earl Morton’s execution on the evidence of Bothwell’s testament, 
apparently in proof of the authority of that will, is inconclusive. 
Hosack at length admits that for two years the queen and Bothwell 
were the only persons charged with Darnley’s murder, but main- 
tains that afterwards the circle was made to widen, so as to embrace 
nearly all the nobility. But after all the chief weight of the 
evidence rests on the queen’s own conduct—more even than on 
letters or oral testimony. Hosack makes no reference to the dis- 
covery claimed by Froude of the French originals of the two notes 
of the queen respecting the abduction. The protestation of the 
Earls of Huntley and Argyll at least proves that the queen under- 
stood she should be ‘‘made quyte”’ of Darnley without any trouble 
to herself, though she bargains for ‘‘no blot to her honour and 
conscience.” Can we believe that the subtle, pleasure-seeking 
daughter of Catherine de Medici is the timid and innocent being 
whom Hosack has tried to paint? And can we hold her low 


EARLY ENGLISH ROMANCE OF SIR FERUMBRAS. 67 


spirits after her marriage with Bothwell to be, as that writer 
represents, a proof of ‘‘her rooted aversion” to him, and not 
rather the natural reaction after the fulfilment, at so vast a cost, 
of wishes so long entertained—the shadow, cast before, of the 
scaffold and the block? These are the sole alternatives in the 
problem before us, and it is for us now to decide whether Hosack 
has really established anything in arrest of the judgment come to 
by Froude. 


Instead of a paper on Party, a paper will be read on 17th March on 


AN EARLY ENGLISH ROMANCE OF SIR FERUMBRAS 
(ASHM. MS. 33), AND THE CHARLEMAGNE 
ROMANCES GENERALLY. 


By Mr. J. SuHetty. 


PROGRAMME, 


Tux Charlemagne of Romance.—The treatment of Charlemagne by 
the earlier and later Romances compared.—His twelve peers.—The 
extent of the popularity of the Romances.—Account of the English 
Romances edited and unedited.—The Romance of Sir Ferumbras. 
—The French Fierabras.—The story.—The two English versions 
compared with one another and with the French.—Some curious 
particulars respecting the Ashmole MS. 


ON AN EARLY ENGLISH VERSION OF SIR FERUMBRAS 
(ASHM. MS. 33) & THE CHARLEMAGNE ROMANCES 
GENERALLY. 


ABSTRACT OF MR. JOHN SHELLY’S PAPER. 


Tue following list comprises, I believe, all the known English 
Romances relating to Charlemagne. 

1. Roland. All that remains of this is a fragment (Lansd. MS. 
388, leaf 381 to 395) of a poem, probably written in the 138th 
century. It is not strictly alliterative, but abounds with allitera- 
tion. An analysis and some extracts furnished by Mr. Thos. 
Wright are printed at the end of “M. Michel’s edition of La 
Chanson de Roland. The whole of the fragment will probably 
be published by the Early English Text Society. It relates the 
treachery of Gwynylon (the French Ganelon or Guenelon), and the 

K 2 


68 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


beginning of the fight at Roncevaux. In describing Gwynylon’s 
treachery the poet has derived one remarkable circumstance, not 
from the French Roland, but from the Chronicle of the pseudo- 
Turpin. M. Paris is mistaken, however, in supposing that he does 
not include Turpin in the number of the combatants at Roncevaux 
(Hist. Poét. de Charlemagne, p. 155, note). He says expressly 
(leaf 384) :— 

vnto Roulond then went the princis xij 

Olyuer and Roger and Aubry hym-selue 


Richard and Rayner that redy was euer 
tirry and turpyn all redy wer. 


