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CURIOSITIES OF CIVILIZATION
CURIOSITIES OF CIVILIZATION.
EEPEISTED FROM THE
QUARTERLY" & "EDINBURGH" REVIEWS.
EY
ANDREW WYNTER, M.D.
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY,
AND ALL BOOKSELLEKS.
The Right of Translation it reserved.'}
TO THE READEK,
The following Essays have been reprinted from the pages of
the Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews, with the kind permission
of their proprietors. It may be necessary, however, to state that,
with the exception of the paper on the " Mortality in Trades
and Professions," which was published in the Edinburgh Review
of January, 1860, the whole of them have appeared in the
Quarterly Review during the last six years. The date of each
essay is given in the list of contents ; but, where necessary,
corrections have been made, so as to bring each article up to
the knowledge of the present day.
A. W.
COLEEERNE COURT, OLD BroMPTON,
August, 1860.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
ADVERTISEMENTS (1855) 1
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS ...(1855) 53
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS (1855) 93
RATS (1857) 128
LUNATIC ASYLUMS (1857) 150
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT (1854) 200
WOOLWICH ARSENAL (1858) 245
shipwrecks ,...(1858) 288
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS (1859) 325
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH (1854) 349
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE (1855) 401
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES (1856) 451
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS (1860) 499
ADVERTISEMENTS.
It is our purpose to draw out, as a thread might be drawn
from some woven fabric, a continuous line of advertisements
from the newspaper press of this country, since its establishment
to the present time ; and, by so doing, to show how distinctly,
from its dye, the pattern of the age through which it ran is
represented. If we follow up to its source any public insti-
tution, fashion, or amusement, which has nourished during a
long period of time, we can gain some idea of our national
progress and development ; but it strikes us that in no manner
can we so well obtain at a rapid glance a view of the salient
points of generations that have passed, as by consulting those
small voices that have cried from age to age from the pages of
the press, declaring the wants, the losses, the amusements, and
the money-making eagerness of the people.
As we read in the old musty files of papers those naive an-
nouncements, the very hum of bygone generations seems to
rise to the ear. The chapman exhibits his quaint wares ■ the
mountebank capers again upon his stage ; we have the living
portrait of the highwayman flying from justice ; we see the
old china auctions thronged with ladies of quality with their
attendant negro boys, or those " by inch of candlelight" forming
many a Schalken-like picture of light and shade ; or, later still,
we have Hogarthian sketches of the young bloods who swelled
of old along the Pali-Mall. We trace the moving panorama of
men and manners up to our own less demonstrative but more
B
2 ADVERTISEMENTS.
earnest times; and all these cabinet pictures are the very
daguerreotypes cast by the age which they exhibit, not done for
effect, but faithful reflections of those insignificant items of life
and things, too small, it would seem, for the generalizing eye of
the historian, however necessary to clothe and fill in the dry
bones of his history.
The English Jlercurie of 1588, which professes to have been
published during those momentous days when the Spanish
Armada was hovering and waiting to pounce upon our southern
shores, contains, among its items of news, three or four book
advertisements, and these would undoubtedly have been the
first put forth in England were that newspaper genuine.
Mr. Watts, of the British Museum, has, however, proved that
the several numbers of this journal to be found in our national
library are gross forgeries, and, indeed, the most inexperienced
eye in such matters can easily see that neither their type, paper,
spelling, nor composition are much more than one, instead of
upwards of two centuries and a half old. Newspapers, in the
strict sense of the word — that is, publications of news appear-
ing at stated intervals, and regularly paged on — did not make
their appearance until the latter end of the reign of James I.
The Weekely Xeices, published in London in 1622, was the first
publication which answered to this description j it contained,
however, only a few scraps of foreign intelligence, and was quite
destitute ot advertisements. The terrible contest of the suc-
ceeding reign was the hotbed which forced the press of this
country into sudden life and extraordinary vigour. Those who
have wandered in the vaults of the British Museum and con-
templated the vast collection of jDolitical pamphlets and the
countless Mercuries which sprang full armed, on either side of
the quarrel, from the strong and earnest brains which wrought
in that great political trouble, will not hesitate to discover,
amidst the hubbub of the Rebellion, the first throes of the press
of England as a political power. At such a time, when March-
mont Xeedham fell foul with his types of Sir John Birkenhead
and the court party which he supported, with as heavy a hand
and as dauntless a will as Cromwell hurled his Ironsides at the
ADVERTISEMENTS. 3
Cavaliers at Naseby, it is not likely that we should find the
press the vehicle to make known the goods of tradesmen, or to
offer a reward for stolen horses. The shopkeepers themselves,
as well as the nobility, were too hard at it, to avail themselves
of this new mode of extending their trade : they had to keep
guard over the malignants, to cover the five members with the
shield of their arms, to overawe Whitehall, to march to the
relief of Gloucester, — objects quite sufficient to account for the
fact that the train-bands were not advertisers. After the king's
death, however, when the Commonwealth had time to breathe,
the people seem to have discovered the use of the press as a
means of making known their wants and of giving publicity to
their wares. The very first advertisement we have met with,
after an active search among the earliest newspapers, relates to
a book which is entitled —
TEENODIA GEATTTLATOEIA, an Heroick Poem ; being a
-*- congratulatory panegyrick for my Lord General's late return, summing
up his successes in an exquisite manner.
To be sold by John Holden, in the New Exchange, London. Printed
by Tho. Newcourt, 1652.
This appeared in the January number of the Parliamentary
paper Mercurius Pollticus. It is evidently a piece of flattery to
Cromwell upon his victories in Ireland, and might have been
inserted at the instigation of the great Commonwealth leader
himself. Booksellers appear to have been the first to take
advantage of this new medium of publicity, and for the obvious
reason that their goods were calculated for the readers of the
public journals, who at that time must have consisted almost
exclusively of the higher orders. From this date to the Bestora-
tion the quaintest titles of works on the political and religious
views, such as were then in the ascendant, are to be found in the
Merciirius Politicus : thus, we have " Gospel Marrow ; " " A few
Sighs from Hell, or the Groans of a Damned Soul ; " " Michael
opposing the Dragon, or a Fiery Dart .struck through the King-
dom of the Serpent." And in the number for September, 1G59,
we find an advertisement which seems to bring us face to face
with one of the brightest names in the roll of English poets : —
b 2
4 ADVERTISEMENTS.
CONSIDERATIONS touching the likeliest means to remove
Hirelings out of the Church ; wherein is also discours'd of Tithes,
Church Fees, Church Bevenues, and whether any maintenance of Ministers
can be settled by Law. The author, J. M. Sold by Livewell Cltapman, at
the Crown in Pope's Head Alley.
In juxtaposition to these illustrious initials we find another
advertisement, which is the representative of a class that pre-
vailed most extensively at this early time — the Hue and Cry-
after runaway servants and lost or stolen horses and dogs.
Every generation is apt to praise, like Orlando, "the antique
service of the old world ; " but a little excursion into the
regions of the past shows us how persistent this cry has been
in all ages. Employers who are in the habit of eulogising
servants of the " old school," would be exceedingly astonished
to find that two hundred years ago they were a very bad lot
indeed, as far as we can judge from the advertisements of
rewards for the seizure of delinquents of their class. Here
is a full-length portrait of apparently a runaway apprentice,
as drawn in the Mercurius Politicus of July 1st, 1658 : —
IF any one can give notice of one Edward Perry, being about
the age of eighteen or nineteen years, of low stature, black hair, fall
of pockholes in his face ; he weareth a new gray suit trimmed with green
and other ribbons, a light Cinnamon-colored cloak, and black hat, who run
away lately from his Master ; they are desired to bring or send word to
Tho. Firhy, Stationer, at Gray's inne gate, who will thankfully reward
them.
It will be observed that the dashing appearance of this
runaway apprentice, habited in his gray suit trimmed with
green ribbons, and furbished off so spicily with his cinnamon-
coloured cloak, is rather marred by the description of his face
as "full of pockholes." Unless the reader has scanned the long-
list of villanous portraits exhibited by the Hue and Cry in the
old papers of the last portion of the seventeenth and first
portion of the eighteenth centuries, he can form but a faint
conception of the ravages committed by the small-pox upon the
population. Every man seemed more or less to have been
speckled with " pockholes," and the race must have presented
one moving mass of pits and scars. Here, for instance, is a
ADVERTISEMENTS. O
companion picture to hang with that of Edward Perry, copied
from the Mercurius Politicus of May 31st, 1660 : —
A Black-haired Maid, of a middle stature, thick set, with big
breasts, having her face full marked with the smallpox, calling herself
by the name of Nan or Agnes Hobson, did, upon Monday the 28 of May,
about six o'Clock in the morning, steal away from her Ladies house in the
Pal-mall a mingle-coloured wrought Tabby Gown of Deer colour and white ;
a black striped Sattin Gown with four broad bone-black silk Laces, and a
plain black-watered French Tabby Gown ; Also, one Scarlet-coloured and
one other Pink-coloured Sarcenet Peticoat, and a white watered Tabby
Wastcoat, plain ; Several Sarcenet, Mode, and thin black Hoods and Scarfs,
several fine Holland Shirts, a laced pair of Cuffs and Dressing ; one pair of
Pink-coloured Worsted Stockings, a Silver Spoon, a Leather bag, &c. She
went away in greyish Cloth Wastcoat turned, and a Pink-coloured Para-
gon upper Peticoat, with a green Tammy under one. If any shall give
notice of this person, or things, at one Hopkins, a Shoomaker's, next door
to the Vine Tavern, near the Pal-mall end, near Charing Cross, or at Mr.
Ostler's, at the Bull Head in Cornhill, near the Old Exchange, they shall be
rewarded for their pains.
Scarcely a week passes without such runaways being adver-
tised, together with a list of the quaint articles of which their
booty consisted. At the risk of wearying the reader with these
descriptions of the "old-fashioned" sort of servants, we give
another advertisement from the Mercurius Politicus of July 1st
1658 :—
ANE Eleanor Parker (by birth Haddock), of a Tawny reddish
^ complexion, a pretty long nose, tall of stature, servant to Mr. Frederic
Howpert, Kentish Town, upon Saturday last the 2Qlbof June, ran away and
stole two Silver Spoons ; a sweet Tent-work Bag, with gold and silver Lace
about it, and lined with Satin; a Bugle work-Cushion, very curiously
wrought in all manners of slips and flowers ; a Shell cup, with a Lyon's
face, and a Ring of silver in its mouth ; besides many other things of con-
siderable value, which she took out of her Mistresses Cabinet, which she
broke open ; as also some Cloaths and Linen of all sorts, to the value of
Ten pounds and upwards. If any one do meet with her and please to
secure her, and give notice to the said Frederic Howpert, or else to Mr.
Malpass, Leather-seller, at the Green Dragon, at the upper end of Lawrence
Lane, he shall be thankfully rewarded for his pains.
An advertisement which appears in the same paper, of the
date of August 11th, 1659, gives us the first notice we have
yet found of the service of negro boys in this country. From,
this period, however, as we shall presently show, England, at
least the fashionable part of it, seems to have swarmed with
young blackamoors in a greater degree than we should have
6 ADVERTISEMENTS.
imagined even from the familiar notice made of them in the
pages of the " Tatler " and " Spectator." These early negroes
must have been imported from the Portuguese territories, as
■we did not deal in the article ourselves till the year 1680. The
amusing point of the following advertisement, however, is the
assurance it gives us that the Puritans "polled" their negroes
as well as themselves.
A Negro-boy, about nine years of age, in a gray Searge suit,
his hair cut close to his head, was lost on Tuesday last, August 9, at
night, iu S. Nicholas Lane, London. If any one can give notice of him to
Mr. Tho. Barker, at the Sugarloaf in that Lane, they shall be well rewarded
for their pains.
About this time we find repeatedly advertised the loss of
horses. It is observable that during the "troubles" such
things as highwaymen were unknown. The bold, unruly
characters, who at a later date took to the road, were then
either enlisted under the banners of the state or had gone over
the sea to Charlie. The great extent to which horse-stealing
prevailed during the Commonwealth period, and, indeed, for
the next half-century, might possibly be ascribed to the value
of those animals consequent upon the scarcity produced by the
casualties of the battle-field. We cannot account, however, for
one fact connected with the horse-stealing of the Common-
wealth period, namely, that when at grass they were often kept
saddled. The following advertisement, which is an illustration
of this singular custom, is very far from being an uncommon
ono : —
A Small Black NAG, some ten or eleven years old, no white at
all, bob-Tailed, wel forehanded, somewhat thin behind, thick Heel
and goeth crickling and lamish behind at his first going out ; the hair is beat
off upon his far Hip as broad as a twelvepence ; he hath a black leather
iSnddie trimmed with blew, and covered with a black Calves-skin, its a little
torn upon the Pummel ; two new Girths of white and green thread, and
black Bridle, the Rein whereof is sowed on the off side, and a knot to draw
it on the near side, Stoln out of a field at Cuthnsford, 21 February instant,
from Mr. Henry Bullen. Whosoever can bring tidings to the said Mr.
Bullen at Bromfield, or to Mr. Neivraan at the Grocer's Arms in Coralid,
shall have 20$. for his pains. — Mercurius Politicus, February 2i, 1659.
It could scarcely have been, in this particular case at least,
I
ADVERTISEMENTS. 7
that the exigencies of the time required such precautions, as
the only rising that took place this year occurred six months
afterwards in the county of Chester. The furniture of the nag,
it must be confessed, seems remarkably adapted for service, and
might, from its colour, have belonged to a veritable Ironside
trooper. Another reason, perhaps, of the great value of horses
at this period, was the establishment of public conveyances, by
which means travellers as well as letters were conveyed from
one part of the kingdom to the other. Prior to the year 163G
there was no such thing as a postal service for the use of the
j3eople in this country. The court had, it is true, an establish-
ment for the forwarding of despatches, but its efficacy may be
judged of from a letter written by one Bryan Tuke, "master
of the postes" in Henry YIII.'s time, to Cromwell, who had
evidently been sharply reproving him for remissness in forward-
ing the king's papers : —
"The Kinges Grace hath no mor ordinary postes, ne of many days
hathe had, but betweene London and Calais .... For, sir, ye
knowe well that, except the hackney-horses betweene Gravesende and
Dovour, there is no suche usual conveyance in post for men in this realine
as in the accustomed places of France and other partes ; ne men can keepe
horses in redynes withoute som way to bere the charges ; but when placardes
be sent for suche cause (to order the immediate forwarding of some state
packet) the constables many tym.es be fayne to take horses oute of ploues and
cartes, wherein can be no extreme dilirjence."
This was in the year 1533. Elizabeth, however, established
horse-posts on all the great routes for the transmission of the
letters of the court; and this, in 1633, was developed into a
public post, which went night and day at the rate of seven
miles an hour in summer and five miles in winter — not such bad
travelling for those days. Still there was no means of forward-
ing passengers until the time of Cromwell, when we find stage-
coaches established on all the great roads throughout the kingdom.
We do not know that we have ever seen quoted so early a notice
of public stage conveyances. We have evidently not given our
ancestors so much credit as they deserved. The following adver-
tisement shows the time taken and the fares ot a considerable
number of these journeys : —
8 ADVERTISEMENTS.
FEOM the 26 day of April 1658 there will continue to go Stage
Coaches from the George Inn, without Aldersgate, London, unto the
several Cities and Towns, for the Rates and at the times, hereafter men-
tioned and declared.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
To Salisbury in two days for xxs. To Blandford and Dorchester in two
days and half for xxxs. To Burput in three days for xxxs. To Exmaster,
Hunnington, and Exeter in four days for xls.
To Stamford in two days for xxs. To Newark in two days and a half for
xxvs. To Bawtrey in three days for xxxs. To Doncaster and Ferribridge
for xxxvs. To York in four days for xls.
Mondays and Wednesdays to Ockinton and Plymouth for Is.
Every Monday to Helperby and Northallerton for xlvs. To Darneton and
Ferryhil for Is. To Durham for lvs. To Newcastle for iii£.
Once every fortnight to Edinburgh for ivZ. a peece — Mondays.
Every Friday to Wakefield in four days, xls.
•All persoDS who desire to travel unto the Cities, Towns, and Roads
herein hereafter mentioned and expressed, namely — to Coventry, Litchfield,
Stone, Namptwich, Chester, Warrington, Wiggan, Chorley, Preston, Gastang,
Lancaster, and Kendal ; and also to Stamford, Grantham, Newark, Tuxford,
Bawtrey, Doncaster, Ferriebridge, York, Helperly, Northallerton, Darneton,
Ferryhill, Durham, and Newcastle, Wakefield, Leeds, and Halifax ; and also
to Salisbury, Blandford, Dorchester, Burput, Exmaster, Hunnington, and
Exeter, Ockinton, Plimouth, and Cornwal; let them repair to the Georgelrin
at Holborn Bridge, London, and thence they shall be in good Coaches with
good Horses, upon every Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, at and for
reasonable Rates. — Mercurius Politicus, April 1, 1658.
Other announcements about the same time prove that the
Great Western road was equally provided, as well as the Dover
route to the continent. It is not a little singular, however,
that regularly-appointed coaches, starting at stated intervals,
should have preceded what might be considered the simpler
arrangement of the horse service. That the development of
the postal system into a means of forwarding single travellers
did not take place until some time afterwards, would appear
from the following : —
The Postmasters on Chester Road, petitioning, have received Order,
and do accordingly publish the following advertisement : —
A LL Gentlemen, Merchants, and others, who have occasion to
-£-*- travel between London and Westchester, Manchester, and Wa,rrington,
or any other Town upon that Road, for the accommodation of Trade,
dispatch of Business, and ease of Purse, upon every Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday Morning, betwixt Six and ten of the Clock, at the House of
Mr. Christopher Charteris, at the sign of the Hart's-Horn, in West-Smith-
field, and Post-Master there, and at the Post-Master of Chester, at the
ADVERTISEMENTS. V
Post-Master of Manchester, and at the Post-Master of Warrington, may-
have a good and able single Horse, or more, furnished at Threepence the
Mile, without the charge of a Guide ; and so likewise at the House of Mr.
Thomas Challenor, Post-Master at Stone in Staffordshire, upon every
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays Morning, to go for London. And so
likewise at the several Post-Masters upon the Road, who will have all such
set days so many Horses with Furniture in readiness to furnish the Riders
without any stay to carry them to or from any the places aforesaid, in Four
days, as well to London as from thence, and to places nearer in less time,
according as their occasions shall require, they ingaging at the first Stage
where they take Horse, for the safe delivery of the same to the next
immediate Stage, and not to ride that Horse any further without consent
of the Post-Master by whom he rides, and so from Stage to Stage to their
Journeys end. All those who intend to ride this way are desired to give a
little notice beforehand, if conveniently they can, to the several Post-masters
where they first taJce horse, whereby they may be furnished with so many Horses
as the Biders shall require with expedition. This undertaking began the 28
of June 1658 at all the Places abovesaid, and so continues by the several
Post-Masters.
The intimation that these horses might be had without the
"charge of a guide" gives us an insight into the bad condition
of the roads up to that period. We can scarcely imagine,
in these days, the necessity for a guide to direct us along the
great highways of England, and can with difficulty realize to
ourselves the fact that as late as the middle of the seventeenth
century the interior of the country was little better than a
wilderness, as we may indeed gather from Pepy's journey from
London to Bristol and back, in which the item " guides" formed
no inconsiderable portion of his expenses.
In turning over the musty little quarto newspapers which
mirror with such vividness the characteristic lineaments of the
Commonwealth period, not yet left behind us, we chanced upon
an advertisement which tells perhaps more than any other of
the dangerous complexion of those times. It is an advertise-
ment for some runaway young " sawbones," whose love of
desperate adventure appears to have led him to prefer the
tossing of a pike to pounding with a pestle : —
Qeorge Weale, a Cornish youth, about 18 or 19 years of age,
serving as an Apprentice at Kingston with one Mr. Weale, an Apothe-
cary, and his Uncle, about the time of the rising of the Counties Kent and
Surrey, went secretly from his said Uncle, and is conceived to have engaged
in the same, and to be either dead, or slain in some of those fights, having
never since been heard of, either by his said Uncle, or any of his Friends.
If any person can give notice of the certainty of the death of the said
10 ADVERTISEMENTS.
George Weale, let him repair to the said Mr. Graunt his House in Drum-
alley in Drury Lane, London; he shall have twenty shillings for his
pains. — Mercurius Pollticus, Dec. 8, 1659.
Here at least we have probably preserved the name of one of
the faineless men who were " slain in some of those fights," a
phrase which in these days opens to us a chapter in romance.
With the exception of book advertisements and quack medi-
cines, we have not up to this date met with a single instance of
a tradesman turning the newspaper to account in making known
his goods to the public. The very first announcement of this
nature, independently of its being in itself a curiosity, possesses
a very strong interest, from the fact that it marks the introduc-
tion of an article of food which perhaps more than all others has
served to wean the nation from one of its besetting sins of old — ■
drunkenness. Common report, Mr. Disraeli informs us, attri-
butes the introduction of " the cup., which cheers but not
inebriates," to Lord Arlington and Lord Ossory, who are said to
have brought over a small quantity from Holland in 1666.
The author of the " Curiosities of Literature" does not think
this statement satisfactory, and tells us that he has heard of
Oliver Cromwell's teapot being in the possession of a collector.
"We never knew before of these teetotal habits of the Protector,
but we can so far back the story as to find chronologically
correct bohea to put into his pot ; for though it is true that the
date of the following advertisement is three weeks after the
death of his highness, it refers to the article as a known and,
by physicians, an approved drink, and therefore must have been
some time previously on sale : —
THAT Excellent and by all Physitians approved China Drink
called by the Chineans Telia, by other Nations Tay alias Tee, is sold at
the Sultaness Read Cophee- House, in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal
Exchange, London. — Mercurius Politicus, September 30, 1658.
This is undoubtedly the earliest authentic announcement yet
made known of the public sale in England of this now famous
beverage. The mention of a " Cophee-house" proves that the
sister stimulant was even then making way in the country.* It
* This cophee-house in Sweeting's Rents is not alluded to by Mr. Cunning-
ham in his Handbook of London. He mentions the first as established in
ADVERTISEMENTS. 11
took, however, a couple of centuries to convert them, in the
extended sense of the term, into national drinks ; but, like
many other good things, it came too early. Tea may have
sufficed for fanatics, Anabaptists, Quakers, Independents, and
self-denying sectaries of all kinds ; and for all we know, its
early introduction, had the Commonwealth lasted, might have
accelerated the temperance movement a century at least ;
but the wheel of fortune was about to turn once more —
mighty ale had to be broached, and many deep healths to be
drunk by those who had "come to their own again;" and tea,
for full half a century, was washed away by brown October and
the French wines that came in with the Merry Monarch.