The following description of the ‘‘ strange weather” that hap- 
pened in France while the battle was going on may serve as a 
specimen of the style of the poem, which is remarkably vigorous : 


— while our folk fought to-gedur 

ther fell in ffraunce A straung wedur 

A gret derk myst in the myd-day-tym 
thik and clowdy and euyll wedur thene 
and thiknes of sterris and thonder light 
the erthe dynnyd doillfully to wet 
ffoulis fled for fere it was gret wonder 
bowes of trees then brestyn asonder 
best ran to bank¢s And cried fall sore 
they durst not abid in the mor 

ther was no man but he hid his hed 
And thought not but to dy in that sted 
the wekid wedur lastid full long 

from the mornying to the euynsong 
then Rose a clowd euyn in the west 

as red as blod with-outon rest 

It shewid doun on the erthe & ther did shyn 
So many doughty men as died that tym. 


2. Otuwel. This is also incomplete. Ellis has given an analysis 
of it—Specimens of Karly Engl. Metr. Romances (ed. 1811), vol. i1., 
p. 324—and the poem has since been printed from the Auchinleck 
MS. for the Abbotsford Club (Edin. 1836). Its date is supposed 
to be not later than 1330. [Ellis has completed the story, as he 
says, from another MS., then in the possession of Mr. Fillingham, 
in which, however, M. Gaston Paris has recognized a portion of 
a cyclic poem, to which he gives the title of Charlemagne and 
Roland, and which I will next describe. Our Otuwel is the 
French Otinel, printed in Les Anciens Poctes de la France, tom. i. 
Otuwel or Otinel, the hero of the poem, comes as the ambassador 


qo" 


EARLY ENGLISH ROMANCE OF SIR FERUMBRAS. 69 


of the Saracen king Garsie (Garsile), to summon Charles to pay 
homage to his master, and to abjure the Christian faith; but by a 
miracle he is himself converted, and ‘forsakes all his gods.”?’ He 
is then betrothed to Belecent, the daughter of Charles, and marches 
with Charles and his ‘‘ duzze peres”’ (douze pairs) to fight against 
Garsie in Lombardy. Garsie is taken prisoner, and led to Charles 
by Otuwel, who is rewarded—according to the French Romances, 
for here our fragment ends—with the hand of Belecent and the 
crown of Lombardy. 

3. Charlemagne and Roland. This is the title which, according 
to M. Paris (Hist. Poét. de Charlem., liv. 1, ch. viil.), ought to be 
given to a poem which we possess only in scattered fragments. 
The poem belongs probably to the beginning of the 14th century. 
M. Paris divides it into four parts. 1st. Charlemagne’s journey to 
the Holy Land according to the Latin legend. 2nd. The beginning 
of the war in Spain after the first chapters of Turpin’s Chronicle. 
3rd. Otuwel, but a different version from that described above. 
4th. The end of Turpin’s history. The first and second parts 
consist of the poem in the Auchinleck MS., printed for the Abbots- 
ford Club under the title of Loland and Vernagu, and analysed by 
Ellis as Roland and Ferraqgus (vol. 11., 302). The story of the first 
part, as related in this poem, should rather be described as Charles’s 
visit to the emperor ‘‘ Constansious,”’ and that of the second part, 
which begins on page 15 of the Abbotsford edition, as the combat 
of Roland and Vernagu. The concluding lines of this second part 
connect it with the third. 


To Otuel also yern 
That was a sarrazin stern 
Ful sone this word sprong. 
This third and the fourth part are comprised in Mr. Fillingham’s 
MS., which we know only from Ellis’s analysis. It contains, ac- 
cording to Ellis, about 11,000 lines, and relates not only the story 
of Otuwel (the third part of the poem), but also the conquest of 
Spain, the deceit of Ganelon, the fight at Roncevaux, the defeat 
of the Saracens by Charles, and the punishment of Ganelon, which 
form the fourth part. The poem concludes as follows :— 
Here endeth Otuel, Roland, and Olyuere, 
And of the twelve dussypere. 
It is worth while remarking how entirely the meaning of the title 
given to the peers has been lost by the English poets. Here we 


70 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


read of ‘‘the twelve dussypere’’ (les douze pairs), and in other 
places we find each single knight called ‘‘a dozeper,’”’ while in the 
Ashm. MS. of Sir Ferumbras, owing perhaps to the writer having 
a lisp, the word becomes ‘‘ doththeper.”’ 