We have now brought the reader upon the very borders of the
period when Charles, with his hungry followers, landed in
triumph at Dover. The advertisements which appeared during
the time that Monk was temporizing and sounding his way to
the Restoration, form a capital barometer of the state of feeling
among political men at that critical juncture. We see no more
of the old Fifth-Monarchy spirit abroad. Ministers of the
steeple-houses evidently note the storm coming, and cease their
long-winded warnings to a backsliding generation. Every one
is either panting to take advantage of the first sunshine of royal
favour, or to deprecate its wrath, the coming shadow of which
is clearly seen. Meetings are advertised of those persons who
have purchased sequestered estates, in order that they may
address the King to secure them in possession ; parliamentary
aldermen repudiate by the same means, charges in the papers
that their names are to be found in the list of those persons who
sat upon the tryal of the late King;" the works of " late"
bishops begin again to air themselves in the Episcopal wind that
is clearly setting in ; and " The Tears, Sighs, Complaints, and
Prayers of the Church of England" appear in the advertising
columns in place of the sonorous titles of sturdy old Baxter's
works. It is clear there is a great commotion at hand ; the
1657, in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill, and the second (no date mentioned)
as set up at the Rainbow in Fleet Street. We think we must make way
for this new discovery between the*two.
12 ADVERTISEMENTS.
leaves are rustling, and the dust is moving. In the very midst
of it, however, we find one name still faithful to the " old cause,"
as the Puritans call it : on the 8th of March, 1660 — that is,
while the sway of Charles's sceptre had already cast its shadow
from Breda — we find the following advertisement in the Mer-
curius Politicus : —
rpHE ready and easie way to establish a free Commonwealth,
-"- and the excellence thereof compared with the inconveniences and
dangers of readmitting Kingship in this Nation. The Author, J. M.
Wherein, by reason of the Printers haste, the Errata not coming in time, it
is desired that the following faults may be amended. Page 9, line 32, for
the Areopagus read of Areopagus. P. 10, 1. 3, for full Senate, true Senate ;
1. 4, for fits, is the whole Aristocracy ; 1. 7, for Provincial States, States of
every City. P. 17, 1. 29, for cite, c'die; 1. 30, for left, felt. Sold by
Livtwel Chapman, at the Crown, in Pope's-head Alley.
The calmness of the blind bard in thus issuing corrections to
his hastily-printed pamphlet on behalf of a falling cause, excites
our admiration, and gives us an exalted idea of his moral courage.
In two months, as might have been expected, he was a pro-
scribed fugitive, sheltering his honoured head from the pursuit
of Charles's myrmidons in some secret hiding-place in "West-
minster, whilst his works, by order of the House, were being
burned by the common hangman.
The lawyers were not slow in perceiving the way the wind
was blowing, and set their sails accordingly — if we may take
the action of one Mr. Nicholas Bacon, as shown in the fol-
• lowing advertisement, as any index of the feelings of his
fellows : —
TyHEItEAS one Capt. Gouge, a witness examined against the
* ' late Kings Majesty, in those Pecoi'ds stiled himself of the Honor-
able Society of Grays Inne. These are to give notice that the said Gouge,
being long sought for, was providentially discovered in a disguise, seized
in that Society, and now in custody, being apprehended by the help of
some spectators that knew him, viewing of a Banner with his Majesties
arms, set up just at the same time of His Majesties landing, on an high
Tower in the same Society, by Nicholas Bacon, Esq., a Member thereof, as
a memorial of so great a deliverance, and testimony of his constant loyalty
to His Majesty, and that the said Gouge upon examination confessed, That
he was never admitted not so much as a Clerk of that Society. — Mercurius
Politicus, June 7, 1660.
Whilst all London was throwing up caps for the restored
ADVERTISEMENTS. 13
monarch, and England seemed so glad that he himself won-
dered how he could have been persuaded to stop away so long,
let us catch the lost luggage of a poor cavalier, who has just
followed his royal master from his long banishment, and turn
out its contents for our reader, in order to show that even,
ruined old courtiers carried more impedimenta than the famous
" shirt, towel, and piece of soap " of our renowned Napier. The
Mercurius Publicus is now our mine, in which we sink a shaft,
and come up with this fossil advertisement, which bears date
July 5th, 1660 :—
A Leathern Portmanile Lost at Sittingburn or Rochester,
-^J- when his Majesty came thither, wherein was a Suit of Camolet Holland,
with two little laces in a seam, eight pair of white Gloves, and a pair of Does
leather ; about twenty yards of slcie-colourd Ribbon twelvepenny broad, and a
whole piece of black Ribbon tenpenny broad, a cloath lead-coloured cloak, with
store of linnen ; a pair of shooes, slippers, a Montero, and other things ; all
which belong to a Gentleman (a near servant to His Maiesty) who hath been
too long Imprisoned and Sequestered to be now robbed when cdl men hope to
enjoy their own. If any can give notice, they may leave word with Mr.
Samuel Merne, His Majesties Book-binder, at his house in Little Britain,
and they shall be thankfully rewarded.
The king had not been " in " a month ere his habits appear
through the public papers. The Mercurius Politicus is now
turned courtier, and has changed its name to the Mercurius
Publicus. Its columns, indeed, are entirely under the direction
of the king, and, instead of slashing articles against malignants,
degenerates into a virulent oppressor of the Puritans, and a
vehicle for inquiries after his majesty's favourite dogs that
have been stolen. In the number for June 28th, 1660, for
instance, we find the following advertisement : —
ft^jf 3 A Smooth Black DOG, less than a Grey -hound, with
white under his breast, belonging to the Kings Majesty, was
taken from Whitehall, the eighteenth day of this instant June, or there-
abouts. If any one can give notice to John Ellis, one of his Majesties
servants, or to his Majesties Back-Stairs, shall be well rewarded for their
labour.
It is evident that " the smooth black dog " was a very great
favourite, for the next publication of the journal contains
another advertisement with respect to him, printed in larger
14 ADVEETTSE3IEXTS.
Italic type, tlie diction of which, from its pleasant raillery, looks
as though it had come from the king's own hand : —
fr^T ^ e must call upon you again for a Black Bog, between
a Grey-hound and a Spaniel, no white alout him, onely a streak
on his Brest, and Tayl a little bohbed. It is His Majesties own Dog, and
doubtless was stoln, for the Dog was not born nor bred in England, and
would never forsake his Master. Whosoever findes him may acquaint any at
IVhitehal, for the Dog was better known at Court than those who stole him.
Will they never leave robbing His Majesty? must he not keep a Dog? This
Dogs place {though better than some imagine) is the only place which nobody
offers to beg.
Pepys, ah out this time, describes the king with a train of
spaniels and other clogs at his heels, lounging along and feeding
the ducks in St. James's Park ; and on occasions still later he
was often seen talking to Nelly, as she leaned from her garden-
wall that abutted upon the Pall-Mall, whilst his canine
favourites grouped around him. On these occasions perhaps
the representatives of those gentlemen to be seen in Regent-
street, with two bundles of animated wool beneath their arms,
were on the look-out, as we find his majesty continually adver-
tising his lost dogs. Later we find him inquiring after "a little
brindled greyhound bitch, having her two hinder feet white ;"
for a " white-haired spaniel, smooth-coated, with large red or
yellowish spots," and for a u black mastiff dog, with cropped
ears and cut tail." And when royalty had done, his Highness
Prince Pupert, or Buckingham, or " my Lord Albemarle,"
resorted to the London Gazette to make known their canine
losses. We think the change in the temper of the age is more
clearly marked by these dog advertisements than by anything
else. The Puritans did not like sporting animals of any kind, and
we much question whether a dog would have followed a fifth-
monarchy-raan. Hence the total absence of all advertisements
bearing upon the " fancy." iSTow that the king had returned,
the old English love of field-sports spread with fourfold vigour.
We chance upon the traces too of a courtly amusement which
had been handed down from the middle ages, and was then
only lingering amongst us — hawking. Here is an inquiry after
a lost lanner : —
ADVERTISEMENTS. 15
Eichard Finney, Esquire, of Alaxton, in Leicestershire, about
a fortnight since lost a Lannek from that place ; she hath neither
Bells nor Varvels ; she is a white Hawk, and her long feathers and sarcels
are both in the blood. If any one give tidings thereof to Mr. Lambert at
the golden Key in Fleet-street, they shall have forty shillings for their
pains. — Mercurius Publicus, September 6, 1 660.
As London was the only place in which a newspaper was
published during the reign of Charles, and indeed for nearly
fifty years afterwards, the hue and cry after lost animals always
came to town, as a matter of course. It sounds strange to read
these advertisements of a sport the very terms of which are now
unintelligible to us. What ages seem to have passed since
these birds, in all the glory of scarlet hoods, were carried upon
some " faire lady's" wrist, or poised themselves, with fluttering
wing, as the falconer uncovered them to view their quarry !
We have skipped a few years, in order to afford one or two
more examples of these picturesque advertisements, so different
from anything to be seen at the present day : —
LOST on the SO of October, 1665, an Intermix'd Barbary
Tercel Gentle, engraven in "Varvels, Richard Windwood, of Ditton
Park, in the County of Bucks, Esq. For more particular marks — if the
Varvels be taken off— the 4th feather in one of the wings Imped, and the
third pounce of the right foot broke. If any one inform Sir William
Roberts, Knight and Baronet (near Harrow-on -the Hill, in the County of
Middlesex), or Mr. William Philips, at the King's Head in Paternoster
Row, of the Hawk, he shall be sufficiently rewarded. — The Intelligencer,
Nov. 6, 1665.
The next paper contains an inquiry for a goshawk belonging
to Lord William Petre, and two years later a royal bird is
inquired after in the London Gazette, as follows : —
A Sore ger Falcon of His Majesty, lost the 13 of August, who
had one Varvel of his Keeper, Roger Higs, of Westminster, Gent.
Whosoever hath taken her up and give notice Sir Allan Apsley, Master of
His Majesties Hawks at St. James's, shall be rewarded for his paines.
Back-Stairs in Whitehall.
This Sir Allan Apsley is the brother of Mrs. Hutchinson,
who has given us such a vivid picture, in the memoir of her
husband, of the Commonwealth time. The London Gazette,
from which we quote, is the only paper still in existence that
had its root in those days. It first appeared in Oxford, upon
1 6 ADVERTISEMENTS.
the Court taking up its abode in that city during the time of
the Great Plague, and was therefore called the Oxford Gazette.
On the return of Charles to London it followed in his train,
and became the London Gazette, or Court and official paper,
and the latter character it has retained to the present hour.
The gazettes of the seventeenth century were widely different
from those of our day. They contain foreign news, as well as
state papers, royal proclamations, &c, and, stranger still, mis-
cellaneous advertisements are mixed up with those upon the
business of the Court. The quack doctors, with an eye, we
suppose, to the " quality," were the first to avail themselves of
its pages to make known their nostrums. It will astonish our
readers to find what an ancestry some of the quack medicines
of the present day have had. " Nervous powders," specifics for
gout, rheumatism, &c, seized upon the columns of the news-
papers almost as early as they were published. Here is a
specimen which might still serve as a model for such announce-
ments : —
(gentlemen, you are desired to take notice, That Mr. Theophilus
Buckworth doth at his house on Mile-end Green make and expose to
sale, for the publick good, those so famous Lozenges or Pectorals approved
for the cure of Consumptions, Coughs, Catarrhs, Asthmas, Hoarness,
Strongness of Breath, Colds in general, Diseases incident to the Lungs,
and a sovoraign Antidote against the Plague, and all other contagious
Diseases and obstructions of the Stomach : And for more convenience of
the people, constantly leaveth them sealed up with his coat of arms on the
papers, with Mr. Rich. Lowndes (as formerly), at the sign of the White
Lion, near the little north door of Pauls Church ; Mr. Henry Seile, over
against S. Dunstans Church in Fleet Street ; Mr. William Milward, at
Westminster Hall Gate ; Mr. John Place, at FurnivaVs Inn Gate, in
Holborn ; and Mr. Robert Horn, at the Turk's-head near the entrance of
the Royal Exchange, Booksellers, and no others.
This is published to prevent the designs of divers Pretenders, tcho
counterfeit the said Lozenges, to the disparagement of the said Gen-
tleman, and great abuse of the people. — Mercurius Politicus,
Nov. 16, 1660.
The next is equally characteristic : —
MOST Excellent and Approved Dentifrices to scour and
cleanse the Teeth, making them white as Ivory, preserves from the
Toothach ; so that, being constantly used, the parties using it are never
troubled with the Toothach : It fastens the Teeth, sweetens the Breath,
and preserves the Gums and Mouth from Cankers and Imposthumes.
ADVERTISEMENTS. 17
Made by Robert Turner, Gentleman ; and the right are onely to be had at
Thomas Roohes, Stationer, at the Holy Lamb at the ea^t end of St. Paul's
Church, near the School, in sealed papers, at 12c?. the paper.
The reader is desired to beware of counterfeits.
(Mercurius Politicus, Dec. 20, 1660.)
Other advertisements about this time profess to cure all
diseases by means of an " antinionial cup." Sir Kenelm Digby,
the same learned knight who feasted his wife upon capons
fattened upon serpents, in order to make her fair, advertises a
book in which he professes to show a method of curing wounds
by a powder of sympathy ; and here is a notification of a
remedy which shows still more clearly the superstitious cha-
racter of the age : —
SMALL BAGGS to hang about Children's necks, which are
excellent both for the 'prevention and cure of the Riclcets, and to ease
children in breeding of Teeth, are prepared by Mr. Edmund Buckworth,
and constantly to be had at Mr. Philip Clark's, Keeper of the Library in
the Fleet, and nowhere else, at 5 shillings a bagge. — The Intelligencer,
Oct. 16, 1664.
It was left, however, to the reign of Anne for the mounte-
bank to descend from his stage in the fair and the market-
place, in order to erect it in the public newspapers. But we
have yet to mention one, who might appear to some to be the
greatest quack of all, and who about this time resorted to an
advertisement in the newspapers to call his patients to his
doors ; — the royal charlatan, who touched for the evil, makes
known that he is at home for the season to his people through
the medium of the Public Intelligencer of 1664 : —
WHITEHALL, May 14, 1664. His Sacred Majesty, having
declared it to be his Royal will and purpose to continue the healing
of his people for the Evil during the Month of May, and then to give over
till Michaelmas next, I am commanded to give notice thereof, that the
people may not come up to Town in the Interim and lose their labour.
Is" o doubt there was much political significance in this pre-
tended efficacy of the royal touch in scrofulous afflictions ; at the
same time, there is reason to believe that patients did sometimes
speedily recover after undergoing the regal contact. Dr. Tyler
Smith, who has written a very clever little book on the subject,
c
18 ADVERTISEMENTS.
boldly states Lis belief that the emotion felt by these poor
stricken people who came within the influence of " that divinity
which doth hedge a king," acted upon them as a powerful
mental tonic ; in a vast number of cases, however, we might
impute the tonic to the gold coin which the king always bestowed
upon his patient. Be that as it may, the practice flourished
down to the time of Anne, at whose death it stopped ; the
sovereigns of the line of Brunswick never pretending to possess
this medicinal virtue, coming as they did to the throne by only a
parliamentary title. The reaction from the straightlaced times
of the Commonwealth, which set in immediately upon the
Restoration, seems to have arrived at its height about the year
1664, and the advertisements at that period reflect very truly the
love of pleasure and excitement which seized hold of the people,
as if they were bent on making up for the time that had been
lost during the Puritanic rule. They are mostly taken up, in fact,
with inquiries after "lost lace- work ;" announcements of lotte-
ries in the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall, of jewels, tapestry,
and lockets of " Mr. Cooper's work," of which the following is a
fair specimen : —
LOST, on the 27th of July, about Boswell Yard or Drury Lane,
a Ladyes Picture, set in gold, and three Keys, with divers other
little things in a perfumed pocket. Whosoever shall give notice of or bring
the said picture to Mr. Charles Coakine, Goldsmith, near Staples Inne,
Holborn, shall have 4 times the value of the gold for his payns. — The News,
August 4, 1664.
The love of the people also for the strange and marvellous is
shown by announcements of rare sights ; for instance, we are
told that, —
A T the Mitre, near the west end of St. Paul's, is to be seen a
-"- rare Collection of Curiosityes, much resorted to and admired by
persons of great learning and quality, among which a choyce Egyptian
Mummy, with hieroglyphicks ; the Ant-Beare of Brasil ; a Eemora ; a
Torpedo ; the Huge Thigh-bone of a Giant ; a Moon Fish ; a Tropic
Bird, &c.—The News of June 2, 1664.
A rather scanty collection of articles, it is true, but ek^d out
monstrously by the " huge thigh-bone of a giant," which in all
probability belonged to some huge quadruped. The ignorance
ADVERTISEMENTS. 19
of those times with respect to natural history must have been,
something astonishing, as about the same date we find the
following print of what were evidently considered very curious
animals advertised in the London Gazette : —
A True [Representation of the PJionoserous and Elephant,
■£*- lately brought from the East Indies to London, drawn after the life,
and curiously engraven in Mezzotinto, printed upon a large sheet of paper.
Sold by Pierce Tempest, at the Eagle and Child in the Strand, over
against Somerset House, Water Gate. — The London Gazette, Jan. 22, 1664.
In the succeeding year all advertisements of this kind stop ;
amusements, from some great disturbing cause, have ceased to
attract ; there is no more gambling under the name of lotteries
at Whitehall ; no more curiosities are exhibited to a pleasure
loving crew ; no more books of amorous songs are published ;
no more lockets or perfumed bags are dropped ; all is stagna-
tion and silence, if we may judge as much from the sudder.
cessation of advertisements with reference to them in the public
papers. Death now comes upon the stage, and rudely shuts the
box of Autolycus, crops the street with grass, and marks a red
cross on every other door. It is the year of the Great Plague.
Those who could, fled early from the pest-stricken city ; those
who remained until the malady had gained irresistible sway
were not allowed to depart, for fear of carrying the contagion
into the provinces, the Lord Mayor denying to such a clean bill
of health, in consequence of which they were driven back by
the rustics as soon as discovered. A singular instance also of
the vigilance of the authorities in confining, as they imagined,
the mischief within the limits of the metropolis is afforded by
the succeeding advertisement : —
"Wicholas Hurst, an Upholsterer, over against the Rose Tavern,
in Russell-street, Covent-Garden, whose Maid Servant dyed lately of
the Sickness, fled on Monday last out of his house, taking with him several
Goods and Household Stuff, and was afterwards followed by one Doctor
Cary and Richard Bayle, with his wife and family, who lodged in the same
house ; but Bayle having his usual dwelling-house in Waybridge, in
Surrey. Whereof we are commanded to give this Public Notice, that
diligent search may be made for them, and the houses in which any of
their persons or goods shall be found may be shut up by the next Justice
of the Peace, or other his Majesty's Officers of Justice, and notice imme-
diately given to some of his Majesty's Privy Councill, or to one of his
Majesty's principal Secretaries of State. — London Gazette, May 10, 1666.
c 2
20 ADVERTISEMENTS.
Antidotes and remedies for the plague are also commonly
advertised, just as the visitation of the cholera in 1854 filled the
columns of the Times full of all sorts of specifics. Thus, for
example, the Intelligencer of August the 28th, 1665, announces "an
excellent electuary against the plague, to be drunk at the Green
Dragon, Cheap-side, at sixpence a pint." The great and only
cure, however, for this fearful visitation, which carried off a
hundred thousand persons in London alone, was at hand — the
purgation of fire. The conflagration, which burst out on the
2nd of September, and destroyed thirteen thousand houses, gave
the final blow to its declining attacks. Singularly enough, but
faint traces of this overwhelming calamity, as it was considered
at the time, can be gathered from the current advertisements.
Although the entire population of the city was rendered house-
less, and had to encamp in the surrounding fields, where they
extemporized shops and streets, not one hint of such a circum-
stance can be found in the public announcements of the period.
No circumstance could afford a greater proof of the little use
made by the trading community of this means of publicity in
the time of Charles II. If a fire only a hundredth-part so
destructive were to occur in these days, the columns of the
press would immediately be full of the new addresses of the
burnt-out shopkeepers ; and those who were not even damaged
by it would take care to " improve the occasion " to their own
advantage. We look in vain through the pages of the London
Gazette of this and the following year for one such announce-
ment : not even a tavern-keeper tells us the number of his
booth in Goodman's Fields, although quack medicine flourished
away in its columns .as usual. In 1667 we see a notification,
now and then, of some change in the site of a government office,
or of the intention to build by contract some public structure,
such as the following notice relative to the erection of the old
Koyal Exchange : —
A LL Artificers of the several Trades that must be used in
-£*• Rebuilding the Royal Exchange may take notice, that the Com-
mittee appointed for Management of that Work do sit at the end of the
long gallery in Gresham Colledge every Monday in the forenoon, there and
*ben to treat with such as are fie to undertake the same.
ADVERTISEMENTS. 2 L
The remainder of the reign of Charles is unmarked by the
appearance of any characteristic advertisements which give a
clue to the peculiar complexion of the time. If we go back two
or three years, however, we shall find one which bears upon the
introduction of those monstrous flowing wigs which continued in
fashion to the middle of the succeeding century : —
"lirHEREAS George Grey, a Barber and Perrywigge-maker,
* ' over against the Greyhound Tavern, in Black Fryers, London, stands
obliged to serve some particular persons of eminent Condition and Quality
in his way of Employment : It is therefore notifyed at his desire, that any-
one having long flaxen hayr to sell may repay r to him the said George Grey,
and they shall have 10s the ounce, and for any other long fine hayr after
the Rate of 5s. or 7s. the ounce. — The Newes, February 4, 1663.
Pepys describes, with amusing minuteness, how Chapman the
periwig-maker cut off his hair to make up one of these portentous
head-dresses for him, much to the trouble of his servants, Jane
and Bessy ; and on the Lord's day, November 8th, 1663, he
relates, with infinite naivete, his entrance into church with
what must evidently have been the perruquier's latest fashion.
" To church, where I found that my coming in a periwig did
not prove so strange as I was afraid it would ; for I thought that
all the church would presently have cast their eyes upon me,
but I find no such thing." Ten shillings the ounce for long flaxen
hair shows the demand for this peculiar colour by "persons of
eminent condition and quality." We have shown, from the
advertisements of the time of Charles II., what was indeed well
known, that the age was characterized by frivolous amusements,
and by a love of dress and vicious excitement, in the midst of
which pestilence stalked like a mocking fiend, and the great con-
flagration lit up the general masquerade with its lurid and
angry glare. Together with the emasculate tone of manners, a
disposition to personal violence and a contempt of law stained
the latter part of this and the succeeding reign. The audacious
seizure of the crown jewels by Blood ; the attack upon the Duke
of Ormond by the same desperado, that nobleman actually
having been dragged from his coach in St. James's Street in the
evening, and carried, bound, upon the saddle-bow of Blood's
horse, as far as Hyde Park Corner, before he could be rescued ;
22 ADVEKTISEMENTS.
the slitting of Sir John Coventry's nose in the Haymarket by
the king's guard ; and the murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey
on. Primrose Hill, are familiar instances of the prevalence of this
lawless spirit.
"We catch a glimpse of one of these street outrages in the
following announcement of an assault upon glorious John : — ■
WHEREAS John Dryden, Esq., was on Monday, the 18th
instant, at night, barbarously assaulted and wounded, in Eose Street
in Covent Garden, by divers men unknown ; if any person shall make
discovery of the said offenders to the said Mr. Dryden, or to any Justice
of the Peace, he shall not only receive Fifty Pounds, which is deposited
in the hands of Mr. Blanchard, Goldsmith, next door to Temple Bar, for
the said purpose, but if he be a principal or an accessory in the said fact,
his Majesty is graciously pleased to promise him his pardon for the same.
— The London Gazette, Dec. 22, 1679.
And here is another of a still more tragic character : —
T17HEREAS a Gentleman was, on the eighteenth at night,
» * mortally wounded near Lincoln's Inn, in Chancery Lane, in view,
as is supposed, of the coachman that set him down : these are to give
notice that the said coachman shall come in and declare his knowledge of
the matter ; if any other person shall discover the said coachman to John
Hawles, at his chamber in Lincoln's Inn, he shall have 5 guineas reward. —
London Gazette, March 29th, 1688.
To this period also may be ascribed the rise of that romantic
felon, the highwayman. The hue and cry after these genteel
robbers is frequently raised during the reign of James II. In
one case we have notice of a gentleman having been stopped,
robbed, and then bound, by mounted men at Islington, who rode
away with his horse ; another time these daring gentry appeared
at Knightsbridge ; and a third advertisement, of a later date it
is true, offers a reward for three mounted Macheaths, who were
charged with stopping and robbing three young ladies in South
Street, near Audley Chapel, as they were returning home from
visiting. The following is still more singular, as showing the
high social position of some of these gentlemen who took to the
" road" for special purposes : —
JJT'HEREAS Mr. Herbert Jones, Attorney-at-law in the town
of Monmouth, well known by being several years together Under-
Sheriff of the same County, hath of late divers time robbed the Mail coming
from that town to London, and taken out divers letters and writs, and is
ADVERTISEMENTS. 23
now fled from justice, and supposed to have sheltered himself in some of
the new- raised troops. These are to give notice, that whosoever shall
secure the said Herbert Jones, so as to be committed in order to answer
these said crimes, may give notice thereof to Sir Thomas Fowles, goldsmith,
Temple-bar, London, or to Mr. Michael Bohune, mei-cer, in Monmouth,
and shall have a guinea's reward.
The drinking tendencies of these Jacobite times are chiefly-
shown by the numberless inquiries after lost or stolen silver
tankards, and by the sales of claret and canary which constantly
took place. The hammer was not apparently used at that time,
as we commonly find announcements of sales by " inch of candle,"
a term which mightily puzzled us until we saw the explanation
of it in our constant book of reference, the Diary of Pepys : —
"After dinner we met and sold the Weymouth, Successe, and Fellowship
hulkes ; where pleasant to see how backward men are at first to bid ; and
yet, when the candle is going out, how they bawl, and dispute afterwards
who bid the most. And here I observed one man cunninger than the rest,
that was sure to bid the last man and to carry it ; and inquiring the reason
he told me that, just as the flame goes out, the smoke descends, which is a
thing I never observed before, and by that he do know the instant when to
bid last." (Sept. 3rd, 1662).
The taste for auctions, which became such a rage in the time
of Anne, had its beginning about this period. Books and
pictures are constantly advertised to be disposed of in this
manner. The love of excitement born in the gaming time of
the Restoration might be traced in these sales, and in the
lotteries, or "adventures" as they were sometimes termed,
which extended to every conceivable article capable of being
sold. The rising taste of the town was, however, checked for
the time by the Revolution, which was doubtless hastened on
by such announcements as the following, which appeared in the
Gazette of March 1, 1688 :—
CATHOLIC LOYALTY, §& upon the subject of Govern-
^ ment and Obedience, delivered in a SERMON before the King and
Queen, in His Majesties Chapel at Whitehall, on the 13 of June, 1687, by
the Revnd. Father Edward Scaraisbroke, priest of the Society of Jesus.
Published by His Majesty's Command. Sold by Raydal Taylor, near
Stationers Hall, London.
Up to this time advertisements only appeared in threes and
fours, and rarely, if ever, exceeded a dozen, in any newspaper of
24 ADVERTISEMENTS.
the day. They were generally stuck in the middle of the
diminutive journal, but sometimes formed a tail-piece to it.
They were confined in their character, and gave no evidence of
belonging to a great commercial community. Now and then, it
is true, sums of money were advertised as seeking investment ;
more constantly a truss for a " broken belly," or an "excellent
dentifrice," appeared ; or some city mansion of the nobility is
advertised to let, showing the progress westward even then, as
witness the following : —
THE EARL of BERKELEY'S HOUSE, with Garden and
-*- Stables in St. John's Lane, not far from Smith Field, is to be Let or
Sold for Building. Enquire of Mr. Prestworth, a corn chandler, near the
said house, and you may know further. — London Gazette, August 17, 1685.
Here is an instance of the singular manner in which fire-
insurances were conducted in that day : —
THERE having happened a fire on the 24th of the last month
■*- by which several houses of the friendly society wei'e burned to the
value of 965 pounds, these are to give notice to all persons of the said
society that they are desired to pay at the office Faulcon Court in Fleet
Street their several proportions of their said loss, which comes to five
shillings and one penny for every hundred pounds insured, before the 12th
of August next. — London Gazette, July 6th, 1685.
Sometimes it is a " flee-bitten grey mare" stolen out of "Mary-
le-bone Park," or a lost lottery-ticket, or a dog, that is inquired
after ; but they contained no hint that England possessed a
commercial marine, or that she was destined to become a nation
of shopkeepers. As yet, too, there was no sign given of that
wonderful art of ingenious puffing which now exists, and which
might lead a casual observer to imagine that the nation consisted
of only two classes — cheats and dupes.
Erom the settlement of 1688 the true value of the advertise-
ment appears to have dawned upon the public. The country
evidently began to breathe freely, and with Dutch William and
Protestant ascendancy, the peculiar character of the nation burst
forth with extraordinary vigour. Enterprise of all kinds was
called forth, and cast its image upon the advertising columns of
the public journals, now greatly increased both in size and in
numbers, no less than twenty-six having been set up within
ADVERTISEMENTS. 25
four years after the Revolution. It is observable, too, that from
this political convulsion dates a certain rough humour, which,
however latent, was not before expressed in the public papers,
especially on matters political. Let us further elucidate our
meaning by quoting the following from the New Observator of
July 17, 1689, setting forth a popular and practical method of
parading the Whig triumph : —
ORANGE CARDS, representing the late King's reign and
expedition of the Prince of Orange : viz. The Earl of Essex Murther,
Dr. Otes Whipping, Defacing the Monument, My Lord Jeffries in the West
hanging of Protestants, Magdalen College, Trial of the Bishops, Castle
Maine at Pome, the Popish Midwife, A Jesuit Preaching against our
Bible, Consecrated Smock, My Lord Chancellor at the Bed's feet, Birth of
the Prince of Wales, The Ordinaire Mass-house pulling down and burning
by Captain Tom and his Mobile, Mortar pieces in the Tower, The Prince
of Orange Landing, The Jesuits Scampering, Father Peter's Transactions,
The Fight at Reading, The Army going over to the Prince of Orange,
Tyrcounel in Ireland, My Lord Chancellor in the Tower. With many
other remarkable passages of the Times. To which is added the efigies of
our Gracious K. William and Q. Mary, curiously illustrated and engraven
in lively figures, done by the performers of the first Popish Plot Cards.
Sold by Donnan Newman, the publisher and printer of the New Observator.
The editor of the New Observator was Bishop Burnet, and
these political playing-cards were sold by his publisher ; perhaps
the great Protestant bishop knew something of their " per-
formers." In the year 16*92 an experiment was made which
clearly shows how just an estimate was getting abroad of the
value of publicity in matters of business. A newspaper was set
up, called "The City Mercury, published gratis for the Pro-
motion of Trade," which lasted for two years, and contained
nothing but advertisements. The proprietor undertook to
distribute a thousand copies per week to the then chief places
of resort, — coffee houses, taverns, and bookshops, Even in
these days of the " Times" double supplement such an experi-
ment has often been made and failed ; our wonder, therefore, is
not that the City Mercury went to that limbo which is stored
with such countless abortive journals, but that the interest felt
in advertisements should, at that early period, have kept it
alive so long.
If the foregoing scheme proves that an attempt was then
made to subdivide the duties of a newspaper — that of keeping
2 6 ADVERTTS EMENTS.
its readers informed of the news of the day, and of forming a
means of publicity for the wants and losses of individuals — the
advertisement we are about to quote clearly shows that at the
same time there was a plan in existence for combining the
printed newspaper with the more ancient written newsletter.
It is well known that long after the institution of public
journals the old profession of the newsletter-writer continued
to flourish. We can easily account for this fact when we
remember that during the heat of a great rebellion it was much
more safe to write than to print the intelligence of the day.
Many of these newsletters were written by strong partisans,
and contained information which it was neither desirable nor safe
that their opponents should see. They were passed on from
hand to hand in secret, and often endorsed by each successive
reader. We are told that the Cavaliers, when taken prisoners,
have been known to eat their newsletters ; and some of Prince
Rupert's, which had been intercepted, are still in existence,
and bear dark- red stains, which testify to the desperate manner
in which they were defended. It is pretty certain, however
that, as a profession, newsletter- writing began to decline after
the Revolution ; although we find the editor of the Evening
Post, as late as the year 1709, reminding its readers that "there
must be three or four pounds a year paid for written news."
At the same time the public journals, it is clear, had not per-
formed that part of their office which was really more acceptable
to the country reader than any other — the retailing the political
and social chit-chat of the day. We have only to look into the
public papers to convince ourselves how wofully they fell short
in a department which must have been the staple of the news-
writer. This want still being felt, John Salusbury devises a
scheme to combine the old and the new plan after the following
manner, as announced in the Flying Post of 1694 : —
IF any Gentleman has a mind to oblige his country friend or
correspondent with, the Account of Public Affairs, he may have it for
twopence of J. Salusbury at the Rising-Sun in Cornhill, on a sheet of fine
paper, half of which being blank, he may thereon write his own private
business or the material news of the day.
ADVERTISEMENTS. 27
It does not say much for the energy with which the journals
of that day were conducted, that the purchasers are invited to
write therein " the material news of the day ;" that, we should
have thought, was the editor's business to have supplied ; but it
was perhaps a contrivance by which the Jacobites might circu-
late information, by means of the post, without compromising
the printer. We have seen many such papers, half print, half
manuscript, in the British Museum, which had passed through
the post, the manuscript portion of which, the Home Secretaries
of our time would have thought sufficiently treasonable to
justify them in having broken their seals.
As advertisements, from their earliest introduction, were used
to make known the amusements of the day and the means of
killing time at the disposal of persons of quality, it seems strange
that it was not employed sooner than it was to draw a company
to the theatres. We have looked in vain for the announcement
of any theatrical entertainment before the year 1701, when the
advertisement of the Lincoln's Inn Theatre makes its appear-
ance in the columns of the English Post. The lead of this little
house was, however, speedily followed by the larger ones, and
only a few years later we have regular lists of the performances
at all the theatres in the daily papers. The first journal of this
description was the Daily Courant, published in 1709. In this
year also appeared the celebrated "Tatler," to be speedily fol-
lowed by the "Spectator" and "Guardian," the social and literary
journals of that Augustine age. The first edition of the "Tatler,"
in the British Museum, contains advertisements like an ordinary
paper, and they evidently reflect, more than those of its contem-
poraries, the flying fashions of the day and the follies of the
" quality." In them we notice the rage that existed for lotteries,
or " sales," as they were called. Every conceivable thing was
put up to raffle. We see advertisements headed "A Sixpenny
Sale of Lace," " A Hundred Pounds for Half-a-crown," " A
Penny Adventure for a Great Pie," "A Quarter's Kent,"
"A Freehold Estate," "Threepenny Sales of Houses," "A
fashionable Coach." Gloves, looking-glasses, chocolate, Hun-
gary water, Indian goods, lacquered ware, fans, &c, were
28 ADVERTISEMENTS.
notified to be disposed of in this manner, and the fair mob was
called together to draw their tickets by the same means. This
fever, which produced ten years later the celebrated South Sea
Bubble, was of slow growth. It had its root in the Restoration,
its flower in the reign of Anne, and its fruit and denouement in
the reign of George I. Before passing on from the pages of the
" Tatler," we must stop for a moment to notice one or two of
those playful advertisements which Sir Richard Steele delighted
in, and which, under the disguise of fun, perhaps really afforded
him excellent matter for his journal. Here is an irresistible
invitation to his fair readers : —
A X Y Ladies who have any particular stories of their acquaint-
x ^- ance which they are willing privately to make public, may send 'em
by the penny post to Isaac BickerstafF, Esq., enclosed to Mr. John Mox'pheu,
near Stationers' Hall. — Tatler, May 8, 1709.
An excellent lion's mouth this wherein to drop scandal.
A still more amusing instance of the fun that pervaded Isaac
Bickerstaff, Esq., is to be found in the series of advertisements
in which he ought to have convinced John Partridge, the astro-
loger, that he really had departed this life ; an assertion which
the latter persisted in denying with the most ludicrous earnest-
ness. Of these we give one from the " Tatler " of August 24th
1710:—
WHEREAS an ignorant Upstart in Astrology has publicly
endeavoured to persuade the world that he is the late John Partridge,
who died the 28 of March 1718, these are to certify all whom it may con-
cern, that the true John Partridge was not only dead at that time, but
coutinues so to the present day. Beware of counterfeits, for such are
abroad.
The pleasant malice of the above is patent enough, but we
confess we are puzzled to know whether the following is
genuine or not. We copied it from among a number of others,
from which it was undistinguishable by any peculiarity of
type : —
The Charitable Advice Office, where all persons may have the
opinion of dignified Clergymen, learned Council, graduate Physicians,
and experienced Surgeons, to any question in Divinity, Morality, Law,
Physic, or Surgery, with proper Prescriptions within twelve hours after
they have delivered in a state of their case. Those who can't write may
ADVERTISEMENTS. 20
have their cases stated at the office. * * The fees are only Is.
delivery, or sending your case, and Is. more on re-delivering that and the
opinion npon it, being what is thought sufficient to defray the necessary
expense of servants and office rent. — Tatler, December 16, 1710.
To pass, however, from the keen weapons of the brain to
those of the fiesh, it is interesting to fix with some tolerable
accuracy the change which took place in the early part of the
eighteenth century in what might be called the amusements of
the fancy. The " noble art of defence," as it was termed, up to
the time of the first George seems to have consisted in the broad-
sword exercise. Pepys describes in his " Diary" several bloody
encounters of this kind which he himself witnessed ; and the
following advertisement, a half-century later, shows that the
skilled weapon had not at that time been set aside for the more
brutal fist : —
A Tryal of Skill to be performed at His Majesty's Bear Garden
-£*- in Hockley-in-the-Hole, on Thursday next, being the 9fch instant,
betwixt these following masters : — Edmund Button, master of the noble
science of defence, who hath lately cut down Mr. Hasgit and the Champion
of the West, and 4 besides, and James Harris, an Herefordshire man,
master of the noble science of defence, who has fought 98 prizes and never
was worsted, to exercise the usual weapons, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon
precisely. — Postman, July 4, 1701.
The savage character of the time may be judged from this
public boast of Mr. Edmund Button that he had cut down six
men with a murderous weapon. We question, however, if the
age which could tolerate such ruffianism was not exceeded by
the change which substituted the fist for the sword, and wit-
nessed women entering the ring in the place of men. Some of
the earliest notices of boxing-matches upon record, singularly
enough, took place between combatants of the fair sex. In a
public journal of 1722, for instance, we find the following gage
of battle thrown down, and accepted : —
CHALLENGE. — I, Elizabeth Wilkinson, of Clerkenwell,
having had some words with Hannah Hyfield, and requiring satisfac-
tion, do invite her to meet me upon the stage, and box me for three
guineas ; each woman holding half-a-crown in each hand, and the first
woman that drops the money to lose the battle.
Answer. — I, Hannah Hyfield, of Newgate Market, hearing of the
resoluteness of Elizabeth Wilkinson, will not fail, God willing, to give
her more blows than words, desiring home blows, and from her no favour :
she may expect a good thumping !
C
30 ADVERTISEMENTS.
The half-crowns in the hands was an ingenious device to prevent
scratching ! A still more characteristic specimen of one of
these challenges to a fisticuff between two women is to be
found in the Daily Post of July 7th, 1728 : —
A T Mr. Stokes' Amphitheatre in Islington Road, this present
-£*- Monday, being the 7 of October, will be a complete Boxing Match by
the two following Championesses : — Whereas I, Ann Field, of Stoke New-
ington, ass-driver, well known for my abilities in boxing in my own defence
wherever it happened in my way, having been affronted by Mrs. Stokes,
styled the European Championess, do fairly invite her to a trial of her best
skill in Boxing for 10 pounds, fair rise and fall ; and question not but to
give her such proofs of my judgement that shall oblige her to acknowledge
me Championess of the Stage, to the entire satisfaction of all my friends.
I, Elizabeth Stokes, of the City of London, have not fought in this way
since I fought the famous boxing-woman of Billingsgate 29 minutes, and
gained a complete victory (which is six years ago) ; but as the famous
Stoke Newington ass-woman dares me to fight her for the 10 pounds, I do
assure her I will not fail meeting her for the said sum, and doubt not that
the blows which I shall present her with will be more difficult for her to
digest than any she ever gave her asses. — Note. A man, known by the
name of Rugged and Tuff, challenges the best man of Stoke Newington to
fight him for one guinea to what sum they please to venture. N.B. Attend-
ance will be given at one, and the encounter to begin at four precisely.
There will be the diversion of Cudgel-playing as usual.
Other advertisements about this time relate to cock-matches,
sometimes " to last the week," to bull-baiting, and, more cruel
still, to dressing up mad bulls with fireworks, in order to worry
them with dogs. The brutal tone of manners, which set in
afresh with the Hanoverian succession, might be alone gathered
from the so-called sporting advertisements of the day ; and we
now see that Hogarth, in his famous picture, had no need to,
and probably did not, draw upon his imagination for the com-
bination of horrid cruelties therein depicted.
The very same tone pervaded the gallantry of the day, and
we print two advertisements, one of the time of Anne, and the
other of the age we are now illustrating, in order to contrast
their spirit. We give the more polished one precedence : —
A GENTLEMAN" who, the twentieth instant, had the honour
to conduct a lady out of a boat at Whitehall-stairs, desires to know
■where he may wait on her to disclose a matter of concern. A letter
directed to Mr. Samuel Reeves, to be left with Mr. May, at the Golden
Head, the upper end of New Southampton Street, Covent Garden. —
Tatler, March 21, 1709.
ADVERTISEMENTS. 31
A certain courtly style and air of good breeding pervades
this advertisement, of which Sir Richard Steele himself need
not have been ashamed ; but what a falling-off is here ! —
WHEREAS a young lady was at Covent Garden playhouse
last Tuesday night, and received a blow with a square piece of wood
on her breast ; if the lady be single, and meet me on Sunday, at two
o'clock, on the Mall in St. James's Park, or send a line directed for A. B.,
to Mr. Jones's, at the Sun Tavern in St. Paul's Churchyard, where and
when I shall wait on her, to inform her of something very much to her
advantage on honourable terms, her compliance will be a lasting pleasure
to her most obedient servant. — General Advertiser, Feb. 8, 1748.
It would seem as though the beau had been forced to resort
to a missile to make an impression, and then felt the necessity
of stating that his intentions were "honourable," in order to
secure an interview with his innamorata. Imagine, too, the
open unblushing manner in which the assignation is attempted !
We are far from saying that such matters are not managed now
through the medium of advertisements, for we shall presently
show they are, but in how much more carefully concealed a
manner! The perfect contempt of public opinion, or rather
the public acquiescence in such infringements of the moral law,
which it exhibits, proves the general state of morality more than
the infringements themselves, which obtain more or less at all
times. Two of the causes which led to this low tone of man-
ners with respect to women were doubtless the detestable
profligacy of the courts of the two first Georges, and the very
defective condition of the existing marriage law. "William and
Mary, and Anne, had, by their decorous, not to say frigid lives,
redeemed the crown, and, in some measure, the aristocracy, from
the vices of the Restoration. Crown, court, and quality, how-
ever, fell into a still worse slough on the accession of the
Hanoverian king, who soiled afresh the rising tone of public
life by his scandalous connection with the Duchess of Kendal
and the Countess of Darlington ; whilst his son and successor
was absolutely abetted in his vicious courses by his own queen,
who promoted his commerce with his two mistresses, the Coun-
tesses of Suffolk and Yarmouth. The degrading influence of
the royal manners was well seconded by the condition of the
32 ADVERTISEMENTS.
law. Keith's chapel in May Fair, and that at the Fleet, were
the Gretna Greens of the age, where children could get mar-
ried at any time of the day or night for a couple of crowns. It
was said at the time, that at the former chapel six thousand
persons were annually married in this off-hand way ; the
youngest of the beautiful Miss Gunnings was wedded to the
Duke of Hamilton, at twelve o'clock at night, with a ring off
the bed-curtain, at this very " marriage-shop." The fruits of
such .unions may be imagined. The easy way in which the
marriage bond was worn and broken through is clearly indi-
cated by the advertisements which absolutely crowd the public
journals from the accession of the House of Brunswick up to
the time of the third George, of husbands warning the public
not to trust their runaway wives.
We have referred, in an early part of this paper, to the taste
for blackamoors, which set in the reign of Charles II., and went
on increasing until the middle of the next century, at which
time there must have been a very considerable population of
negro servants in the metropolis. At first the picturesque
natives of the East were pressed into the service of the nobility
and gentry, and colour does not appear to have been a sine qua
non. Thus we have in the London Gazette of 1688 the follow-
ing hue-and-cry advertisement : —
ETJN away from his master, Captain St. Lo, the 21st instant,
Obdelah Ealias Abraham, a Moor, swarthy complexion, short frizzled
hair, a gold ring in his ear, in a black coat and blew breeches. He took
with him a blew Turkish watch-gown, a Turkish suit of clothing that he
used to wear about town, and several other things. Whoever brings him
to Mr. Lozel's house in Green Street shall have one guinea for his charges.
The next advertisement we find also relates to what we must
consider an East Indian. The notion of property in these boys
seems to have been complete ; their masters put their names
upon their collars, as they did upon their setters or spaniels : —
A BLACK boy, an Indian, about thirteen years old, run away
the 8th instant from Putney, with a collar about his neck with this
inscription : 'the Lady Bromfield's black in Lincoln's Inn Fields.' "Who-
ever brings him to Sir Edward Bromfield's at Putney shall have a guinea
reward. — The London Gazette, 1694.