4. Ferumbras. We have two versions of this Romance; one of 
them the Farmer MS. analyzed by Ellis (vol. i. p. 369), and now 
in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps; the other a fragment 
(Ashm. MS. 33) of great length, which will shortly be printed by 
the Early English Text Society. They both belong probably to 
the end of the fourteenth century. The original of the Romance 
is the French Fierabras (Les Ancitens Poetes, tom. iv.) I give 
parallel extracts from the French and the two English versions. 
There is a Provencal as well as a French version of the Romance, 
and I would suggest the enquiry whether the poem analyzed by 
Ellis does not follow this Provencal version, or rather perhaps the 
lost French original of which the French editors have shown the 
Provencal version to be a translation. They agree at any rate in 
brevity, though they both give a long introduction, which the 
existing French version omits. The Ashm. MS. is imperfect at the 
beginning and at the end; but it appears generally to follow very 
nearly the story of the existing French version, though it is much 
more diffuse, the remaining fragment containing about 10,450 lines, 
while the entire French poem contains only 6219. Both the English 
versions agree, however, in some little particulars which the French 
omits; ¢.g., the mention of Richard blessing himself in the extracts 
I give. Our fragment begins, like the French poem, with the 
relation of a long combat between Oliver and Ferumbras (Fierabras, 
ferox brachium), the son of the admiral (amirans, Arad. amir) Balan, 
who in the Farmer MS. is strangely called Laban. Ferumbras 
is vanquished, and embraces the Christian faith; but Oliver is 
surprised by the Saracens, and made prisoner, with four other peers. 
The rest of the peers are sent by Charles to demand the surrender 
of their companions, but are thrown into the same dungeon. They 
are, however, protected by Florippe, the daughter of Balan, and 
after many battles are at length delivered by Charlemagne. Balan 
refuses baptism, but Florippe is baptized, and here the Ashm. MS. 
ends, being imperfect; but the other versions relate the marriage 
of Florippe to Guy of Bourgoyne; and the division of the kingdom 
of Spain between him and Ferumbras. 

With the Ashm. MS. is preserved its ancient vellum cover, made 


EARLY ENGLISH ROMANCE OF SIR FERUMBRAS. 71 


out of portions of two Latin documents, one relating to the Vicarage 
of Columpton, and the other to the chapel of Holne and parish 
of ‘‘ Bukfastleghe.”’ This cover, however, is chiefly remarkable 
because it contains what is evidently part of the first draft of the 
poem, written in the same hand as the MS. itself. The following 
extracts from both will show how the poet corrected his verses :—— 


DRAFT. 

So sturne strokes thay aragte 
eyther til other the whyle 

That al the erthe about quagte 
men migt hure a myle 

They wer so fers on hure mod 
And eger on hure figte 

That eyther of hem thogte god 
to slen other if he migt. 

MS. 

So sterne strokes thay araugte 
eyther til other with strenghte 

That al the erthe ther ofte quagte 
a myle and more on lenghtke 

They weren so eger botie of mod 
And eke so fers to figte 

That eyther of hem than thogte god 
to sle other if he migte 


The poem is written in the Southern dialect, but it contains a 
remarkably large admixture of Northern forms, words occurring 
sometimes in two forms in lines close together, if not in the same 
line. Thus we find zch and J, a and he, heo and sche, hy and thay 
(the latter most frequently), and ¢hi/ke and this, to and til, prykyng 
and prykande, vaste and faste, and so forth, the former being the 
Southern, the latter the Northern form. The Southern infinitive in 
y (still used occasionally in Devonshire) continually occurs: ¢.4., 
maky, asky, graunty, robby, wivy (to wed), &e. On the whole one 
would be inclined to suppose that the poem was written in the 
South (perhaps in the diocese of Exeter) by a southern man, who 
had, however, lived in the North sufficiently long to become familiar 
with northern forms. But amore careful examination (in preparation 
for the E. E. T. Socicty’s edition) will very likely lead to our being 
better informed concerning the character and history of this most 
interesting MS. 


N.B.—In all the quotations the italic ¢h and g represent Anglo- 
Saxon letters; the other italics are extended contractions. 


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74 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


A Paper will be read on the 24th March on 


NATIONAL EDUCATION. 


By Mr. W. Apams. 


PROGRAMME. 


Importance of the subject at the present time—Evils apparent in 
society—Education as a remedy—Mode of carrying it out—Sphere 
and duty of the State—Law and freedom—Proposals of Education 
League, of Education Union, and of the Government—Prospect of 
results and opportunities. 


NATIONAL EDUCATION. 
ABSTRACT OF MR. W. ADAMS’S PAPER. 


Tre lecturer first directed attention to the importance of the sub- 
ject, and the desirability of people generally inquirmg into and 
forming intelligent opinions respecting it. He also mentioned that 
its consideration was especially appropriate for the members of the 
Institution, and pointed out that it was not a party matter. 

He next spoke of the reasons which attracted public attention 
to it. The state of society is unhealthy, the condition of large 
towns shocking, and the position of farm labourers very unsatis- 
factory. These evils cause an alarming increase of pauperism, 
and unless some remedy is brought into operation they are likely to 
spread, and press more and more heavily on the energy of the 
people. In these matters, although the wealthiest nation in the 
world, we do not compare favourably with some others, the fact 
being that an increase of wealth is in the long run of no benefit 
to a nation, unless acccompanied by an advance of character. 
This we Englishmen forget, and wealth being the great object 
of desire for itself, it is common not to be content with sufficient 
to meet our needs, but to try to get as much as can be laid hold 
of in any way conventionally considered not disreputable. This 
upscts the regularity of true commerce and induces reckless specu- 
lation, which produces a general restlessness and fluctuation in 


NATIONAL EDUCATION. 13 


enterprise, and consequently in demand for labour. The uncer- 
tainty of employment makes large numbers of the lower classes 
unthrifty. While employment is plentiful and wages are high 
they are wasteful, and do not think of the possibility of a time 
coming when things will be different; or if such a thought occurs 
to them at all, they heed it not. They have no position in socicty 
which they care to maintain, and they know that, if things come 
to the worst, society will not let them starve. The tendency of 
this is to increase the pressure of circumstances on those who pre- 
serve their self-respect, and draw the weaker down into the rising 
flood of indifference. 

Emigration has been proposed as a remedy; but its relief could 
only be for a time, and is even then unsatisfactory. Any remedy 
to be effectual must be directed to the promotion of more order in 
society. Many of the old regulations, which tended to maintain 
the permanence of the relations of its members, and prevent occa- 
sional strains from shaking them loose, have passed away, and we 
have not replaced them by measures appropriate to our circum- 
stances. 

When our attention is directed to the increase of the stability 
of society, by finding some means of giving its members more 
character, the first thing which strikes us is the position of the 
children, and the fact that a great many, while their minds are 
being formed, are deprived of the conditions necessary for a healthy 
development, and it seems obvious that the first thing to be done 
is to take steps to afford them such conditions. More than a 
million—that is, more than one-seventh—of the children of Great 
Britain, if not more, are destitute of education; and according to 
the report on the state of education in Birmingham, Manchester, 
Leeds, and Liverpool, by Messrs. Fitch and Fearon, recently pre- 
sented to Parliament, it appears, as the Z?mes says, ‘“‘to be no 
exaggeration to say that half of the children of those four large 
towns are not educated at all.” 