ADVERTISEMENTS. 33
The traffic in African blacks, which commenced towards the
end of the seventeenth century, seems to have displaced these
eastern servitors towards the end of the century, for henceforth
the word negro, blackamoor, or black boy, is invariably used.
No doubt the fashion for these negroes and other coloured
attendants was derived from the Venetian Republic, the inter-
course of whose merchants with Africa and India naturally led
to their introduction. Titian and other great painters of his
school continually introduced them in their pictures, and our
own great bard has for ever associated the Moor with the
City in the Sea. In England the negro boys appear to have
been considered as much articles of sale as they would have
been in the slave-market at Constantinople. In the Tatler
of 1709 we find one offered to the public in the following
terms : —
A BLACK boy, twelve years of age, fit to wait on a gentleman,
to be disposed of at Denis's Coffee-house in Finch Lane, near the
Royal Exchange.
Again, in the Daily Journal of September 28th, 1728, we
light upon another : —
HPO be sold, a negro boy, aged eleven years. Enquire of the
"*■ Virginia Coffee-house in Threadneedle Street, behind the Royal
Exchange.
These were the overflowings of that infamous traffic in
negroes, commenced by Sir John Hawkins in the year 1680,
which tore from their homes, and transferred to Jamaica alone,
no less than 910,000 Africans between that time and the year
1786, when the slave-trade was abolished.
We have brought the reader up to the date of the final
battle which extinguished the hopes of the Stuarts and settled
the line of Brunswick firmly on the throne. The year 174-5
witnessed the commencement of the General Advertiser, the
title of which indicates the purpose to which it was dedicated.
This paper was the first successful attempt to depend for
support upon the advertisements it contained, thereby creating
a new era in the newspaper press. From the very outset its
D
34 ADVERTISEMENTS.
columns were filled with them, between fifty and sixty, regu-
larly classified and separated by rules, appearing in each publi-
cation ; in fact, the advertising page put on for the first time a
modern look. The departure of ships is constantly notified, and
the engravings of these old high- pooped vessels sail in even line
down the column. Trading matters have at last got the upper
hand. You see " a pair of leather bags," " a scarlet laced-coat,"
"a sword," still inquired after; and theatres make a show, for
this was the dawning of the age of Foote, Macklin, Garrick,
and most of the other great players of the last century ; but,
comparatively speaking, the gaieties and follies of the town
ceased gradually from this time to proclaim themselves through
the medium of advertisements. The great earthquake at
Lisbon so frightened the people, that masquerades were pro-
hibited by law, and the puppet-shows, the rope-dancing, the
china-auctions, and public breakfasts henceforth grow scarcer
and scarcer as the Ladies Betty and Sally, who inaugurated
them, withdrew by degrees, withered, faded, and patched, from
the scene.
The only signs of the political tendencies of the time to be
gathered from the sources we are pursuing, are the party
dinners, announcements of which are now and then to be met
with as follows : —
rjlO THE JOYOUS.— The Bloods are desired to meet together
-*• at the house known by the name of the Sir Hugh Middleton, near
Saddler's Wells, Islington, which Mr. Skeggs has procured for that day for
the better entertainment of those Gentlemen who agreed to meet at his
own house. Dinner will be on the Table punctually at two o'clock. —
General Advertiser, Jan. 13, 1748.
Or the following still more characteristic example from the
same paper of April 1 2 :-—
HALE-MOON TAYEKN, CHEAPSIDE.— Saturday next,
the 16 of April, being the anniversary of the Glorious Battle of
Colloden, the Stars will assemble in the Moon at Six in the evening.
Therefore the Choice Spirits are desired to make their appearance and fill
up the joy. — Endymion.
"Within five-and-twenty years from this elate most of the
existing morning journals ^were established, and their adver-
ADVERTISEMENTS. 35
tising columns put on a guise closely resembling that which,
they now present. We need not therefore pursue our deep
trenching into the old subsoil in order to turn up long-buried
evidences of manners and fashions, for they have ceased to
appear, either fossil or historical ; we therefore boldly leap the
gulf that intervenes between these old days and the present.
The early part of the present century saw the commence-
ment of that liberal and systematic plan of advertising which
marks the complete era in the art. Princely ideas by degrees
took possession of the trading mind as to the value of this new
agent in extending their business transactions. Pack wood,
some thirty years ago, led the way by impressing his razor-
strop indelibly on the mind of every bearded member of the
empire. Like other great potentates he boasted a laureate in
his pay, and every one remembers the reply made to the
individuals curious to know who drew up his advertisements :
" La, sir, we keeps a poet ! "
By universal consent, however, the world has accorded to
the late George Robins the palm in this style of commercial
puffing. His advertisements were really artistically written.
Like Martin, he had the power of investing every landscape
and building he touched with an importance and majesty not
attainable by meaner hands. He did perhaps go beyond the
yielding line of even poetical license, when he described one
portion of a paradise he was about to submit to public competi-
tion as adorned, among other charms, with a "hanging wood,"
which the astonished purchaser found out meant nothing more
than an old gallows. But then he redeemed slight manoeuvres
of this kind by touches which really displayed a genius for
puffing. On one occasion he had made the beauties of an
estate so enchanting, that he found it necessary to blur it by a
fault or two, lest it should prove too bright and good " for
human nature's daily food." " But there are two drawbacks to
the property," sighed out this Hafiz of the Mart, " the litter of
the rose-leaves and the noise of the nightingales ! " Certainly
the force of exquisite puffing could no further go, and when he
died the poetry of advertising departed. Others, such as
d 2
36 ADVERTISEMENTS.
Charles Wright of Champagne celebrity, have attempted to
strike the strings ; and Moses does, we believe, veritably keep
a poet ; but none of them have been able to rival George the
Great, and we yawn as we read sonnets which end in the
invariable " mart," or acrostics which refer to Hyam and Co.'s
superior vests. Twenty years ago some of the daily news-
papers admitted illustrated advertisements into their columns ;
now it would be fatal to any of them to do so. Nevertheless,
they are by far the most effective of their class, as they call in
the aid of another sense to express their meaning. All but the
minors of the present generation must remember George Cruik-
shank's exquisite woodcut of the astonished cat viewing herself
in the polished Hessian, which made the fortune of Warren.
But in those days tradesmen only tried their wings for the
flight. It was left to the present time to prove what unlimited
confidence in the power of the advertisement will effect, and a
short list of the sums annually spent in this item by some of
the most adventurous dealers will perhaps startle our readers.
" Professor " Holloway, Pills, etc £30,000
Moses and Son 10,000
Rowland and Co. (Macassar oil, &c.) 10,000
Dr. De Jongh (cod-liver oil) 10,000
Heal and Sons (bedsteads and bedding) .... 6,000
Nicholls (tailor) 4,500
It does seem indeed incredible that one house should expend
upon the mere advertising of quack pills and ointment a sum
equal to the entire revenue of many a German principality.
Can it possibly pay ? asks the astonished reader. Let the
increasing avenue of assistants, to be seen " from morn to dewy
eve" wrapping up pills in the "professor's" establishment
within the shadow of Temple Bar, supply the answer.* Yastly
as the press of this country has expanded of late years, if has
proved insufficient to contain within its limits the rapid current
of puffing which has set in. Advertisements now overflow into
* A furniture broker made his fortune by an advertisement beaded
"Advice to Persons about to Marry." Our witty friend Punch followed
up this prelude with the single word Don't, as the substitute for the lists
of four-posted beds.
ADVERTISEMENTS. 37
our omnibuses, our cabs, our railway carriages, and our steam-
boats. Madame Tussaud pays 90?. monthly to the Atlas
Omnibus Company alone for the privilege of posting her bills
in their vehicles. They are inked upon the pavement, painted
in large letters under the arches of the bridges and on every
dead wall. Lloyd's weekly newspaper is stamped on the " full
Guelph cheek " of the plebeian penny ; the emissaries of Moses
shower perfect libraries through the windows of the carriages
which ply from the railway stations ; and, as a crowning fact,
Thackeray, in his " Journey from Cornhill to Cairo," tells us
that Warren's blacking is painted up over an obliterated
inscription to Psammetichus on Pompey's Pillar !
Having shown the reader the slow growth of the adver-
tising column ; having climbed, like " Jack in the Bean-stalk,"
from its humble root in the days of the Commonwealth up its
still increasing stem in the succeeding hundred years, we now
come upon its worthy flower in the shape of the sixteen-paged
Times of the present day. Spread open its broad leaves, and
behold the greatest marvel of the age — the microcosm in
type. Who can recognize in its ample surface, which reflects
like some camera-obscura the wants, the wishes, the hopes, and
the fears of this great city, the news-book of the Cromwellian
times with its leash of advertisements ? Herein we see how
fierce is the struggle of two millions and a half of people for
dear existence. Every advertisement writhes and fights with
its neighbour, and every phase of society, brilliant, broken, or
dim, is reflected in this battle-field of life. Let us tell off the
rank and file of this army of announcements. On the 24th of
May, 1855, the Times, in its usual sixteen-paged paper, con-
tained the incredible number of 2,575 advertisements. Amazing
as this total appears, we only arrive at its full significance by
analyzing the vast array. Then, indeed, we feel what an im-
portant power is the great British public Of old the ante-
chambers of the noble were thronged with poets, artists, pub-
lishers, tradesmen, and dependants of all kinds, seeking for the
droppings of their favour ; but what lordly antechamber ever
presented such a crew of place-hunters, servitors, literary and
38 ADVERTISEMENTS.
scientific men, schemers, and shopkeepers as daily offer their
services to the humblest individual who can spare a penny for
an hour's perusal of the Times ? Let us take this paper of the
24th of May and examine the crowd of persons and things
which cry aloud through its pages, each attempting to make its
voice heard above the other. Here we see a noble fleet of
ships, 129 in number, chartered for the regions of gold, for
America, for India, for Africa — for every port, in fact, where
cupidity, duty, or affection holds out an attraction for the
British race. Another column wearies the eye with its inter-
minable line of " Wants." Here in long and anxious row we
see the modern "mop" or statute-fair for hiring ; 429 servants
of all grades, from the genteel lady's-maid or the "thorough
cook," who will only condescend to accept service where two
footmen are kept, to the humble scullery-maid, on that day
passed their claims before us for inspection. Another column
is noisy with auctioneers ; 136 of whom notify their intention
of poising their impatient hammers when we have favoured
them with our company. Here we see a crowd of booksellers
offering, hot from the press, 195 new volumes, many of which,
we are assured by the appended critique, " should find a place
in every gentleman's library." There are 378 houses, shops,
and establishments presented to us to select from ; and 144
lodging-house keepers, " ladies having houses larger than they
require," and medical men who own "retreats," press forward
with genteel offers of board and lodging. Education pursues
her claims by the hands of no less than 144 preceptors, male
and female ; whilst the hair, the skin, the feet, the teeth, and
the inward man are offered the kind attention of thirty-six
professors who possess infallible remedies for all the ills that
flesh is heir to. The remainder is made up of the miscella-
neous cries of tradesmen, whose voices rise from every portion
of the page like the shouting of chapmen from a fair. In the
midst of all this struggle for gold, place, and position, which
goes on every day in this wonderful publication, outcries from
the very depths of the heart, passionate tears, bursts of indig-
nation, and heartrending appeals, startle one as they issue from
ADVERTISEMENTS. 39
the second column of its front page. Here the father sees his
prodigal son afar off and falls upon his neck ; the heartbroken
mother implores her runaway child to return ; or the abandoned
wife searches through the world for her mate. It is strange
how, when the eye is saturated with the thirst after mammon
exhibited by the rest of the broadsheet, the heart becomes
touched by these plaintive but searching utterances, a few ot
which we reproduce : —
ITHE one-winged Dove must die unless the Crane returns to
- 1 - be a shield against her enemies. — Times of 1850.
Or here is another which moves still more : —
BJ. C. — How more than cruel not to write. Take pity on
i such patient silence. — Times, 1850.
The most ghastly advertisement which perhaps ever appeared
in a public journal we copy from this paper of the year 1845.
It is either a threat to inter a wrong body in the " family
vault," or an address to a dead man : —
mo THE PARTY WHO POSTS HIS LETTERS IN"
X PRINCE'S STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE. — Your family is
now in a state of excitement unbearable. Your attention is called to an
advertisement in Wednesday's Morning Advertiser, headed, "A body found
drowned at Deptford." After your avowal to your friend as to what you
might do, he has been to see the decomposed remains, accompanied by
others. The features are gone ; but there are marks on the arm ; so that,
unless they bear from you to-day, it will satisfy them that the remains are
those of their misguided relative, and steps will be directly taken to place
them in the family vault, as they cannot bear the idea of a pauper's
funeral.
Sometimes we see the flashing eyes of indignation gleaming
through the very words. The following is evidently written to
an old lover with all the burning passion of a woman de-
ceived : —
IT is enough ; one man alone upon earth have I found noble.
Away from me for ever ! Cold heart and mean spirit, you have lost
what millions — empires — could not have bought, but which a single word
truthfully and nobly spoken might have made your own to all eternity.
Yet you are forgiven : depart in peace : I rest in my Redeemer. — Times,
Sept 1st, 1852.
Sometimes it is more confiding love " wafting a sigh from
iO ADVERTISEMENTS.
Indus to the pole," or, finger on lip, speaking secretly, and as he
thinks securely, through the medium of cipher advertisements
to the loved one. Sweet delusion ! There are wicked philo-
sophers abroad who unstring the bow of harder toil by picking
your inmost thoughts ! Lovers beware ! intriguers tremble !
Many a wicked passage of illicit love, many a joy fearfully
snatched, which passed through the second column of the first
page of the Times as a string of disjointed letters, unintelli-
gible as the correspondents thought, to all the world but them-
selves, have we seen fairly copied out in plain if not always
good English in the commonplace books of these cunning men
at cryptographs. Here, for instance, we give an episode from
the life of "Flo," which appeared in the Times ot 1853-54, as
a proof : —
FLO. — Thou voice of my heart ! Berlin, Thursday. I leave
next Monday, and shall press you to my heart on Saturday. Cod bless
you I— Nov. 29, 1853.
FLO. — The last is wrong. I repeat it. Thou voice of my
heart. I am so lonely, I miss you more than ever. I look at your
picture every night. I send you an Indian shawl to wear round you
while asleep after dinner. It will keep you from harm, and you must
fancy my arms are around you. God bless you ! how I do love you ! —
Dec. 23, 1853.
FLO. — My own love, I am happy again ; it is like awaking
from a bad dream. You are, my life ; to know that there is a chance
of seeing you, to hear from you, to do things to enough. [There is some
error here.] I shall try to see you soon. Write to me as often as you can.
God bless you, thou voice of my heart ! — Jan. 2, 1S54.
FLO. — Thou voice of my heart ! How I do love you ! How
are you ? Shall you be laid up this spring ? I can see yeu walking
with your darling. What would I give to be with you ! Thanks for your
last letter. I fear nothing but separation from you. You are my world,
my life, my hope. Thou more than life, farewell! God bless you! —
Jan. 6, 1854.
FLO. — I fear, dearest, our cipher is discovered : write at
once to your friend "Indian Shawl" (P.O.), Buckingham, Bucks. —
Jan. 7, 1845.
The advertisement of January 7th is written in a great fright,
and refers to the discovery and exposure of the cipher in the
Times newspaper ; for whenever the aforesaid philosophers
perceive that a secret correspondence has arrived at a critical
ADVERTISEMENTS. 41
point they charitably insert a marplot advertisement in the
same cipher. The "Flo" intrigue was carried on in figures,
the key to which is as follows . —
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
y.
u.
o.
i.
e.
a.
d.
k.
h.
f.
s.
t.
n.
m.
r.
1.
d.
g-
w.
P-
X.
c.
b.
v.
The reader will perhaps remember another mad-looking
advertisement which appeared in the year 1853, headed " Cene-
rentola." The first, dated Feb. 2nd, we interpret thus : —
CENERENTOLA, I wish to' try if you can read this, and am
most anxious to hear the end, when you return, and how long you
remain here. Do write a few lines, darling, please : I have been very far
from happy since you went away.
One of the parties cannot frame an adequate explanation of
some delicate matter clearly, as we find on the 11th the follow-
ing :—
pENERENTOLA, until my heart is sick have I tried to
^ frame an explanation for you, but cannot. Silence is safest, if the true
cause is not suspected ; if it is, all stories will be sifted to the bottom. Do
you remember our cousin's first proposition? — think of it.
The following, which appeared on the 19th of the same
month, is written in plain language, and is evidently a specimen
of the marplot advertisement before alluded to : —
CENERENTOLA, what nonsense ! Your cousin's proposition
is absurd. I have given an explanation — the true one — which has per-
fectly satisfied both parties — a thing which silence never could have effected..
So no more such absurdity.
The secret of this cipher consisted in representing each letter
by the twenty-second onward continually. One more specimen
of these singular advertisements and we have done. On
Feb. 20, 1852, there appeared in the Times the following
mysterious line : —
npiG tjohw it tig jfhiirvola og tig psgvw. — F. D. 2T.
The general reader, doubtless, looked upon this jumble of
42 ADVERTISEMENTS.
letters with some such a puzzled air as the mastiff gives the
tortoise in a very popular French bronze ; but not being able
to make anything out of it, passed on to the more intelligible
contents of the paper. A friend of ours, however, was curious
and intelligent enough to extract the plain English out of it,
though not without much trouble, as thus : — If we take the
first word of the sentence, Tig, and place under its second letter
i the one which alphabetically precedes it, and treat the next
letters in a similar manner, we shall have the following combi-
nation : —
Tig
h f
e
Beading the first letters obliquely we have the article " The j"
if we treat the second word in the same manner, the following
will be the result : —
T j
o
h
w
i.
n.
S-
V.
m.
f.
"U.
e.
t.
which, read in the same slanting way, produces the word Times,
and the whole sentence, thus ingeniously worked out, gives up
its latent and extraordinary meaning, thus —
" THE Times is the Jefferies of the press."
What could have induced any one to take so much trouble
thus to plant a hidden insult into the leading journal, we cannot
divine. " East, " He Blew," '< Willie and Fanny," " Dominoes,"
and " My darling A.," need not feel uncomfortable although we
know their secrets. We have said quite enough to prove to
these individuals that such ciphers as they use, are picked
immediately by any cryptographic Hobbs ; indeed, all systems
of writing which dej)end upon transmutations of the letters of
the alphabet, or the substitution of figures for letters, such as
we generally find in the Times, are mere puzzles for children,
and not worthy of the more cunning or finished in the art.
ADVERTISEMENTS. 43
It is not to be expected, with all the caution exhibited by
the morning papers to prevent the insertion of swindling adver-
tisements that rogues do not now and then manage to take
advantage of their great circulation for the sake of forwarding
their own nefarious schemes. Sir Robert Carden has just done
good service by running to earth the Mr. Fynn, who for years
has lived abroad in splendour at the expense of the poor gover-
nesses he managed to victimize through the advertising columns
of the Times. One's heart sickens at the stream of poor young
ladies his promises have dragged across the continent, and the
consequences which may have resulted from their thus putting
their reputation as well as* their money into his power. Such
scandalous traps as these are, of course, rare ; but the papers
are full of minor pitfalls, into which the unwary are continually
falling, sometimes with their eyes wide open. Of the latter
class are the matrimonial advertisements ; here is a specimen
of one of the most artful of its kind we ever remember to have
seen : —
TO GIRLS OF FORTUNE— MATRIMONY.— A bachelor,
-*- young, amiable, handsome, and of good family, and accustomed to
move in the highest sphere of society, is embarrassed in his circumstances.
Marriage is his only hope of extrication. This advertisement is inserted
by one of his friends. Ingratitude was never one of his faults, and he will
study for the remainder of his life to prove his estimation of the confidence
placed in him. — Address, post-paid, L. L. H. L., 47, King Street, Soho. —
N.B. The witticisms of cockney scribblers deprecated.
The air of candour, and the taking portrait of the handsome
bachelor, whose very poverty is converted into a charm, is cleverly
assumed. An announcement of a much less flattering kind,
but probably of a more genuine and honourable nature, was
published in Blackwood some time ago, which we append, as,
like Landseer's dog-pictures, the two form a capital pair illus-
trative of high and low life.
]M~ATRIMONIAL ADVERTISEMENT. — I hereby give
■*•"-*- notice to all unmarried women, that I, John Hobnail, am at this
writing five-and-forty, a widower, and in want of a wife. As I wish
no one to be mistaken, I have a good cottage, with a couple of acres
of land, for which I pay 21. a year. I have five children, four of them old
enough to be in employment ; three sides of bacon, and some pigs ready
44 ADVERTISEMENTS.
for market. I should like to have a woman fit to take care of her house
■when I am out. I want no second family. She may be between forty and
fifty if she likes. A good sterling woman would be preferred, who would
take care of the pigs.
The following is also matter of fact, but it looks supicious : —
MATRIMONY TO MILLINERS AND DRESSMAKERS.
A young man about to emigrate to South Australia would be
happy to form an alliance with a young woman in the above line possessing
601. or 1001. property. Any one so disposed, by applying by letter (post-
paid) to T. Hall, 175, Upper Thames Street, till Saturday next, appointing
an interview, may depend on prompt attention and strict secrecy. — Times,
1845.
The matrimonial bait is so obviously a good one, that of late
years we see advertisements of institutions, at which regular
lists of candidates for the marriage state, both male and female,
are kept, together with portraits, and a ledger in which pecu-
niary and mental qualifications are neatly posted. Such springes
are only suited, however, for the grossest folly ; but there is
another class of advertisements which empties the pockets of
the industrious and aspiring in a very workmanlike manner :
we allude to such as the following : —
GENTLEMEN having a respectable circle of acquaintance
may hear of means of INCREASING their INCOME without the
slightest pecuniary risk, or of having (by any chance) their feelings
wounded. Apply for particulars, by letter, stating their position, &c, to
W. R., 37, Wiginore Street, Cavendish Square.
Gentlemen whose feelings are so delicate that they must not
be injured on any consideration, who nevertheless have a desire
for lucre, we recommend not to apply to such persons, unless
they wish to receive for their pains some such a scheme as was
forwarded to a person who had answered an advertisement
(enclosing, as directed, thirty postage-stamps) in Lloyd's Weekly
Journal, headed a How to make 21. per week by the outlay
of 10s.":—
" First purchase 1 cwt. of large-sized potatoes, which may be obtained
for the sum of 4s., then purchase a large basket, which will cost say
another 4s., then buy 2s. worth of flannel blanketing, and this will com-
prise your stock in trade, of which the total cost is 10s. A large-sized
potato weighs about half a pound, consequently there are 224 potatoes in
a cwt.
ADVEKTISEMENTS. 45
"Take half the above quantity of potatoes each evening to a baker's,
and have them baked ; when properly cooked put them in your basket, well
wrapped up in the flannel to keep them hot, and sally forth and offer them
for sale at one penny each. Numbers will be glad to purchase them at
that price, and you will for certain be able to sell half a cwt. every evening.
From the calculation made below you will see by that means you will be
able to earn 21. per week. The best plan is to frequent the most crowded
thoroughfares, and make good use of your lungs ; thus letting people know
what you have for sale. You could also call in at each public-house on your
way, and solicit the patronage of the customers, many of whom would be
certain to buy of you. Should you have too much pride to transact the
business yourself (though no one need be ashamed of pursuing an honest
calling), you could hire a boy for a few shillings a week, who could do the
work for you, and you could still make a handsome profit weekly.
" The following calculation proves that 21. per week can be made by
selling baked potatoes : —
" 1 cwt., containing 224 potatoes, sold in two
evenings, at Id. each £0 18 8
Deduct cost 4
£0 14 8
3
Six evenings' sale £2 4
Pay baker at the rate of 8d. per evening for
baking potatoes 4
Net profit per week £2 "
One more specimen of these baits for gudgeon, and we have
done. We frequently see appeals to the benevolent for the
loans of small sums. Some of these are doubtless written by
innocent persons in distress, who confide in the good side of
human nature ; and we have been given to understand that in
many cases this blind confidence has not been misplaced ; for
there are many Samaritans who read the papers nowadays, and
feel a romantic pleasure in answering such appeals : at the same
time, we are afraid that the great majority of them are gross
deceptions. The veritable whine of " the poor broken-down
tradesman " who makes a habit of visiting our quiet streets and
appealing, in a very solemn voice, to " my brethren " for the
loan of a small trifle, whilst he anxiously scans the windows for
the halfpence, is observable, for instance, in the following cool
appeal : —
TO THE BENEVOLENT.— A Young Tradesman has, from
-*- a series of misfortunes, been reduced to the painful necessity of asking
for a trifling SUM to enable him to raise 101. to save himself from inevit-
46 ADVERTISEMENTS.
able ruin and poverty ; or if any gentleman would lend the above it would
be faithfully repaid. Satisfactory references as to the genuineness of this
case. — Direct to A. Z., Mr. Rigby's, Post-Office, Mile-end Road.
The receipt of conscience-money is constantly acknowledged
in advertisements by the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the
day, and the sums which in this manner find their way into the
Exchequer are by no means inconsiderable. It is honourable
to human nature, amid all the roguery we have exposed, to find
that now and then some conscience is touched by a very small
matter, and that great trouble and no little expense is often
gone to in order that others may not suffer through the inad-
vertency or carelessness of the advertiser. The following is a
delicate example : —
TO HACKNEY-CO ACUMEN— About the month of March
-*- last, a gentleman from the country took a coach from Finsbury Square,
and accidentally broke the glass of one of its windows. Being unwell at
the time, the circumstance was forgotten when he quitted the coach, and
it would now be a great relief to his mind to be put in a situation to pay
the coachman for it. Should this meet the eye of the person who drove the
coach, and he will make application to A. B., at Walker's Hotel, Dean
Street, Soho, any morning during the next week, before eleven o'clock,
proper attention will be paid to it. — Times, 1842.
The more curious advertisements which from time to time
appear in the public journals, but particularly in the Times, do
not admit of classification ; and they are so numerous, moreover,
that if we were to comment upon one tithe of those that have
appeared within the last six years, we should far exceed the
limits of this article. We make no apology, therefore, for
stringing together the following very odd lot : —
DO YOU WANT A SERVANT ?— Necessity prompts the
question.— The advertiser OFFERS his SERVICES to any lady or
gentleman, company, or others, in want of a truly faithful confidential ser-
vant in any capacity not menial, where a practical knowledge of human
nature, in various parts of the world, would be available. Could under-
take any affair of small or great importance, where talent, inviolable
secrecy, or good address would be necessary. Has moved in the best and
worst societies without being contaminated by either ; has never been a
servant ; begs to recommend himself as one who knows his p'ace ; is moral,
temperate, middle-aged ; no objection to any part of the world. Could
advise any capitalist wishing to increase his income, and have the control of
his own money. Could act as secretary or valet to any lady or gentleman.
Can give advice or hold his tongue, sing, dance, play, fence, box, or preach
ADVERTISEMENTS. 47
a sermon, tell a story, be grave or gay, ridiculous or sublime, or do any-
thing, from the curling of a peruke to the storming of a citadel, but never
to excel his master. — Address, A. B. C, 7, Little St. Andrew Street,
Leicester Square. — Times, 1850.
THE MIGHTY ANGEL'S MIDNIGHT ROAR—" Behold
J- the Bridegroom coraeth, go ye out to meet him." This awful cry, as
is demonstrated, will very shortly be heard, viz. : at the commencement of
"the great day (or year) of God's wrath," or the last of the 2,300 days (or
years) in Daniel's prophecy. By the authors of " Proofs of the Second
Coming of Messiah at the Passover in 1848." Price 6d. Fourth Edition.
This is a Muggletonian prophecy of the destruction of the world
at a certain date. The prediction failed, however, and the pro-
phet found it necessary to explain the reason : —
THE MIGHTY ANGEL'S MIDNIGHT ROAR— The
J- authors, owing to their disappointment, most sedulously investigated
its cause, and instantly announce its discovery. Daniel's vision, in chap, 8,
was for 2,300 years, to the end of which (see 5-12) the " little horn " was to
practise and prosper, after which comes the year of God's wrath, which was
erroneously included in the 2,300 years, and thus the midnight cry will be
a year later than stated. — Times, 1851.
TO P. Q. HOW IS YOUR MOTHER ? I shan't inquire
-*- further, and must decline entering upon the collateral branches of the
family.— Times, 1842.
TO WIDOWERS and SINGLE GENTLEMEN.—
-*- WANTED, by a lady, a SITUATION to superintend the household
and preside at table. She is agreeable, becoming, careful, desirable, English,
facetious, generous, honest, industrious, judicious, keen, lively, merry,
natty, obedient, philosophic, quiet, regular, sociable, tasteful, useful, viva-
cious, womanish, xantippish, youthful, zealous, &c. — Address, X. Y. Z.,
Simmond's Library, Edgeware Road. — Times.
rjIHE TITLE OF AN ANCIENT BARON. Mr. George
X Eobins is empowered to SELL tbe TITLE and DIGNITY of a
BAPON. The origin of the family, its ancient descent, and illustrious
ancestry, will be fully developed to those and such only as desire to possess
this distinguished rank for tbe inconsiderable sum of 1,000£. Co vent-garden
Market.— Times, 1841.
DOSTAGE STAMPS. A young lady, being desirous of
X covering her dressing-room witb cancelled POSTAGE STAMPS,
has been so far encouraged in her wisb by private friends as to have suc-
ceeded in collecting 16,000 ! these, however, being insufficient, she will be
greatly obliged if any good-natured persons who may have these (otherwise
useless) little articles at their disposal would assist in her whimsical project.
Address to E. D., Mr. Butt's, glover, Leadenhall Street ; or Mr. Marshall's,
ewdler, Hackney. — Times, 1841.
4S ADVERTISEMENTS.
TO THE THEATRICAL PROFESSION".— WANTED,
for a Summer Theatre and Circuit, a Leading Lady, Singing Chamber-
maid, First Low Comedian, Heavy Man, Walking Gentleman, and one or
two Gentlemen for Utility. To open July 9th.
Address (enclosing Stamp for reply) to Mr. J. "WINDSOR, Theatre Royal,
Preston, Lancashire. — Era, July 1, 1855.
/"ANTED a Man and his Wife to look after a Horse and
Dairy with a religious turn of mind without any incumbrance.
V
The variety is perhaps as astonishing as the number of adver-
tisements in the Times. Like the trunk of an elephant, no
matter seems too minute or too gigantic, too ludicrous or too
sad, to be lifted into notoriety by the giant of Printing-house
Square. The partition of a thin rule suffices to separate a call
for the loan of millions from the sad weak cry of the destitute
gentlewoman to be allowed to slave in a nursery " for the sake
of a home." Vehement love sends its voice imploring through
the world after a graceless boy, side by side with the announce-
ment of the landing of a cargo of lively turtle, or the card of a
bug-killer. The poor lady who advertises for boarders " merely
for the sake of society" finds her " want" cheek-by-jowl with
some Mnggletonian announcement gratuitously calculated to
break up society altogether, to the effect that the world will
come to an end by the middle of the next month. Or the
reader is informed that for twelve postage stamps he may learn
" How to obtain a certain fortune," exactly opposite an offer of
a bonus of 5001. to any one who will obtain for the advertiser
" a Government situation." The Times reflects every want,
and appeals to every motive which affects our composite society.
And why does it do this 1 Because of its ubiquity : go where
we will, there, like the house-fly or the sparrow, we find it.
The porter reads it in his -beehive-chair, the master in his
library ; Green, we have no doubt, takes it with him to the
clouds in his balloon, and the collier reads it in the depths of
the mine ; the workman at his bench, the lodger in his two-pair
back, the gold-digger in his hole, and the soldier in the trench,
pore over its broad pages. Hot from the press, or months old,
still it is read. That it is, par excellence, the national paper,
and reflects more than any other the life of the people, may be
ADVERTISEMENTS. 49
gathered from its circulation. They show in the editor's room
a singular diagram, which indicates by an irregular line the
circulation day by day and year by year. On this sheet the
gusts of political feeling and the pressure of popular excitement,
are as minutely indicated as the force and direction of the wind
are shown by the self-registering apparatus in Lloyd's Rooms.
Thus we find that in the year 1845 it ran along at a pretty
nearly dead level of 23.000 copies daily. In 1846 — for one
day, the 28th of January, that on which the report of Sir
Robert Peel's statement respecting the Corn Laws appeared —
it rose in a towering peak to a height of 51,000, and then fell
again to its old number. It began the year 1848 with 29,000,
and rose to 43,000 on the 29th of February — the morrow of
the French revolution. In 1852 its level at starting was
36,000, and it attained to the highest point it has yet touched
on the 19th of November, the day of the Memoir of the Great
Duke, when 69,000 copies were sold. In January, 1853, the level
had arisen to 40,000 ; and at the commencement of the present
year it stood at 58,000, a circulation which has since increased
to 60,000 copies daily ! Notwithstanding all the disturbing
causes which make the line of its circulation present the ap-
pearance of hill and dale, sometimes rising into Alp-like eleva-
tions, its ordinary level at the beginning of each year for some
time past has constantly gone on advancing ; insomuch that
within ten years its circulation has more than doubled by
7,000 daily.
This vigorous growth is the true cause of that wonderful
determination of advertisements to its pages, which have over-
flowed into a second paper, or supplement, as it was formerly
called. That this success has been fairly won, we have never
ourselves doubted ; but a fact has come to our knowledge which
will pretty clearly prove that this great paper is conducted on
principles which are superior to mere money considerations ;
or rather its operations are so large that it can afford to inflict
upon itself pecuniary losses, such as would annihilate any other
journal, in order to take a perfectly free course. In the year
1845, when the railway mania was at its height, the Times
50 ADVERTISEMENTS.
advertising sheet was overrun with projected lines, and many
a guess was made, we remember, at the time as to their pro-
bable value : but high as the estimates generally were, they
came far short of the truth. We give the cash and credit
returns of advertisements oi all kinds for nine weeks : — •
Sept. 6 . , . . . . £2839 14
„ 13 3783 12
„ 20 3935 7 6
„ 27 4692 7
Oct. 4 6318 14
„ 11 6543 17
„ 18 6687 4
„ 25 6025 14 6
Nov. 1 3230 3 6
During the greater part of the time that the proprietors were
reaping this splendid harvest from the infatuation of the people,
the heaviest guns were daily brought to bear from the leading
columns upon the bubbles which rose up so thickly in the adver-
tising sheet. The effect of their fire may be measured by the
falling off of nearly 3,000£ in the returns for a single week.
A journal which could afford to sacrifice such a revenue to
its independence, certainly deserved some consideration from
the Government ; but, on the contrary, it appears to have
been singled out for annoyance by the act which relates to
newspapers. We see certain trees on our lawns whose up-
shooting branches are by ingenious gardeners trained clown-
wards, and taught to hold themselves in a dependent condition
by the imposition of weights upon their extremities. The state
gardeners have applied the same treatment to the journal
in question, by hanging an extra halfpenny stamp upon every
copy of its issue — a proceeding which, in our opinion, is as
unfair as it is injudicious : and this they will find in the future,
when the crowd of mosquito-like cheap journals called forth by
the measure, and supported by the very life-blood of the leading
journal, begin to gather strength and to attack Whiggery with
their democratic buzz.
We have dwelt chiefly upon the advertising sheet of the
Times, because it is the epitome of that in all the other journals.
It must be mentioned, however, that some of the morning and
ADVERTISEMENTS. 51
weekly papers lay themselves out for class advertisements.
Thus the Morning Post monopolizes all those which relate to
fashion and high life ; and the Morning Advertiser, the paper
of the licensed victuallers, aggregates to itself every announce-
ment relating to their craft. Bell's Life is one mass of adver-
tisements of various sports ; the Era is great upon all theat-
ricals ; the Athenceum gathers to itself a large proportion of
book advertisements. The Illustrated News among the week-
lies, like the Times among the dailies, towers by the head above
them all. A hebdomadal circulation of 170,000 draws a far
more cosmopolitan collection of announcements to its pages than
any of its contemporaries can boast. We have said nothing of
the advertisements in the provincial journals ; but it is grati-
fying to find that they have more than kept pace with those
which have appeared in the metropolitan papers. Their
enormous increase is best shown by the returns of the adver-
tisement duty; from which it appears that in 1851 no less than
2,334,593 advertisements were published in the journals of
Great Britain and Ireland — a number which has vastly aug-
mented since the tax upon them has been repealed.
It is curious to see the estimate which the different journals
place upon themselves as mediums of publicity, by comparing
their charges for the same advertisement. Thus the contents
of the Quarterly Reviev) for January, 1855, precisely similar as
far as length is concerned, was charged for insertion as an
advertisement by the different papers as follows : — Times, 4s. ;
Illustrated News, 11 8s. ; Morning Chronicle, 5s. 6d. ; Morning
Post, 6 s. j Daily News, 5s. 6d. ; Spectator, 7s. 6d. ; Morning
Herald, 6 s. ; Punch, 15 s. ; Observer, 9 s. 6d. ; English Church-
man, 5s. 6d. ; Examiner, 3s. 6d. ; John Bull, 5s. 6d. ; Athenceum,
10s. 6d. Now the Times did not " display" the advertisement
as all the others did, it is true, and therefore squeezed it into
half the space ; but with this difference, its charge was absolutely
the lowest in the list, with the single exception of that of the
Examiner. How this moderation on the part of the Leading
Journal is to be accounted for we know not ; but the apparent
dearness of the Illustrated News meets a ready solution, and
e 2
52 ADVERTISEMENTS.
affords us an opportunity of showing how vastly the prime cost
of an advertisement, during the present high price of paper
especially, is augmented by a great increase of the calculation
of the paper in which it appears, and what the advertiser really
gets for his money. If we take the advertisement of our con-
tents {Quarterly Review), it will be found to measure about one
inch in depth ; it is obvious, then, that we must multiply this
measure by 170,000, the number of separate copies in which it
appeared. Now 170,000 inches yield a strip of printed paper
the width of a newspaper column — upwards of two miles and
three-quarters long ! Thus we have at a glance the real amount
of publicity which is procurable in a great journal ; and with so
remarkable a statement it will be well to close our paper.
-"
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
A story is told of a European who, "wishing to convince a
Brahmin of the folly of his faith in interdicting, as an article
of food, anything that once possessed life, showed him, by
the aid of the microscope, that the very water which he
drank was full of living things. The Indian, thus suddenly
introduced to an unseen world, dashed the instrument to the
ground, and reproached his teacher for having so wantonly
destroyed the guiding principle of his life. "We, too, have at
home a Hindoo, in the shape of the believing British public, to
whose eye Dr. Hassall nicely adjusts the focus of his micro-
scope, and bids him behold what unseen villanies are daily
perpetrated upon his purse and person.
The world at large has almost forgotten Accum's celebrated
work, " Death in the Pot;" a new generation has indeed sprung
up since it was written, and fraudulent tradesmen and manufac-
turers have gone on in silence, and, up to this time, in security,
falsifying the food and picking the pockets of the people.
Startling indeed as were the revelations in that remarkable
book, yet it had little effect in reforming the abuses it exposed.
General denunciations of grocers did not touch individuals of
the craft, and they were consequently not driven to improve
the quality of their wares. The Lancet Commission went to
work in a different manner. In Turkey, when of old they
caught a baker giving false weight, or adulterating the staff
of life, they nailed his ear to the door-post, " pour encourager
les autres." Dr. Hassall, like a modern Al Baschid, perambu-
lated the town himself, or sent his trustworthy agents to pur-
54 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
chase articles, upon all of which the inexorable microscope
was set to work, and every fraudulent sample, after due notice
given, subjected its vendor to be pinned for ever to the terrible
pages of the Commissioners' report. In this manner direct
responsibility was obtained. If the falsification denounced was
not the work of the retailer, he was glad enough to shift the
blame upon the manufacturer ; and thus the truth came out.
A gun suddenly fired into a rookery could not cause a
greater commotion than this publication of the names of dis-
honest tradesmen ; nor does the daylight, when you lift a
stone, startle ugly and loathsome things more quickly than the
pencil of light, streaming through a quarter-inch lens, sur-
prised in their naked ugliness the thousand and one illegal
substances which enter more or less into every description ot
food that it will pay to adulterate. Nay, to such a pitch of
refinement has the art of falsification of alimentary substances
reached, that the very articles used to adulterate are adul-
terated ; and while one tradesman is picking the pockets of his
customers, a still more cunning rogue is, unknown to himself,
deep in his own !
The manner in which food is adulterated is not only one of
degree, but of kind. The most simple of all sophistications,
and that which is most harmless, is the mixture of inferior
qualities of the same substance. Indeed, if the price charged
were according to quality, it would be no fraud at all ; but
this adjustment rarely takes place. Secondly, the mixture of
cheaper articles of another kind. Thirdly, the surreptitious
introduction of materials which, taken in large quantities, are
prejudicial to health ; and, fourthly, the admixture of the most
deadly poisons in order to improve the appearance of the article
" doctored."
The microscope alone is capable of detecting at one operation
the nature and extent of the more harmless but general of
these frauds. When once the investigator, by the aid of that
instrument, has become familiar with the configurations of
different kinds of the same chemically composed substances, he
is armed with far greater detective power than chemical agents
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 55
could provide him with. It is beyond the limit of the test-
tube to show the mind the various forms of animal and vege-
table life which exist in impure water ; delicate as are its
powers, it could not indicate the presence of the sugar-insect,
or distinguish with unerring nicety an admixture of the com-
mon Circuma arrowroot with the finer Maranta. Chemistry is
quite capable of telling the component parts of any article :
what are the definite forms and natures of the various ingre-
dients which enter into a mixture, it cannot so easily answer.
This the microscope can at once effect ; and in its present
application consists Dr. Hassall's advantage over all previous
investigators in the same field. The precision with which he
is enabled to state the result of his labours leaves no appeal :
he shows his reader the intimate structures of a coffee-grain,
and of oak or mahogany sawdust ; and then a specimen of the
two combined, sold under the title of genuine Mocha. Many
manufacturers and retailers who have been detected falsifying
the food of the public, have threatened actions ; but they all
flinched from the test of this unerring instrument.
The system ot adulteration is so wide-spread, and embraces
so many of the items of the daily meal, that we scarcely know
where to begin — what corner of the veil first to lift. Let us
hold up the cruet-frame, for example, and analyze its contents.
There is mustard, pepper (black and cayenne), vinegar, anchovy
and Harvey sauce — so thinks the unsuspecting reader ; let us
show him what else beside. To begin with mustard. " Best
Durham," or " Superfine Durham," no doubt it was purchased
for ; but we will summarily dismiss this substance by stating
that it is impossible to procure it pure at all : out of forty-two
samples bought by Dr. Hassall at the best as well as inferior
shops, all were more or less adulterated with wheaten flour for
bulk, and with turmeric for colour. Yinegar also suffers a
double adulteration. It is first watered, and then pungency is
given to it by the addition of sulphuric acid. A small quan-
tity of this acid is allowed by law ; and this is frequently
trebled by the victuallers. The pepper-castor is another strong-
hold of fraud — fraud so long and ojjenly practised, that we
56 FOOD AND ITS ADULTEKATIONS.
question if the great mass of the perpetrators even think they
are doing wrong. Among the milder forms of sophistication
to which this article is subjected, are to be found such ingre-
dients as wheaten flour, ground rice, ground mustard-seeds, and
linseed-meal. The grocer maintains a certain reserve as to the
generality of the articles he employs in vitiating his wares ; but
pepper he seems to think is given up to him by the public to
" cook " in any manner he thinks fit. This he almost invariably
does by the addition of what is known in the trade as P. D.,
or pepper-dust, alias the sweepings from the pepper warehouses.
But there is a lower depth still : P. D. is too genuine a com-
modity for some markets, and it is accordingly mixed with
D. P. D., or dirt of pepper-dust.
A little book, published not long since, entitled " The Suc-
cessful Merchant," which gives the minute trade history of a
gentleman very much respected in Bristol, Samuel Budgett,
Esq., affords us a passage bearing upon this P. D. which is
worthy of notice.
"In Mr. Budgett's early days," says Lis biographer, " pepper was under
a heavy tax, and in the trade universal tradition said that out of the trade
everybody expected pepper to be mixed. In the shop stood a cask labelled
P. D., containing something very like pepper-dust, wherewith it was usual
to mix the pepper before sending it forth to serve the public. The trade
tradition had obtained for the apocryphal P. D. a place amongst the
standard articles of the shop, and on the strength of that tradition it
was vended for pepper by men who thought they were honest. But as
Samuel went on in life, his ideas on trade morality grew clearer ; this P. D.
began to give him much discomfort. He thought upon it till he was satis-
fied that, after all that could be said, the thing was wrong : arrived at this
conclusion, he felt that no blessing could light upon the place while it was
there. He instantly decreed that P. D. should perish. It was night ; but
back he went to the shop, took the hypocritical cask, carried it out to the
quarry, then staved it, and scattered P. D. among the clods and slag and
stones."
Would we could say that the reduction of the tax upon pepper
had stimulated the honesty of other grocers to act a similar part
to that of Mr. Budgett ; but P. D. flourishes as flagrantly as ever ;
and if every possessor of the article in London were to stave
his casks in the roadway, as conscientiously as did the " Success-
ful Merchant," there would be hard work for the scavengers.