Is it not, then, the duty of the State to secure the education of 
these neglected children? No persons have a right to take upon 
themselves the duty of parentage without first seeing that they 
will be able to give their children a fair start in life; but there is 
no fault more commonly committed than the disregard of this, and 
consequently we have, as previously shown, a large number of 
parents who are unable or unwilling to fulfil duties towards their 

L 2 


76 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


children about which there is no dispute. Is, then, the State 
action to supply the deficiency any infringement, or even any 
interference, with their rights? If they do their duty, they will 
not feel the compulsion. Law is the framework of the body 
politic. A written law becomes necessary, because without it 
there is no possibility of keeping men from infringing on each 
other’s rights. It regulates the actions of people so as to perfect 
liberty, instead of restricting it; for freedom is not license or 
power to do as one likes, unmindful of others, but the power to 
follow out true aspirations, which of course, being harmonious, 
will not clash. 

It is sometimes urged, however, that the proposal is un-English. 
This is a mistake. The Court of Chancery possesses jurisdiction 
to secure the education of any children neglected by their parents; 
but the exercise of this jurisdiction is necessarily limited to cases 
in which the Court can control the use of money for the benefit of 
the children; because, as Lord Eldon said, the Court cannot ‘‘take 
upon itself the maintenance of all the children in the kingdom.” 

So much as to the right of the State. Is it not, however, the 
duty of the State to interfere? A great number of children have 
no chance to learn how to live useful lives, but are surrounded 
from infancy by vicious and criminal influences. How can the 
State then, when it reaps the fruits of their bad training and its 
own neglect, punish them with any show of justice? Again, a 
great many parents would be willing to send their children to 
school, but their neighbours send theirs to work, and in this way 
labour is cheapened, and the earnings of the children of the well- 
meaning parents become necessary to them. Ought not the State 
to protect and encourage these people in the execution of their 
wishes? There is a third consideration. The neglect of these 
presses very heavily on the persons who suffer from their depreda- 
tions, and have to bear the burden of their poverty. Have they 
no right to expect the State to try to stay the evil? 

It being then the duty of the State to secure to all children the 
means of primary education, we come to the consideration how far 
it has a right and ability to draw out or develope the character of 
the children. It is the duty of the State to exert a citizen influence 
on the children; that is, to awaken and cherish in them all those 
desires which good citizens ought to have, both towards the State 
and towards each other; and for this purpose it should secure for 


NATIONAL EDUCATION. 77 


them teachers of high character. People generally believe that to 
sustain a man’s character he must have a religious belief, and the 
question therefore comes before us, whether the State has any 
right or duty to secure to the children education in theology, and 
whether, if it exerts any compulsion for this purpose, it will be 
effectual. This consideration does not involve any question of con- 
troversial theology. Indeed, it immediately concerns the position of 
members of this Institution. The exclusion of theology from public 
schools is said to make them irreligious. We exclude it. Are we 
therefore irreligious? Members do not change their characters 
when they come to our meetings. They are just as much or as 
little irreligious as at any other time. All men admit religion and 
theology to be distinct. Men of all creeds would acknowledge it 
to be out of place to bring theology forward in ordinary intercourse 
with others, and would think it altogether wrong for a man to put 
aside his religion at any time. It is said that if a teacher does not 
teach theology, he will not be able to correct moral faults; but is 
this so in every-day life? Any person would be able to express 
indignation at an immorality without making reference to theology. 
We might also, by making theology a necessary part of the school 
teaching, lose the services of many conscientious teachers, who 
feel quite competent to teach secular matters, but do not consider 
themselves fit to teach the theology they believe, or do not wish to 
teach it under the appearance of compulsion, and therefore give 
up the profession. 

So much as to the possibility of stopping with secular knowledge 
in public schools. Now as to its desirability. Men of all creeds 
agree that they have a message to men about spiritual matters 
which must be accepted voluntarily, if at all. The very appearance 
of pressure ought therefore to be avoided. All agree, again, that 
the message is the greatest blessing men have received. All ap- 
pearance, then, of using devices or bribes to procure its acceptance 
ought also to be scrupulously avoided. If the attendance of 
children at schools where theology is taught is compelled, and their 
parents are not able to object to their learning it without putting 
themselves in an invidious position, must it not necessarily be 
taught under an appearance of compulsion, to say the least. It is 
useless to talk of the great advantage that might accrue, if the 
thing is wrong. Gentlemen should remember the saying of Arch- 
deacon Hare, ‘‘ He who does evil that good may come, pays a toll 


78 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


to the devil to let him into heaven.”? Another reason for excluding 


theological teaching from the public schools is, that religion is 
needed in every-day life, and therefore children should be brought 
to recognize that although theology is taught at separate times, and 
it is undesirable to force it on the attention of those around us, yet 
its effect should be present at all times. It is also well to make 
them understand that in life they will meet with people of different 
creeds to whom they must show, and from whom they must expect, 
the conduct of good citizens; and that their religious knowledge 
is given to enable them to act better and with kindlier sympathy 
to all, and not to restrict their regard to a few, and this cannot be 
better done than by causing them from the first to mingle at school 
on a common citizen basis. There is also the danger that, if 
theology is allowed to be taught in public schools, the teachers will 
either do it in a routine way, or ‘‘spread and sprinkle it over the 
surface of things to prevent truth from being dangerous,”’ and 
neither course is edifying. 

The lecturer, in conclusion, briefly considered the proposals of 
the National Education League, the National Education Union, and 
the Government Bill, and spoke of the prospects and opportunities 
afforded by the establishment of a system in accordance with the 
views maintained in the lecture. 


A paper will be read on the 31st March on 


PAU PHRIS M 
Mr. A. P. Prowse. 


PROGRAMME. 
Eartiest laws relating to the poor— English legislation from an 
early period to 43rd Elizabeth, 1601, and to Poor Law Amendment 
Act of 1884-5—Comparative statement of pauperism in England 
and the Western Counties for the last ten years—Out-door relief 
in Plymouth in January, 1869, and January, 1870. Inquiry—Is 
the principle or the administration of the present Poor Law a 
failure ?—Impossibility of overtaking pauperism without providing 
better houses, more food, education, and industrial training for the 


poor. 


PAUPERISM. 79 


PAUPERISM. 
ABSTRACT OF MR. A. P. PROWSE’S PAPER. 


Tue lecturer commenced by referring to the great importance of 
the subject. It had, perhaps more than any other, forced itself at 
different times on the consideration of the Legislature of the 
country, and was at the present time engaging the attention of the 
most eminent men. He gave a brief sketch of the laws relating 
to the poor from the earliest times, and of this country from a.p. 
924 to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834-5. That act was 
founded upon a principle laid down by commissioners who had 
been specially appointed to inquire into the subject; that principle 
being that every man had aright to relief. The adoption of this 
principle left no room for the exercise of discretion in the adminis- 
tration of relief. The lecturer condemned this principle. 

The workhouse ‘test’? was examined, and was pronounced to be 
harsh towards the poor, and ineffective for the object the Legisla- 
ture intended. 

The Poor Law system had signally failed in saving the rates or 
diminishing pauperism, which had increased in a greater ratio than 
the population. 

The method of administering relief by boards of guardians 
through their relieving officers was unequal, inadequate, and 
unsatisfactory, with no single recommendation for its continuance. 

Some statistics were then given to support the views which had 
been advanced, and the lecturer concluded by endorsing suggestions 
by Dr. Stallard and other authorities in reference to the appointment 
of a competent person, with special qualifications and authority, 
subject to the Central Board in London, to grant or refuse relief, 
and regulate expenditure within a given district. 

The functionary to place himself in communication with local 
committees and their officers, who should, chiefly through voluntary 
agency, visit every house, know and relieve every case of destitu- 


80 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


tion, attend to the sick, encourage the depressed and deserving, and 
become acquainted with the idle and vicious. 