In the days of Accum it was usual to manufacture peppercorns
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 57
out of oiled linseed-cake, clay, and cayenne-pepper, formed into
a mass, and then granulated : these fraudulent corns were mixed
with the real to the extent of seventeen per cent. This form of
imposition, like that of wooden nutmegs among our American
friends, has, we are happy to say, long been abandoned. The
adulterations we have mentioned are simply dirty and fraudu-
lent ; but in the cayenne-cruet we find, in addition, a deadly
poison. Out of twenty-eight samples submitted to examination,
no less than twenty-four were adulterated with white mustard-
seed, brickdust, salt, ground rice, and deal sawdust, by way of
civinof bulk : but as all of these tend to lighten the colour, it
is necessary to heighten it to the required pitch. And what
is employed to do this 1 ? Hear and tremble, old Indians
and lovers of high-seasoned food — with red lead. Out of
twenty-eight samples, red lead, and often in 'poisonous quantities,
was present in thirteen ! Who knows how many " yellow
admirals " at Bath have fallen victims to their cayenne-cruets ?
Nor can it be said that the small quantity taken at a time could
do no permanent mischief ; for lead belongs to the class of
poisons which are cumulative in their effects.
He who loves cayenne, as a rule is fond of curry-powder ; and
here also the poisonous oxide is to be found in large quantities.
Some years ago, a certain amiable duke recommended the labour-
ing population, during a season of famine, to take a pinch of
this condiment every morning before going to work, as "warm
and comforting to the stomach." If they had followed his advice,
thirteen out of every twenty-eight persons would have imbibed a
slow poison. Those who are in the habit of using curry, gene-
rally take it in considerable quantities, and thus the villanous
falsification plays a more deadly part than even in cayenne-
pepper. Imagine a man for years pertinaciously painting his
stomach with red lead ! We do not know whether medical
statistics prove that paralysis prevails much among "Nabobs ;"
but of this we may be sure, that there could be no more
fruitful source of it than the two favourite stimulants we have
named.
The great staple articles of food are not subject to adul-
58 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
teration in the same proportion as many other articles of minor
demand. We need scarcely say that meat is exempt so long
as it remains in the condition of joints ; but immediately it
is prepared in any shape in which its original fibre and
form can be hidden, the spirit of craft begins to work. The
public have always had certain prejudices against sausages and
polonies, for example ; and, if we are to believe a witness
examined on oath before the Smithfield Market Commissioners
in 1850, not without reason. It is a very old joke that there
are no live donkeys to be found within twenty miles of Epping ;
but if all the asinine tribe in England were to fall victims to
the chopping-machine, we question if they could supply the
a-la-mode, polony, and sausage establishments. Mr. J. Harper,
for instance, being under examination, upon being asked what
became of the diseased meat brought into London, replied : —
"It is purchased by the soup-shops, sausage-makers, the a-la-mode beef
and meat-pie shops, &c. There is one soup-shop, I believe, doing five
hundred pounds per week in diseased meat. This firm has a large foreign
trade [thank goodness !]. The trade in diseased meat is very alarming, as
anything in the shape of flesh can be sold at about one penny per pound,
or eightpence per stone I am certain that if one hundred car-
cases of cows were lying dead in the neighbourhood of London, I could
get them all sold within twenty-four hours: it don't matter what they
died of."
It must not be imagined that the a-la-mode beef interest is
supplied with this carrion by needy men, whose necessities may
in some degree palliate their evil dealings. In proof of this we
quote further from Mr. Harper's evidence. In answer to the
question, " Is there any slaughtering of bad meat in the country
for the supply of the London market 2" he says, —
"The London market is very extensively supplied with diseased meat
from the country. There are three insurance offices in London in which
graziers can insure their beasts from disease. It was the practice of one of
these offices to send the unsound animals dying from disease to their own
slaughter-houses, situate a hundred and sixty miles from London, to be
dressed and sent to the London market Cattle, sheep, &c, are
insured against all kinds of diseases ; and one of the conditions is, that the
diseased animal, when dead, becomes the property of the insurance company,
the party insuring receiving two-thirds of the value of the animal and one-
third of the salvage ; or, in other words, one-third of the amount the beast
is sold for when dead."
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 59
Upon being asked, " Do you believe it is still the habit of
this company to send up the diseased animals to London?" he
replied, —
"Yes, I do; until lately they were regularly consigned to a meat-
salesman in Newgate market of the name of Mathews The
larger quantities are sold to people who manufacture it into soup, meat-
pies, sausages, &c."
"We have no wish to destroy the generally robust appetite of the
persons who visit such shops by any gratuitous disclosure ; but we
question whether the most hungry crossing-sweeper would look
any more with a longing eye upon the huge German sausages,
rich and inviting as they appear, if, like Mr. Harper, he knew
the too probable antecedents of their contents. The only other
preparations of flesh open to adulteration are preserved meats.
Some years ago, " the Goldner canister business " so excited the
public against this invaluable method of storing perishing
articles of food, that a prejudice has existed against it ever
since ; and a more senseless prejudice could not be. Goldner's
process, since adopted by Messrs. Cooper and Aves, is simple
and beautiful. The provisions, being placed in tin canisters
having their covers soldered down, are plunged up to their
necks in a bath of chloride of calcium (a preparation which
imbibes a great heat without boiling), and their contents are
speedily cooked ; at the same time all the air in the meat, and
some of the water, are expelled in the form of steam, which
issues from a pin-hole in the lid. The instant the cook ascer-
tains the process to be complete, he drops a plug of solder upon
the hole, and the mass is thus hermetically sealed. Exclusion
of air, and coagulation of the albumen, are the two conditions
which enable us to hand the most delicate-flavoured meats
down to remote generations, — for as long, in fact, as a stout
painted tin canister can maintain itself intact against the
oxidating effect of the atmosphere. We have ourselves partaken
lately of a duck that was winged, and of milk that came from
the cow, as long as eight years ago. Fruit which had been
gathered whilst the free-trade struggle was still going on, we
found as delicate in flavour as though it had just been plucked
CO FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
from the branch. Out of the many cases of all kinds of pro-
visions opened and examined by Dr. Hassall, scarcely any have
been found to be bad. When we remember that the graves of so
many of our soldiers in the Crimea may be justly inscribed, "Died
of salt pork," we cannot forbear to call attention to a neglected
means of feeding our troops with good and nutritious food,
instead of with the tough fibre called meat, from which half
the blood-making qualities have been extracted by the process
of boiling, whilst the remaining half is rendered indigestible
by the action of salt, and poisonous by the extraction of one of
its most important constituents. It would seem as if we were
liviDg in the days of Anson, who lost 626 men of scurvy, out
of a crew of 961, before he could reach the island of Juan
Fernandez, or of the still later cruise of Sir C. Hardy, who
sent 3,500 to hospital with this fatal disease, after a six weeks'
sail with the Channel fleet. It may be urged that the sailors
in the late war did not sicken on salt pork; but while they had
the necessary amount of potass, which the stomach requires to
make blood, in the lime-juice served out to them, our troops were
without this indispensable accompaniment, and consequently
died. In the preserved meats, which are made up with potatoes
and other vegetables, the needful potass exists, and such food
may be purchased as cheaply as the pernicious salt junk which
is patronized by the Government.
Bread, the great blood-producer, claims particular attention.
It often surprises persons who walk about the metropolis to find
that prices vary according to the locality ; thus the loaf that costs
in the Borough or the New Cut Id. a quartern, is 10^d. at the
West End. Can plate-glass windows and rent cause all this dif-
ference 1 Certainly not. We are glad, however, to find that many
of the adulterations mentioned by our older writers have vanished
with free trade. Prince and Accum mention plaster of Paris,
bone-dust, the meal of other cereal grains, white clay, alum,
sulphate of copper, potatoes, &c. All of these sophistications
have disappeared, with the exception of potatoes, which are
occasionally employed when the difference between their value
and that of flour makes it worth while for the baker or miller
1
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 61
to introduce them. When we see a loaf marked under the
market price, we may rest assured that it is made of flour
ground from inferior and damaged wheat. In order to bring
this up to the required colour, and to destroy the sour taste
which often belongs to it, bakers are in the habit of introducing
a mixture called in the trade "hards" and "stuff," which is
nothing more than alum and salt, kept prepared in large quan-
tities by the druggists. The quantity of alum necessary to
render bread white is certainly not great — Mitchell found that
it ranged from 116 grains to 34| grains in the four-pound loaf ;
but the great advantage the baker derives from it, in addition
to improving the colour of his wares, is, that it absorbs a large
quantity of water, which he sells at the present time at the rate
of 2d. a pound. Out of twenty-eight loaves of bread bought
in every quarter of the metropolis, Dr. Hassall did not find one
free from the adulteration of alum ; and in some of the samples
he found considerable quantities. As a general rule, the lower
the neighbourhood, the cheaper the bread, and the greater the
quantity of this " hards" or "stuff" introduced. We must not,
however, lay all the blame upon the baker. This was satisfac-
torily shown by the Sanitary Commissioners, when dealing with
the bread sold by the League Bread Company, whose adver-
tisement to the following effect is constantly to be seen in the
Times : —
"The object for which the above company was established, and is now
in operation, is to insure to the public bread of a pure and nutritious
character. Experience daily proves how much our health is dependent
upon the quality and purity of our food ; consequently, how important it
is that an article of such universal consumption as bread should be free
from adulteration. That various diseases are caused by the use of alum
and other deleterious ingredients in the manufacture of bread, the testimony
of many eminent men will fully corroborate. Pure unadulterated bread,
full weight, best quality, and the lowest possible price."
Upon several samples of this pure bread, purchased of various
agents of the company, being tested, they were found to be
contaminated with alum / Here was a discovery. The com-
pany protested that the analyses were worthless ; and all their
workmen made a solemn declaration that they had never used
62 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
any alum whilst in their employ. The agents of the company
also declared that they never sold any but their bread. The
analyst looked again through his microscope, and again reiterated
his charge, that alum their bread contained. It was then agreed
to test the flour supplied to the company, and three samples
were proved to contain the obnoxious material. Thus we find
that the miller still, in some instances, maintains his doubtful
reputation, and is at the bottom of this roguery.
Our succeeding remarks will fall, we fear, like a bomb upon
many a tea-table, and stagger teetotalism in its stronghold. A
drunkard's stomach is sometimes exhibited at total- abstinence
lectures, in every stage of congestion and inflammation, painted
up to match the fervid eloquence of the lecturer. If tea is
our only refuge from the frightful maladies entailed upon us by
fermented liquors, we fear the British public is in a perplexing-
dilemma. Ladies, there is death in the teapot ! Green-tea
drinkers, beware ! There has always been a vague idea afloat
in the public mind about hot copper plates — a suspicion that
gunpowder and hyson do not come by their colour honestly.
The old duchess of Marlborough used to boast -that she came
into the world before "nerves were in fashion." We feel half
inclined to believe this joke had a great truth in it ; for since
the introduction of tea, nervous complaints of all kinds have
greatly increased ; and we need not look far to find one at
least of the causes in the teapot. There is no such a thing as
pure o-reen tea to be met with in England. It is adulterated
in China ; and we have lately learnt to adulterate it at home
almost as well as the cunning Asiatic. The pure green tea
made from the most delicate green leaves grown upon manured
soil, such as the Chinese use themselves, is, it is true, wholly
untainted ; and we are informed that its beautiful bluish bloom,
like that upon a grape, is given by the third process of roasting
which it undergoes. The enormous demand for a moderately-
priced green tea which has arisen both in England and China
since the opening of the trade, has led the Hong merchants to
imitate this peculiar colour ; and this they do so successfully as
to deceive the ordinary judges of the article. Black tea is
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 63
openly coloured in the neighbourhood of Canton in the most
wholesale manner.
Mr. Robert Fortune, in his very interesting work, " The Tea
Districts of China and India," gives us a good description of
the manner in which this colouring process is performed, as
witnessed by himself : —
" Having procured a portion of Prussian-blue, he threw it into a porce-
lain bowl, not unlike a. chemist's mortar, and crushed it into a very tine
powder. At the same time a quantity of gypsum was produced and burned
in the charcoal fires which were then roasting the teas. The object of this
was to soften it, in order that it might be readily pounded into a very fine
powder, in the same manner as the Prussian-blue had been. The gypsum,
having been taken out of the fire after a certain time had elapsed, readily
crumbled down, and was reduced to powder in the mortar. These two
substances, having been thus prepared, were then mixed together in the
proportion-«of four parts of gypsum to three parts of Prussian- blue, and
formed a light blue powder, which was then ready for use.
"This colouring matter was applied to the teas during the process of
roasting. About five minutes before the tea was removed from the pans —
the time being regulated by the burning of a joss-stick— -the superintendent
took a small porcelain spoon, and with it he scattered a portion of the
colouring matter over the leaves in each pan. The workmen then turned
the leaves round rapidly with both hands, in order that the colour
might be equally diffused. During this part of the operation the hands of
the workmen were quite blue. I could not help thinking, if any green-
tea drinkers had been present during the operation, their taste would have
been corrected, and, I believe, improved.
" One day an English gentleman in Shanghae, being in conversation
with some Chinese from the green-tea country, asked them what reason
they had for dyeing the tea, and whether it would not be better without
undergoing this process. They acknowledged that tea was much better
when prepared without having any such ingredients mixed with it, and
that they never drank dyed teas themselves, but justly remarked, that, as
foreigners seemed to prefer having a mixture of Prussian-blue and gypsum
with their tea to make it look uniform and pretty, and as these ingredients
were cheap enough, the Chinese had no objection to supply them, espe-
cially as such teas always fetched a higher price.
" I took some trouble to ascertain precisely the quantity of colouring
matter used in the process of dyeing green teas, not certainly with the
view of assisting others, either at home or abroad, in the art of colouring,
but simply to show green-tea drinkers in England, and more particularly
in the United States of America, what quantity of Prussian-blue and
gypsum they imbibe in the course of one year. To 144 l°s. were applied
8 mace 2^ caudareens of colouring matter, or rather more than an ounce.
To every hundred pounds of coloured green-tea consumed in England or
America, the consumer actually drinks more than half a pound of Prussian-
blue and gypsum. And yet, tell the drinkers of this coloured tea that the
Chinese eat cats and dogs, and they will hold up their hands in amazement,
and pity the poor Celestials."
If the Chinese use it in these quantities to tinge the genuine
64 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
leaf, Low much more must the English employ in making up
afresh exhausted leaves ! That every spoonful of hyson or
gunpowder contains a considerable quantity of this deleterious
dye will be seen by any one who places a pinch upon a fine
sieve, and pours upon it a gentle stream of water, when the
tinging of the liquid will show at once the extent of the adul-
teration, and the folly of drinking painted tea. Assam tea,
though not so inviting in colour, is free from adulteration. A
word to the wise is enough.
Of fifty samples of green tea analyzed by Dr. Hassall, all
were adulterated. There is one particular kind which is almost
entirely a manufactured article — gunpowder, both black and
green — the former being called scented caper. Both have a
large admixture of what is termed "lye tea," or a compound of
sand, dirt, tea-dust, and broken-down portions of other leaves
worked together with gum into small nodules. This detestable
compound, which, according to Mr. Warrington,* who has
analyzed it, contains forty-five per cent, of earthy matter, is
manufactured both in China and in England, for the express
purpose of adulterating tea. When mixed with "scented
caper," it is "faced" with black lead; when with gunpowder,
Prussian-blue : turmeric and French chalk give it the required
bloom. Mr. Warrington states that about 750,000 lbs. of this
spurious tea have been imported into Great Britain within
eighteen months ! Singularly enough, the low-priced teas are
the only genuine ones. Every sample of this class which was
analyzed by Dr. Hassall proved to be perfectly pure. Here at
least the poor have the advantage of the better classes, who
pay a higher price to be injured in their health by a painted
beverage.
The practice of redrying used-up leaves is also carried on to
some extent in England. Mr. George Philips, of the Inland
Revenue Office, states that in 1843 there were no less than
eight manufactories for the purpose of redrying tea-leaves in
London alone, whilst there were many others in different parts
* In au article upon the teas of commerce, which appeared in the Quar-
• ? 4/ Journal of the Chemical Society for July, 1851.
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 65
of the country. These manufacturers had agents who bought
up the used leaves from hotels, clubs, coffeehouses, &c, for two-
pence halfpenny and threepence per lb. With these leaves,
others of various trees were used, and very fine pekoe still
flourishes upon the hawthorn-bushes, sloe-trees, &c, around the
metropolis. As late as the year 1851 the following account of
the proceedings of one of these nefarious manufacturers appeared
in the Times : —
" Clerkenwell. — Edward South and Louisa his wife were placed at the
bar, before Mr. Combe, charged by Inspector Brennan, of the E division,
with being concerned in the manufacture of spurious tea. It appeared,
from the statement of the inspector, that, in consequence of information
that the prisoners and others were in the habit of carrying on an extensive
traffic in manufacturing spurious tea, on the premises situate at 27^,
Clerkenwell Close, Clerkenwell Green, on Saturday evening, at about
seven o'clock, the witness, in company with Serjeant Cole, proceeded to
the house, where they found the prisoners in an apartment busily engaged
in the manufacture of spurious tea. There was an extensive furnace, before
which was suspended an iron pan, containing sloe-leaves and tea-leaves,
which they were in the practice of purchasing from coffeeshop-keepers after
being used. On searchiug the place they found an immense quantity of
used tea, bay-leaves, and every description of spurious ingredients for the
purpose of manufacturing illicit tea, and they were mixed with a solu-
tion of gum and a quantity of copperas. The woman was employed in
stirring about the bay-leaves and other composition with the solution of
gum in the pan ; and in one part of the room there was a large quantity of
spurious stuffs, the exact imitation of genuine tea. In a back room they
found nearly a hundred pounds weight of redded tea-leaves, bay-leaves,
and sloe-leaves, all spread on the floor drying Mr. Brennan added,
tbat the prisoners had pursued this nefarious traffic most extensively, and
were in tne habit of dealing largely with grocers, chandlers, and others in
the country."
This poisonous imitation green tea, " so largely supplied to
country grocers," was no doubt used for adulterating other
green teas already dosed with Prussian-blue, turmeric, &c.
These have found their way into many a country home of small
means. When the nephew comes on a visit, or the curate calls
of an afternoon, the ordinary two spoonfuls of black are " im-
proved " with " just a dash of green," and the poor innocent
gentleman wonders afterwards what it can be that keeps him
awake all night.
We often hear the remark from old-fashioned people that we
have never had any good tea since the monopoly of the East-
C6 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
India Company was broken up : in this remark there is some
truth and much error. There can be no possible doubt that the
higher-priced teas have fallen off since the trade has been open,
as the buyers of the company were perfectly aware of the frauds
perpetrated by the Hong merchants, and never allowed a
spurious article to be shipped. On the other hand, the great
reduction which has taken place in the price of the common
black teas, both on account of the cessation of monopoly and
the reduction of the duty, has in a great measure destroyed the
English manufacture of spurious tea from indigenous leaves.
The extent to which this formerly took place may be judged
from a report of the Committee of the House of Commons, in
1783, which states that no less than four millions of pounds
were annually manufactured from sloe and ash leaves in dif-
ferent parts of England ; and this, be it remembered, when
the whole quantity of genuine tea sold by the East-India
Company did not amount to more than six millions of pounds
annually.
If the better class of black and all green teas* are thus vilely
adulterated, the reader may fancy he can at least take refuge
in coffee — alas ! in too many cases he will only avoid Scylla to
fall into Charybdis. Coffee, as generally sold in the metropolis
and in all large towns, is adulterated even more than tea. The
Treasury minute, which allowed it to be mixed with chicory,
is at the head and front of the offending. In the year 1840,
this celebrated minute was issued by the sanction of the then
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir C. Wood, the immediate con-
sequence of which was that grocers began to mix it with pure
coffee in very large quantities, quite forgetting to inform the
public of the nature of the mixture, and neglecting at the same
time to lower the price. The evil became so flagrant that upon
the installation of the Derby administration Mr. Disraeli pro-
mised to rescind this license to adulterate ; but before the pro-
mise was redeemed, the administration was rescinded itself.
* Assam tea is the only exception to this rule, but very little of it is
imported.
FUOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 67
Mr. Gladstone, upon his acceptance of office, loath, it appears, to
injure the chicory interest, modified the original minute, but
allowed the amalgamation to continue, provided the package
was labelled " Mixture of Chicory and Coffee." It was speedily
found, however, that this announcement became so confounded
with other printing on the label that it was not easily distin-
guishable, and in consequence it was provided that the words,
" This is sold as a mixture of Chicory and Coffee," should be
printed by themselves on one side of the canister. It may be
asked what is the nature of this ingredient, that the right to
mix it with coffee should be maintained by two Chancellors of
the Exchequer, during a period of fifteen years, as jealously as
though it were some important principle of our constitution ?
Chicory, to say the best of it, is an insipid root, totally destitute
of any nourishing or refreshing quality, being utterly deficient
in any nitrogenized principle, whilst there are strong doubts
whether it is not absolutely hurtful to the nervous system.
Professor Beer, the celebrated oculist of Vienna, forbids the use
of it to his patients, considering it to be the cause of amaurotic
blindness. Even supposing it to be perfectly harmless, we have
a material of the value of 8d. a pound, which the grocer is
allowed to mix, ad libitum, with one worth Is. 4c£ If the poor
srot the benefit of the adulteration, there mi^ht be some excuse
for permitting the admixture of chicory, but it is proved that
the combination is sold in many shops at the same price as pure
coffee.
Analyses made by Dr. Hassall of upwards of a hundred
different samples of coffee, purchased in all parts of the metro-
polis before the issuing of the order for the labelling of the
packages ' chicory and coffee,' proved that, in a great number
of cases, articles sold as "finest Mocha," "choice Jamaica coffee,"
"superb coffee," &c, contained, in some instances, very little
coffee at all ; in others " only a fifth, a third, half," &c, the rest
being made up mainly of chicory. Nothing is more indicative
of the barefaced frauds perpetrated by grocers upon the public
than the manner in which they go out of their way to puffin
the grossest style the most abominable trash. The report of
F 2
68 FOOD AND ITS ADULTEEATIONS.
the sanitary commission gives many examples of these puff
and announcements, which, we are informed, are kept set up at
the printers, and may be had in any quantities. We quote one
as an example : —
"John 's Coffee,
" The richness, flavour, and strength ofvjhich are not to be surpassed.
" Coffee has now become an article of consumption among all classes of
the community. Hence the importance of supplying an article of such a
character as to encourage its consumption in preference to beverages the
use of Avhich promotes a vast amount of misery.
"John 's coffee meets the requirement of the age, and, as a
natural result, the celebrity to which it has attained is wholly unparalleled.
Its peculiarity consists in its possessing that rich aromatic flavour, com-
bined with great strength and deliciousness, which is to be found alone in
the choicest mountain growths. It may, with perfect truth, be stated that
no article connected with domestic economy has given such general satisfac-
tion, and the demand for it is rapidly increasing.
"John 's establishment, both for extent and capability, is the
first in the empire.
" Observe !
"Every canister of John 's coffee bears his signature, without
which none is genuine."
At the end of this puff the analyst places the words —
"Adulterated ivith a considerable quantity of chicory /"
More erudite grocers treat us to the puff literary, as in the
following instance : —
"Rich-flavoured coffees fresh-roasted daily.
"Use of Coffee in Tukket.
"Sandys, the translator of ' Ovid's Metamorphoses,' and who travelled
in Turkey in 1610, gives the following passage in his 'Travailes,' page 51
(edit. 1657). Speaking of the Turks, he says, 'Although they be destitute
of taverns, yet they nave their coffee-houses, which sometimes resemble
them. There sit they chatting most of the day, and sip of a drink called
coffa, of the berry that it is made of, in little china dishes, as hot as they
can suffer it, black as soot, which helpeth, as they say, digestion, and pro-
cur eth alacrity.'"
This pleasant sample of the puff indirect has also appended
to it the naked sentence —
"Adulterated with chicoiy, of which not less than half the sample consists."
The worst kinds of adulterated coffee are to be found in that
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 69
which is sold in canisters. The value of the tin envelope can-
not be less than 2d., and, as the coffee so sold is charged at the
same price as that in a paper wrapper, it must be evident that
a more extensive adulteration is necessary in order to make up
the difference. Such, upon examination, proves to be the case,
as it appeared —
"That the whole twenty-nine packages, bottles, and canisters submitted
to analysis, with a single exception,* were adulterated.
"That in these twenty-eight adulterated samples the falsification con-
sisted of so-called chicory, which in many instances constituted the chief
part of the article.
"That three of the samples contained mangold-wurzel, and two of them
roasted wheat- flour."
We have said it often happens that the adulterations are
adulterated. Chicory is an instance of it* The original fraud
is found to have ramified in an endless manner ; and Sir Charles
"Wood will doubtless be astonished to hear of the hideous crop
of falsifications his most unfortunate order has caused to spring
out of the ground.
Immediately the process of transforming chicory into coffee
became legalized by the Government, that article came into
very extensive consumption, and factories were set up especially
for its secret manufacture. The reason for this secrecy may be
gathered from the list of articles which are made to subserve
the purpose : roasted wheat, ground acorns, roasted carrots,
scorched beans, roasted parsnips, mangold-wurzel, lupin-seeds,
dog's biscuits, burnt sugar, red earth, roasted horse-chestnuts, —
and above and beyond all baked torses' and bullocks' livers.
This statement rests upon the authority of Mr. P. G. Sim-
monds, in a work entitled " Coffee as it is, and as it ought
to be:"—
"In various parts of the metropolis," he says, "but more especially in
the east, are to be found 'liver bakers.' These men take the livers of oxen
and horses, bake them, and grind them into a powder, which they sell to
the low-priced coffeeshop-keepers, at from fourpence to sixpence per lb.,
horse's liver coffee being the highest price. It may be known by allowing
the coffee to stand until cold, when a thick pellicle or skin will be found on
That sold by Messrs. Dakin, of St. Paul's Churchyard.
70 FOOD AXD ITS ADULTERATIONS.
the top. It goes farther than coffee, and is generally mixed with chicory,
and other vegetable imitations of coffee."
In confirmation of this horrible statement the sanitary com-
missioners of the Lancet state that, on analysis, this substance,
which
" possessed a disagreeable animal smell, . . . consisted of some imper-
fectly-charred animal matter."
The new regulation, enjoining grocers to sell coffee and
chicory properly labelled as such, is, no doubt, observed in
respectable shops ; but in the low neighbourhoods the mixture
as before is passed off for genuine Mocha. However, the pur-
chaser has the means of protection in his own hands. If he
prefers coffee pure, let him buy the roasted berry and grind it
himself ; he will thus be sure of having the real article, and
will get it in greater perfection than by purchasing it ready
ground.
In close proximity to the tea and coffee-pots stand the milk-
jug and the sugar-basin. What find we here? A few years
ago the town was frightened from its propriety by a little work
entitled " Observations on London Milk," published by a me-
dical gentleman of the name of Rugg, which gave some fearful
disclosures relative to the manner in which London milk was
adulterated. Dr. Hassall's analyses go to show that, with the
exception of the produce of the " iron-tailed cow," none of the
supposed defilements really exist, and that the milkman is a
sadly maligned individual. Water is added in quantities varying
in different samples from 10 to 50 per cent. ; and in the more
unfashionable parts of the town all the cream is abstracted to
be forwarded to the West -end. If milk must be adulterated
in large towns, water is undoubtedly the most harmless
ingredient ; at the same time it will be seen what a fraud
is perpetrated upon the public by selling milky water at
4d. a quart.
That the London milking-pail goes as often to the pump as
to the cow we have no manner of doubt. To bring the diluted
FOOD AND ITS ADULTEKATIONS. 71
goods up to a delicate cream colour, it is common to swing-
round a ball of annatto in tlie can ; and other careful observers
and writers upon the adulteration of food have detected flour,
starch, and treacle. All medical men know that children are
often violently disordered by their morning or evening portion, —
an effect" which could not come from the mere admixture of
water — and we must confess that we ourselves believe the
milkman to be a very wicked fellow.
We are afraid, if we look into the sugar-basin, we shall not
find much more comfort than in the milk-jug. We refer here
to the ordinary brown sugars, such as are generally used at the
breakfast-table for coffee. It is scarcely possible to procure
moist sugar which is not infested with animalculse of the acari
genus, a most disgusting class of creatures. In many samples of
sugars they swarm to that extent that the mass moves with
them ; and in almost every case, by dissolving a spoonful in a
wine-glass of water, dozens of them can be detected by the
naked eye, either floating upon the liquid or adhering to the
edge of the glass. Those who are in the habit of " handling "
sugars, as it is termed, are liable to a skin affection called the
grocer's itch, which is believed to be occasioned by these living
inhabitants of our sugar-basins. Horrible as it is to think that
such creatures are an article in daily use, we cannot charge the
grocer directly with their introduction ; the evil is, however,
increased by the manner in which he mixes, or " handles," as io
is termed in the trade,' higher-priced sugars with muscovados,
bastards, and other inferior kinds, in which the animalculse
abound.
In addition to this foreign animal element, grocers some-
times mix flour with their sugar, and, if we are to put any
credit in popular belief, sand ; but of the presence of this gritty
ingredient we have never seen any trustworthy evidence.
Nevertheless we have said enough to show that the tea-dealer
and grocer do their best to supply the proverbial "peck of dirt"
which all of us must eat before Ave die. Would that we were
fed with nothing more deleterious or repulsive ! Let us see,
72
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
however, the base admixtures one is liable to swallow in
taking —
A Cup of Tea or a
In the Tea.
If Green —
Prussian -blue.
Turmeric.
China clay or French chalk.
Used tea-leaves.
Copperas.
If Black-
Gum.
Black lead.
Dutch pink.
Used tea-leaves.
Leaves of the ash, sloe, hawthorn,
and of many other kinds.
In the Milk.
On an average 25 per cent, of
water.
Annatto.
Treacle.
Flour.
Oxide of iron.
And other unknown ingredients.
In the Sugar.
If Brown —
Wheat flour.
Hundreds of the sugar-insect.
If White-
Albumen of bullock's blood.
Cup of Coffee.
In the Coffee.
Chicory.
In the Chicory.
Boast wheat.
,, acorn.
„ mangold-wurzeh
„ beans.
„ carrots.
„ parsnips
„ lupin-seeds.
„ dog-biscuits.
„ horse-chestnuts.
Oxide of iron.
Mahogany sawdust.
Baked horse's liver.
„ bullock's liver.
In the Milk.
Water 25 per cent.
Annatto.
Flour.
Treacle.
Oxide of iron.
And other unknown ingredients.
In the Sugar.
If Brown —
Wheat flour.
Hundreds of the sugar-insect.
If White-
Albumen of bullock's blood.
As we perceive the teetotalers are petitioning Parliament
and agitating the towns for the closing of public-houses, we beg
to present them, in either hand, with a cup of the above
mixtures, with the humble hope that means will be found by
them to supply the British public with some drink a little less
deleterious to health, a little more pleasant to the palate, and
somewhat less disgusting to the feelings. Some of the sugar
impurities may be avoided by using the crystallized East-Indian
kind — the size of the crystals not permitting of its being
adulterated with inferior sorts.
We shall not dwell upon cocoa further than to state that it
is a still rarer thing to obtain it pure than either tea or coffee.
The almost universal adulterations are sugar, starch, and flour,
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 73
together with red colouring matter, generally some ferruginous
earth ; whilst, as far as we can see, what is termed homoeopathic
cocoa is only distinguished from other kinds by the small
quantity of that substance contained in it.
There is scarcely an article on the breakfast-table, in fact,
which is what it seems to be. The butter, if salt, is adulterated
with between 20 and 30 per cent, of water. A merchant in
this trade tells the Lancet that " between 40,000 and 50,000
casks of adulterated butter are annually sold in London, and
the trade knows it as well as they know a bad shilling." Lard
when cheap also finds its way to the butter-tub. Perhaps those
who flatter themselves that they use nothing but " Epping" will
not derive much consolation from the following letter, also
published in the same journal : —
" To the Editor of the Lancet.
" Sir, — Having taken apartments in the house of a butterman, I was
suddenly awoke at three o'clock one morning with a noise in the lower
part of the house, and alarmed on perceiving a light below the door of
my bed-room ; conceiving the house to be on fire, I hurried down stairs.
I found the whole family busily occupied, and, on my expressing alarm at
the house being on fire, they jocosely informed me they were merely making
Epping butter. They unhesitatingly informed me of the whole process. For
this purpose they made use of fresh-salted butter of a very inferior quality :
this was repeatedly washed with water in order to free it from the salt.
This being accomplished, the next process was to wash it frequently with
milk, and the manufacture was completed by the addition of a small quan-
tity of sugar. The amateurs of fresh Epping butter were supplied with
this dainty, which yielded my ingenious landlord a profit of at least 100 per
cent., besides establishing his shop as being supplied with Epping butter
from one of the first-rate dairies. — I am, sir, your obedient servant,
" A Student."
If we try marmalade as a succedaneum, we are no better off
— at least if we put any faith in " real Dundee, an excellent
substitute for butter," to be seen piled in heaps in the cheap
grocers' windows. Dr. HassaH's analysis proves that this dainty
is adulterated to a large extent with turnips, apples, and car-
rots : we need not grumble so much at these vegetable products,
excepting on the score that it is a fraud to sell them at 7d. a
pound ; but there is the more startling fact that, in twelve out
of fourteen samples analysed, copper was detected, and some-
times in large and deleterious quantities !
74 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
Accum, in his " Death in the Pot/' quotes, from cookery-
books of reputation in his clay, recipes which make uninitiated
persons stare. For instance, " Modern Cookery, or the English
Housewife," gives the following serious directions " to make
Greening : " — " Take a bit of verdigris the bigness of an hazel-
nut, finely powdered, half a pint of distilled vinegar, and a bit
of alum-powder, with a little baysalt ; put all in a bottle and
shake it, and let it stand till clear. Put a small teaspoonful
into codlings, or whatever you wish to green ! "
Again, the " English Housekeeper," a book which ran through
eighteen editions, directs — " to make pickles green boil them
with halfpence, or allow them to stand for twenty-four hours in
copper or brass pans ! " Has the notable housewife ever won-
dered to herself how it is that all the pickles of the shops are
of so much more inviting colour than her own 1 We will satisfy
her curiosity in a word — she has forgotten the " bit of verdigris
the bigness of a hazel-nut," for it is now proved beyond doubt
that to this complexion do they come by the use of copper,
introduced for the sole purpose of making them of a lively
green. The analyses of twenty samples of pickles bought of
the most respectable tradesmen proved, firstly, that the vinegar
in the bottles owed most of its strength to the introduction
of sulphuric acid ; secondly, that, out of sixteen different pickles
analysed for the purpose, copper was detected in various
amounts. Thus, " two of the samples contained a small quan-
tity ; eight rather much, one a considerable quantity, three a
very considerable quantity ; in one copper was present in a
highly deleterious amount, and in two in poisonous amounts.
The largest quantity of this metal was found in the bottles con-
sisting entirely of green vegetables, such as gherkins and beans."
We trust after this the good housewife will feel jealous no
longer, but rest satisfied that the home-made article, if less
inviting and vivid in colour, is at least more wholesome. A
simple test to discover the presence of copper in such articles
is to place a bright knitting-needle in the vinegar, and let it
remain there for a few hours, when the deleterious metal will
speedily form a coating over it, dense or thin, according to the
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 75
amount which exists. Wherever large quantities are found, it
is wilfully inserted for the purpose of producing the bright
green colour, but a small quantity may find its way into the
pickles in the process of boiling in copper pans. Messrs. Crosse
and Black well, the great pickle and preserve manufacturers in
Soho, immediately they became aware, from the analyses of the
Lancet, that such was the case, in a very praiseworthy manner
substituted silver and glass, at a great expense, for all their
former vessels. The danger arising from the introduction of
this virulent poison into our food would not be so great if it
were confined to pickles, of which the quantity taken is small
at each meal, but it is used to paint all kinds of preserves, and
fruits for winter pies and tarts are bloomed with death. The
papa who presents his children the box of sweetmeats bedded
in coloured paper, and enclosed in an elegant casket, may be
corroding unawares the very springs of their existence. As a
general rule, it is found that the red fruits, such as currants,
raspberries, and cherries, are uncontaminated with this dele-
terious metal, but owe their deep hue to some red colouring
matter, such as a decoction of logwood or an infusion of beetroot,
in the same way that common white cabbage is converted into
red by the nefarious pickle-merchant. The green fruits are not
all deleterious in the same degree ; there seems to be an
ascending scale of virulence, much after the following manner : —
Limes, gooseberries, rhubarb, greengages, olives — the last-
mentioned fruit, especially those of French preparation, gene-
rally containing verdigris, or the acetate of copper, in highly
dangerous quantities. The Lancet publishes a letter from
Mr. Bernays, F.C.S., dated from the Chemical Library, Derby,
in which he shows the necessity of watchfulness in the purchase
of these articles of food : —
" Of this," he says, "I will give you a late instance. I had bought a
bottle of preserved gooseberries from one of the most respectable grocers
in the town, and had its contents transferred to a pie. It struck rue that
the gooseberries looked fearfully green when cooked ; and in eating one
with a steel fork its intense bitterness sent me in search of the sugar.
After having sweetened and mashed the gooseberries, with the same steel
foik- I was about to convey some to inv tuo»+h„ when I observed the prongs
76 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
to be completely coated with a thin film of bright metallic copper. My
testimony can be borne out by the evidence of others, two of whom dined at
my table."
It was fortunate that these three gentlemen used steel forks,
which instantly disclosed the mischief ; if they had chanced to
use silver, all three might have fallen victims to these poisonous
conserves.
But we are not yet at the worst. When Catherine de'
Medici wished to get rid of obnoxious persons in an " artistic "
manner, she was in the habit of presenting them with deli-
cately made sweetmeats, or trinkets, in which death lurked in
the most engaging manner ; she carried —
" Pure death in an earring-, a casket,
A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket."
Her poisoned feasts are matters of history, at which people
shudder as they read ; but we question if the diabolical revenge
and coldblooded wickedness of an Italian woman ever invented
much more deadly trifles than our low, cheap confectioners do
on the largest scale. We select from some of these articles of
bonbonerie the following: feast, which we set before doting
mothers, in order that they may see what deadly dainties are
prepared for the especial delectation of their children : —
"A Fish.
u Purchased in Shepherd's Market, May Fair.
" The tip of the nose and the gills of the fish are coloured with the usual
pink, while the back and sides are highly painted with that virulent poison
arsenite of copper.
u A Pigeon.
M Purchased in Drury Lane.
" The pigments employed for colouring this pigeon are light yellow for
the beak, red for the eyes, and orange yellow for the base or stand. The
yellow colour consists of the light kind of chromate of lead, for the eyes
oisulphate of mercury, and for the stand the deeper varieties of chromate
of lead, or orange chrome."
" Apples.
" Purchased in James Street, Covent Garden.
" The apples in this sample are coloured yellow, and on one side deep
red ; the yellow colour extending to a considerable depth in the substance
of the sugar. The red consists of the usual non-metallic pigment, and the
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 77
yellow is due to the presence of chkomate of lead in really poisonous
amount I "
" A Cock.
" Purchased in Drury Lane.
" The beak of the bird is coloured bright yellow, the comb brilliant red,
the wings and tail are variegated, black, two different reds, and yellow ;
while the stand, as in most of these sugar ornaments, is painted green.
The yellow of the beak consists of chromate of lead ; the comb and part
of the red colour on the back and wings is VERMILION ; while the second red
colour on the wings and tail is the usual pink non- metallic colouring matter,
and the stripes of yellow consist of gamboge ; lastly, the green of the stand
is middle Brunswick green, and, therefore, contains chromate of lead.
In the colouring of this article, then, no less than three active poisons are
employed, as well as that drastic purgative gamboge ! "
" Oranges.
" Purchased in Pilgrim Street, Doctors' Commons.
" This is a very unnatural imitation of an orange, it being coloured with
a coarse and very uneven coating of red lead."
" Mixed Sugar Ornaments.
" Purchased in Middle Row, Holbom.
"The confectionery in this parcel is made up into a variety of forms and
devices, as hats, jugs, baskets, and dishes of fruit and vegetables. One of
the hats is coloured yellow with chromate of lead, and has a green hat-
band round it, coloured with arsenite of copper ; a second hat is white,
with a blue hatband, the pigment being Prussian-blue. The baskets are
coloured yellow with chromate of lead. Into the colouring of the pears
and peaches the usual non-metallic pigment, together with chromate of
lead and MIDDLE Brunswick green, enter largely ; while the carrots repre-
sented in a dish are coloured throughout with a red oxide of lead, and
the tops with Brunswick green. This is one of the worst of all the
samples of coloured sugar confectionery submitted to analysis, as it contains
no less than four deadly poisons I "
The painted feast contains, then, among its highly injurious
ingredients, ferrocyanide of iron or Prussian-blue, Antwerp-
blue, gamboge, and ultramarine, and among its deadly poisons
the three chrome yellows, red lead, white lead, vermilion, the
three Brunswick greens, and Scheele's green or arsenite of
copper. The wonder is that, considering we set such poison-
traps for children, ten times more enticing and quite as deadly
as those used to bane rats, that the greater number of youngsters
who partake of them are not at once despatched ; and so un-
doubtedly they would be if nurses were not cautious about
these coloured parts, which have always enjoyed a bad name
78 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
under the general denomination of " trash and messes." As it
is, we are informed by Dr. Letheby that "no less than seventy
cases of poisoning have been traced to this source " within
three years !
In France, Belgium, and Switzerland the colouring of con-
fectionery with poisonous pigments is prohibited, and the
vendors are held responsible for all accidents which may occur
to persons from eating their sugar confectionery. It is abso-
lutely essential that some such prohibition should be made in
England. Arsenic, according to law, must be sold coloured
with soot, in order that its hue may prevent its being used by
mistake for other substances ; how absurd it is that we should
allow other poisons, quite as virulent, to be mixed with the
food of children and adults, merely for the sake of the colour !
All kinds of sugar-plums, comfits, and "kisses," in addition to
being often adulterated with large quantities of plaster of
Paris, are always open to the suspicion of being poisoned.
Necessity cannot be urged for the continuance of this wicked
practice, as there are plenty of vegetable pigments which, if
not quite as vivid as the acrid mineral ones, are sufficiently so
to please the eye. Of late years a peculiar lozenge has been
introduced, in which the flavour of certain fruits is singularly
imitated. Thus we have essence of jargonel drops, essence of
pine-apple drops, and many others of a most delicate taste.
They really are so delicious that we scarcely like to create a
prejudice against them : but the truth is great, and must
prevail : all these delicate essences are made from a preparation
of aether and rancid cheese and butter.
The manufacturer, perhaps unaware of the cumulative action
of many of his chemicals, thinks, that the small quantity can
do no harm. We have seen, in the matter of preserved fruits
and sugar confectionery, how fallacious is that idea. But the
practice of adulteration often leads to lamentable results of the
same nature, which are quite unintentional on the part of their
perpetrators, and which occur in the most roundabout manner.
An instance of this is related by Accum, which goes directly
to the point. A gentleman, perceiving that an attack of colic
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 79
always supervened upon taking toasted Gloucestershire cheese
at an inn at which he was in the habit of stopping, and having
also noticed that a kitten which had partaken of its rind was
rendered violently sick, had the food analyzed, when it was
found that lead was present in it in poisonous quantities.
Following up his inquiries, he ascertained that the maker of
the cheese, not finding his annatto sufficiently deep in colour,
had resorted to the expedient of colouring the commodity with
vermilion. This mixture, although pernicious and discredi-
table, was not absolutely poisonous, and certainly could not
account for the disastrous effects of the food on the human
system. Trying back still further, however, it was at last
found that the druggist who sold the vermilion had mixed with
it a portion of red lead, imagining that the pigment was only
required for house paint. "Thus," as Accum remarks, "the
druggist sold his vermilion, in a regular way of trade, adul-
terated with red lead, to increase his profit, without any suspi-
cion of the use to which it would be applied ; and the purchaser
who adulterated the annatto, presuming that the vermilion
was genuine, had no hesitation in heightening the colour of his
annatto with so harmless an adjunct. Thus, through the
diversified and circulatory operations of commerce, a portion of
deadly poison may find admission into the necessaries of life in
a way that can attach no criminality to the parties through
whose hands it has successively passed." The curious aspect
of this circuitous kind of poisoning is, that it occurs through
the belief of each adulterating rogue in the honesty of his
neighbour.
If we could possibly eliminate, from the mass of human
disease, that occasioned by the constant use of deleterious food,
we should find that it amounted to a very considerable per-
centage on the whole, and that one of the best friends of the
doctor would prove to be the adulterator. But even our refuge
fails us in our hour of need ; the tools of the medical man,
like those of the sappers and miners before Sebastopol, often
turn out to be worthless. Drugs and medical comforts are
perhaps adulterated as extensively as any other article. To
80 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
mention only a few familiar and household medicines for
instance : Epsom salts are adulterated with sulphate of soda ;
carbonate of soda with sulphate of soda — a very injurious
substitute. Mercury is sometimes falsified with lead, tin, and
bismuth ; gentian with the poisonous drugs aconite and bella-
donna ; rhubarb with turmeric and gamboge ; cantharides with
black pepper ; and cod-liver and castor-oils with common and
inferior oils ; whilst opium, one of the sheet-anchors of the
physician, is adulterated to the greatest extent in a dozen
different ways. Medical comforts are equally uncertain. Thus
potato-flour forms full half of the so-called arrowroots of com-
merce ; sago-meal is another very common ingredient in this
nourishing substance. Out of fifty samples of so-styled arrow-
root, Dr. Hassall found twenty-two adulterated, many of them
consisting entirely of potato-flour and sago-meal. One half of
the common oatmeals to be met with are adulterated with
barley -meal, a much less nutritious substance — an important
fact, which boards of guardians should be acquainted with.