It would not be unreasonable to expect that such a plan would 
soon reduce pauperism, by leading to the improvement of the 
dwellings and homes of the poor, to their being better fed, and by 
the timely education and industrial training of the children, to the 
general elevation of a people who are increasing at an accelerated 
speed, but for whose services the demand far outruns the supply. 


STATEMENT SHOWING THE NECESSITY OF 
EQUALIZATION OF RATES. 


1868. 
UNION on PARISH. | Bateable | Rate ; Reliot At 2s, 44, | Oe 
£ he £ £ £ £ 

PINMOUTHe «wae des 156637 | 3/- | 23347 18274 5073 
PLYMPTON ...cc2000% 117612 , 1/6 8741 13709 4968 

Stoke DAMEREL ....| 72680 | 3/1} 18890 8479 5411 
Sr. GERMANS... 71875 | 1/8) 59651 8327 2376 
East STONEHOUSE ..| 32931 | 2/7| 4297 3842 455 
UAVISTOCK. « «.a-ciein-sxe srs 126568 | 1/9} 11219 14766 3547 


£577708 £67445 | £67397 | £10891 | £10939 


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82 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 


1869. 


RETURN OF THE NUMBER OF OUT-DOOR PAUPERS RELIEVED 
IN PLYMOUTH ON Ist JANUARY, 1869. 


Number. Per Centage on Total. 
MEN.—Destitution caused by— 
SSICETIOGS yak ao L is Mates eevee 209 32° 
AW anit (Of WRT... bitin sats caine 158 647 24° 17: 
Casuats eb Or whe eelaeye noes 223 st teas 
Tiara tS). fis inwens: fel ccobeen ahs ay sy a, 9: 
100 
FEMALES & CHILDREN— sal 
Wives of preceding ...... 271 ' 
Children under 16 years of 
BOB ie cbie BPs nical oa 497 
ow EGG) aly 25: 
Wives of Prisoners ...... 11 | 
Children dependent onthem 23 
pie 34 iL 
Wives of Soldiers and 
palors: |. 2b s4 G. eo iisteiatae 25 | 
Children dependent on them 66 | 
— SH a 3° 
WWadOwes™ 2h wwe sb eee ae 392 
Children dependent on them 657 
uy 1049 34° 
| 
. { Females, 45 
Single Women without Chil- P Sere 83° children, 38 
Fy 2) Chee OE, - Pee 59 | a 
Unmarried Mothers ...... 26 
Children dependent onthem 32 
— 58 2: 
Other Females... ssts« 22 860 
Other Wihildroen: «5... shat ss 107 
-—— 967 él: 
Orphiaiia i238 seh sede se fone 20 | 0° 


ianatics——Memales .2...8.0.8 53 J 2 


i) £7 | ee PR eye RINE) 3746 100: |100- 


FEMAI 


PAUPERISM. 


1870. 


83 


RETURN OF THE NUMBER OF OUT-DOOR PAUPERS RELIEVED 


IN PLYMOUTH ON Isr JANUARY, 1870. 


MEN.—Destitution caused by— 

tes, wis oa alee. ae 3% 
Mean WVOEE oo cc ek lie ke es 
SS ede ge ied ie 
ee 


ES & CHILDREN— 


Wives of preceding ...... 273 

Children under 16 years of 
Maas ae a se 4 4. 0 633 

Wives of Prisoners ...... 17 


Children dependent onthem 42 


Wives of Soldiers and 
es 13 
Children dependent on them 29 


8, ne 393 
Children dependent on them 649 


Single Women without Chil- 
A | 


Unmarried Mothers ...... 15 
Children dependent onthem 21 


Other Females .......... 918 
Other Childfen .......... 157 
to) ee 
Lunatics—Females ...... 49 
ai Children ....... 8 


Number. 


167 
151 
250 

50 


906 


1042 


60 


36 


1076 
32 


57 


Per Centage on Total. 


=A 


27° 


_ 


. Children, 40 


+ 3309] 84- { Females, 44 
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