Honey is sophisticated with flour-starch and sugar-starch. And
lastly, we wish to say something important to mothers. Put
no faith in the hundred and one preparations of farinaceous
food for infants which are paraded under so many attractive
titles. They are all composed of wheat-flour, potato- flour,
sago, &c, — very familiar ingredients, which would not take
with anxious parents unless christened with extraordinary
names, for which their compounders demand an extraordinary
charge. To invalids we would also say, place no reliance on
the Revalentas and Ervalentas advertised through the country
as cures for all imaginary diseases. They consist almost entirely
of lentil-powder, barley-flour, &c, which are charged cent, per
cent, above their real value.
Of all the articles we have touched upon, not one i so im
portant as water. It mixes more or less with all our soli
food, and forms nine-tenths of all our drinks. Man himself, as
a sanitary writer has observed, is in great part made up of this
element, and if you were to put him under a press you would
squeeze out of him 8^ pailfuls. That it should be furnished
IS
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 81
pure to the consumer is of the first importance in a sanitary
and economic point of view. We are afraid, however, that but'
feeble attempts have been made to secure this advantage to the
metropolis. At present London, with its two and a half
millions of population, is mainly supplied by nine water com-
panies, six of which derive their supply from the Thames, one
from the New River, one from the Bavensbourne, and a third
from ponds and wells. Besides this supply, which ramifies like
a network over the whole metropolis, we find dotted about
both public and private wells of various qualities. We do not
intend to follow Dr. Hassall into his microscopic representations
of the organic matter, vegetable and animal, by which the
customers of one company can compare the water served to
them with that dealt out to others, and thus at a glance assure
themselves that they have not more than their share of many-
legged, countless-jointed, hideous animalculse, which look for-
midable enough to frighten one from ever touching a drop of
London water, but shall content ourselves with giving the
general characteristics of the whole of them. With one
exception they were all of a hardness ranging from 11 to 18
degrees. This hardness depends upon the earthy salts present,
such as sulphates and bicarbonates of lime and magnesia.
They were also to some extent saline, as all the salt used in the
metropolis ultimately finds its way into the Thames, or great
sewer-stream. Not long ago two, at least, of these six Thames
water companies procured their supply within a short distance
of the mouths of great drains, and all of them resorted to the
river at different points below Battersea, or that portion of it
which receives the drainage of the metropolis, and is conse-
quently crowded with animal and vegetable matter, both living
and dead, and thick with the mud stirred up by the passage to
and fro of the steamers. The violent outcry made, however, by
the Board of Health, caused an Act to be passed by parlia-
ment against the supply of the sewage rates, and now all
the companies taking their supplies from the Thames, are
compelled to go at least as high as Kingston, and to submit
them to a process of filtration ; but even at this point the
G
&2 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
river is in some degree sewage-tainted, and the chemically-
combined portion of baser matter cannot be removed by any
filter.
The impurities of the Thames are not all we have to deal
with — its hardness must cost the Londoners hundreds of thou-
sands a year in the article of soap alone. The action upon
lead is also marked ; hence we find poisonous carbonates of
that metal held in solution. Plumbers are well aware of this
fact, and frequently meet with leaden cisterns deeply corroded.
This corrosion may arise from either chemical or voltaic action.
The junction of lead and solder, or iron, immersed in water
impregnated with salts or acid of any kind, will cause erosion of
the metal. A familiar instance of this is seen in the rapid
manner in which iron railings rust away just where they are
socketed in the stonework with lead. The presence of a piece
of mortar on the lead of a cistern may even set up this action,
and result in giving a whole family the colic.
The pumps of the metropolis are liable to even more con-
tamination than river-water, inasmuch as the soil surrounding
them is saturated with the sewage of innumerable cesspools,
and with that arising from the leakage of imperfect drains.
Medical men entertained the opinion that the terrible out-
break of cholera in Broad Street, Golden Square, in 1854, arose
from the fact that the people in the neighbourhood were in the
habit of visiting a public pump which was proved to be foul
with drain-water, and the handle of which was taken off, to
prevent further mischief. Some of these public pumps appear
to yield excellent water — cold, clear, and palatable ; but the
presence of these qualities by no means proves that they are
pure. The bright sparkling icy water issuing from the famous
Aldgate pump, according to Mr. Simon, the city officer of
health, owes its most prized qualities to the nitrates which
have filtered into the well from the decaying animal matter
in an adjoining churchyard.
The porter and stout of the metropolis have long been
famous. The virtues of the latter drink are celebrated all
over the world ; and a royal duke, ascribed the great
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 83
mortality among the guards in the East to the want of
their favourite beverage. No doubt the pure liquor, as
it comes from the great brewers, is wholesome and strength-
ening ; but it no sooner gets into the possession of the pub-
licans than, in a great majority of cases, the article is made
up. A stranger would naturally suppose that the foaming
tankard of Meux's entire which he quaffs at the "Marquis
of Granby " has an identical flavour with that at the " Blue
Boar," where the same brewer's name shines resplendent on the
house-front. Not a bit of it : one shall be smooth, pleasantly
bitter, slightly acid, and beaded with a fine and persistent
froth ; the other, bitter with the bitterness of soot, salt,
clammy, sweet, and frothing with a coarse and evanescent
froth. The body of the liquor is undoubtedly the same, but
the variations are all supplied by the publicans and sinners.
We do not make emeutes, as they are continually doing in
Bavaria, on account of our beer ; but we have strong feelings
on a matter of such national importance ; and the wicked ways
of brewers and publicans have been made, over and over again,
the subject of parliamentary inquiry. The reports of various
committees prove that, in times past, porter and stout were
doctored in the most ingenious manner, and so universally and
unreservedly, that a trade sprang up termed brewers' drug-
gists, whose whole business it was to supply to the manufac-
turers and retailers of the national beverage, ingredients for
its adulteration ; nay, to such an extent did the taste for
falsifying beer and porter extend, that one genius, hight Jack-
son, wrote a hand-book to show the brewers how to make
Beer without any Malt or Hops at all I Accum has preserved,
in his now antique pages, some of the recipes in vogue in his
day. The boldness with which our fathers went to work is
amusing. For instance, Mr. Child, in his " Practical Treatise
on Brewing," after having made his non-professional reader
aghast by mentioning a score of pernicious articles to be used
in beer, remarks, in the mildest possible manner, —
"That, however much they may surprise — however pernicious or dis-
agreeable they may appear, he nas always found them requisite in the
G 2
84 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
brewing of porter, and he thinks they must invariably be used by those
who wish to continue the taste, flavour, and effervescence of the beer.
And, though several acts of Parliament have been passed to prevent
porter brewers from using many of them, yet the author can affirm, from
experience, he could never produce the present flavoured porter without
them. The intoxicating qualities of porter are to be ascribed to the various
drugs intermixed ivith it. It is evident some porter is more heady than
other, and it arises from the greater or less quantity of stupefying ingre-
dients. Malt, to produce intoxication, must be used in such lai'ge quan-
tities as would very much diminish, if not totally exclude, the brewer's
profit."
It is clear from this extract that Mr. Child considered the
end of all successful brewing was to make people dead-drunk
at the cheapest possible rate, regardless of consequences.
Among the ingredients that Mr. Morris, another instructor in
the art of brewing, tells us are requisite to produce a popular
article, are — cocculus indicus and beans, as intoxicators ; cala-
mus aromaticus, as a substitute for hops ; quassia, as a bitter ;
coriander- seeds to give flavour ; capsicums, carra way- seeds,
ginger, and grains of paradise, to give warmth ; whilst oyster-
shells are recommended to afford a touch of youth to old beer,
and alum to give a "smack of age" to new ; and when it is
desired to bring it more rapidly "forward," the presiding
Hecate is told to drop sulphuric acid into her brew ; by this
means an imitation of the age of eighteen months was given
in a few instants. Even the " fine cauliflower head," which is
held to be the sign of excellence in stout, was — and, for all we
know, still is — artificially made by mixing with the article a
detestable compound called " beer-headings," composed of com-
mon green vitriol, alum, and salt, and sometimes by the simple
addition of salts of steel. That these articles were commonly
employed we have the evidence of the Excise Department,
which published a long list of such ingredients seized by
them on the premises of brewers and brewers' druggists.*
Many of these glaring adulterations are probably no
longer in general use, although, from the evidence given
before a recent committee of the House of Commons,
* It will be scarcely necessary to say that the great London brewers
have never laid themselves open to the suspicion of having adulterated
their liquor.
FOOD AND ITS, ADULTERATIONS. 85
it is believed that sulphuric acid, salt of steel, sulphate of
iron, and cocculus indicus are still resorted to by the smaller
brewers, especially those living in the country — a belief very
much strengthened by the very odd taste we sometimes find in
ales and porters, and which is certainly not derived from malt
and hops. The common method of adulterating the national
liquor is by mixing water with it. This is done almost univer-
sally by the publican, and to a very extraordinary extent. A
comparison between the per-centage of alcohol to be found in a
given number of samples of porter and stout, procured from
what is termed brewers' taps, or agents, with that existing in a
similar number of samples purchased of publicans, proves this
fact in a very convincing manner. Dr. Hassall informs us that,
with regard to the stouts, —
"The alcohol — of specific gravity 796, temperature 60° Fahr. — contained
in the former samples ranged from 7'15 per cent, the highest, to 4 - 53 the
lowest ; whereas that of the stouts procured from publicans varied, with
one exception, from 4*87 per cent, to 3*25 per cent."
The same difference of strength also existed between the
various samples of porter procured from the two sources ; the
amount of alcohol in that obtained from the taps varying from
4*51 per cent, to 2-42 per cent., whereas that purchased of pub-
licans ranged from 3*97 per cent, to 1*81 per cent. The
mixture of water, of course, reduces the colour, to bring up
which both burnt sugar and molasses are extensively used ;
and, in order that " the appetite may grow with what it feeds
on," tobacco and salt are copiously added by the publican.
Beer, porter, and stout are also liable to be contaminated by
the presence of lead. The universal use of pumping machines
and the storing of the casks in the cellars, sometimes at a
considerable distance from the bar, necessitates the use of long
leaden pipes, in passing through which the liquid, if " stale "
or sour, oxidates a portion of the lead. This fact is so well
known both to public and publican, that the first pot or two
drawn in the morning is generally set aside, as, from having
lain all night in the pipe, it is justly considered injurious.
The liberality of the barmaid in thus sacrificing a portion of
S6 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
the liquor is more apparent than real. The reader has, perhaps,
noticed that most public-house counters are fitted up with
metal tops, in which gratings are inserted to drain off all the
spilt liquor, drainings of glasses, heel-taps of pots, &c. : down
these gratings goes " the first draught," with its dose of oxide
of lead. The receptacle below, which contains all this refuse
together with that at the bottoms of barrels, the publican
either returns to the brewer, or empties it himself into half-
filled casks.
The public were very needlessly alarmed some years ago
by a statement made by M. Payen, a celebrated French
chemist, that strychnine was being made for England, where
it was used in the manufacture of the bitter beer of this
country. This statement was copied by the Medical Times,
and from thence, finding its way to Printing-house Square,
became generally diffused, to the horror and discomfiture
of pale-ale drinkers; and not without reason, when it is re-
membered that one-sixth of a grain of this poison has been
known to prove fatal, and a very much smaller quantity daily
taken, to have the effect of inducing tetanic spasms, and of
otherwise seriously injuring the nervous system. We are
happy to be able to state that the lovers of Bass and Allsopp
may quaff their tonic draught in future without any fear of
such terrible results. The bitterness of pale ale has been found,
on analysis, to be entirely due to the extract of hops. Fur-
thermore, this beverage, when selected from the stores of the
brewers or their agents, has universally proved to be perfectly
pure. "We say, from the stores of the Burton brewers or their
agents, because there is no absolute certainty of procuring
the article genuine from any other source. The label on the
bottle is no sure guarantee ; for used bottles, with their labels
intact, are in many instances refilled by publicans with an
inferior article, and sold, of course, at the price of the .real.
We have good reason to believe that this trick is very often
practised in a variety of instances, to the manifest injury of the
public and brewers.
Wine is far too wide a subject to be treated here. The great
FOOD AND ITS ADULTEBATIONS. 0/
mass of ports at a cheap and moderate price are made up, it is
well known, of several kinds, and doctored according to cost.
There is one compound, however, which particularly claims our
attention, " publicans' port." We are all of us familiar with
the announcement to be seen in the windows of such trades-
men, "Fine old crusty port, 2s. 9d. a bottle ;" and the extra-
ordinary thing is, that upon opening the sample we often find
that it is crusted, and that the cork is deeply stained. How
can they afford to sell an article bearing the appearance of such
age and quality at so low a price 1 The answer is simple :
wine, crust, and stained cork are fabricated. There is a manu-
factory in London, where, by a chemical process, they get up
beeswing to perfection, and deposit it in the bottles so as
exactly to imitate the natural crust ; here corks are also
stained to assume any age that is required. The wine itself
contains a very little inferior port, the rest being composed of
cheap red French wine, brandy, and logwood as a colouring
matter, if required. The port wine sold over the bar at 3d. a
glass — and we are assured that this article is making its way in
preference to gin in the low neighbourhoods, one gin palace, to
our knowledge, selling a butt a week over the counter — is an
inferior article even to this, and its taste is quite sufficient to
prove that only an infinitesimal portion of it ever came from
Oporto.
London gin, under a hundred names, is notoriously a com-
pound. Most people flatter themselves that its peculiar flavour
is due to the admixture of sugar and juniper-berries alone. It
is, however, a much more elaborate concoction than the public
imagine. Those accustomed to the unsweetened West Country
gin think the London article only fit to drink when raw, and
in many cases they are right ; for the publican and inferior
spirit-dealers, like milkmen, are great customers of the pump.
It appears that some of the samples examined by the analyst
contained only half as much alcohol as was present in others ;
and as the gin of commerce is never above proof, it follows
that these specimens were scarcely as good as "stiff" gin-and-
water. So much for the pure spirit ; now for the fancy work
88 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS,
or " flavourings." The quantity of sugar in the samples
examined ranged from 3 oz. 4 drms. 23 grains, to 13 oz. 4 drras. ;
two of them contained oil of cinnamon, or, more probably, of
cassia ; seven contained cayenne pepper, some of them in very
large quantities ; and most of the samples contained combined
sulphates ; whilst there is good authority for stating that sul-
phate of zinc, or white vitriol, is often used. The very "beaded
bubbles winking at the brim," which are considered to be a proof
of the strength of the article, are produced artificially. Mr.
Mitchell, in his " Handbook of Commerce," states that this is
done by adding a mixture compounded of alum, carbonate of
potash, almond-oil, sulphuric acid, and spirits of wine. " The
earth hath bubbles as the water hath, and these are of them."
One would think that it would be to the interest of the trade to
keep their illicit practices " dark : " but the publican has his
" Handbook" to teach him how to adulterate spirit as well as
beer. For instance, in a little work on Brewing and Distilling,
written by a Mr. Shannon, the following recipe is given : —
" To reduce unsweetened Gin.
A tun of fine gin 252 gallons.
Water 36 „
Which added together makes .... 288 „
The doctor is novj put on, and it is further re-
duced with water 19 „
Which gives ....... 307 gallons.
"This done, let one pound of alum be just covered with water, and dis-
solved by boiliDg ; rummage the whole together, and pour in the alum, and
the whole will be fine in a few days."
"We wonder that Mr. Gough, the great temperance advocate,
never armed himself with one of these recipes, in order to
convince people of the noxious liquids they are invited to drink
under the most inviting names. In every quarter of the town
we see gin-palaces seizing upon the corner houses of the streets,
just as scrofula seizes upon the joints of the human frame, and
through their ever-open doors streams of squalid wretches are
continually pouring in and out. Could they be informed that
they enter to gulp oil of vitriol, oil of turpentine, and sulphuric
acid, among other acrid and deleterious compounds — that the
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 89
tap of the publican spouts corroding fire, like that which leaped
up from the wooden table at the command of Mephistopheles,
in Auerbach's cellar, they would feel inclined to exclaim with
Siebald to the fiend : —
" What, sir, how dare you practise thus
Your hocus-pocus upon us ? "
Gin, it appears, is almost exclusively doctored in this highly
deleterious manner, although all spirits are open to sophisti-
cation, but especially brandy, which, on account of its price, pays
well for the trouble. Mr. Shannon, deeply versed in the " art
and mystery " of the trade of the publican, informs us that
brandy should be "made up" for "retail" by the addition of 10
per cent, of flavoured raisin wine, a little of the tincture of
grains of paradise, cherry-laurel water, and spirit of almond-
cake : "add also 10 handfuls of oak sawdust, and give it
complexion with burnt sugar."
If we can give the dram-drinker little comfort, we can at
least reassure the smoker. " Everybody says" that common
.cigars are made out of cabbages, and tobacco has always been
suspected of containing many adulterations. These charges
have been made, however, at random, and the result of chemical
analysis and examinations by the microscope has proved that
this article of daily consumption is remarkably pure. The
carefully-searching microscope of Dr. Hassall has not succeeded
in finding any other than the genuine leaf among forty samples
of manufactured tobacco ; neither were there any sophistications
discovered, with the exceptions of salt, sugar, and water. An
inquiry into the specimens of the rolled and twisted article was
equally consoling to the maker and chewer. Now and then, it
is true, the excise officers make seizures in the warehouses of
the tobacco manufacturers, of dock, rhubarb, coltsfoot, and other
leaves, but to a very insignificant extent, considering the value
of the article and the heavy duty upon it.
He who, like Byron, prefers the naked beauties of the leaf in
the shape of a cigar, will be equally gratified to hear that such
a thing as adulteration scarcely exists in this form of tobacco —
90 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
at least, not when purchased in the shops. Even if we descend
to a penny " Pickwick," we find nothing in it but the pure leaf.
Out of fifty-seven samples examined, only one was sophisticated,
and that, apparently from its contents, by accident. The only
adulterated sanijiles discovered at all, were exactly where we
might have expected to have found them, in the possession of a
hawker at "Whitechapel. These, on examination, turned out to
be made up of two twisted wrappers or layers of thin paper,
tinted of a bistre colour, while the interior consisted entirely of
hay, not a particle of tobacco entering into their composition.
The second example of a spurious cigar was purchased at a
review in Hyde Park. It consisted externally of tobacco-leaf,
but was made internally of hay. Our readers are familiar
enough with the fellows who vend these fraudulent articles,
made to sell and not to smoke ; they are generally to be found
at fairs and races, or any crowded place in the open air, where
they can escape speedily from their victimized customers.
There is a class of men who make a very good livelihood in the
metropolis by perambulating the streets and looking out for
ingenuous youths. Towards such they furtively approach, and,
like the tempter of old, whisper in their ear of forbidden fruit.
The unwary are constantly taken in by one of these serpents,
in the shape of a sailor straight from the docks, who intimates,
in a hurried manner, that, if we wanted any " smuggled cigars,"
he has just a box to sell cheap round the corner. In general
these worthies need not fear the exciseman, as the article they
have to sell does not come under the name of tobacco at all.
If, however, cigars are not open to the charge of being adul-
terated, they are the subject of innumerable frauds, inasmuch as
those of English manufacture are passed off as foreign ones.
Thus, the so-called Bengal cheroots are all home-made imitations
of Chinsurah cheroots. In order to pass them off as the genuine
article they are sold in boxes, branded and labelled in exact
imitation of those sent from India. It may be asked why such
cigars, if made out of the tobacco-leaf, are not as good as those
of Eastern or Spanish manufacture. The real reason is, that
the tobacco loses much of its fine flavour and aroma by packing
FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 91
and keeping ; otherwise the English cigar would be equal to
any other. The old impression that the Manilla cheroot is im-
pregnated with opium would not appear to be correct, from the
investigations of Dr. Hassall, who has failed to discover that
narcotic in any of the specimens which he tested for it.
We have to mention one preparation of tobacco of which we
cannot speak quite so favourably as of the others. Snuff is, we
are sorry to say, vilely adulterated, and some kinds poisonously.
The law allows the use of salt and water and lime-water in its
manufacture — a privilege which the snuff-makers take advantage
of to increase its weight, all moist snuffs averaging full twenty-
five per cent, of water. If these were the only adulterations
to the titillating powder, no harm would be done ; but we
have positive evidence afforded us in the report of the " Lancet"
Commission, that, in addition to ferruginous earths, such as red
and yellow ochre, no less than three poisonous preparations are
also introduced into it — chromate of lead, red-lead, and bi-
chromate of potash ! When a man taps his snuff-box and takes
out a pinch, he little dreams that he is introducing an enemy
into his system, which in the long-run might master his nerves
and produce paralysis ; nevertheless it is an undoubted fact.
Many persons have been deprived of the use of their limbs
through a persistence in taking snuff adulterated with lead in
less proportions than that found in the samples examined by
Dr. Hassall. Bi-chromate of potash is a still more deadly poison.
M. Duchatel of Paris found that dogs were destroyed by doses
of from one twenty-fifth of a grain to one five-hundredth of
a grain. We have heard of inveterate snuffers keeping this
comfort open in their waistcoat pockets, and helping themselves
by fingers'-full at a time ; if their snuff contained anything like
the proportion of deleterious ingredients now to be found in the
same article, " dropped hands" and colic would soon have cured
them of this dirty and disagreeable habit.
It is not our purpose to follow further the trail which Accura
and others, and more lately and particularly Dr. Hassall, have
discovered for us. Before closing the pages of the latter gentle-
man's report, however, from which we have drawn so largely,
92 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
we cannot avoid stating that the community is under the
greatest obligation to both himself and the editor of the Lcmcet —
to the one for the energy with which he pursued his subject,
and to the other for his singular boldness in rendering himself
liable for the many actions which the publication of the names
of evil-doers was likely to bring upon his journal, a liability
which Dr. Hassall has since taken upon himself by the reprint
of the report under his own name. This report is, in fact, as
far as it goes, a handbook to the honest and fraudulent food-
dealers in the metropolis ; and every man who values whole-
some aliment, and thinks it a duty to society to support the
honest tradesman in preference to the rogue, should procure it
as a valuable work of reference. We have not followed the
author into personalities, as no further purpose could be served
by so doing ; but we have shown enough, to convince the public
that the grossest fraud reigns throughout the British public
commissariat. Like a set of monkeys, every man's hand is seen
in his neighbour's disk. The baker takes in the grocer, the
grocer defrauds the publican, the publican " does" the pickle
manufacturer, and the pickle-maker fleeces and poisons all the
rest.*
As guardian of the revenue, the government is deeply inte-
rested in this question, independently of the view it must take
of its moral aspect, for the excise is without doubt cheated to
the extent of hundreds of thousands a year by the same
unlawful practices which demoralize a large portion of the
community, and defraud and deceive the remainder.
* An act has lately been passed which will, we trust, check in some
degree the grosser food-frauds on the public.
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
To furnish every possible link in the grand procession of
organized life, is the aim of the science of zoology. Its pro-
fessors have explored the wilds of Africa, and have penetrated
far into the interior of South America ; have endured the last
extremities of hunger and thirst to catch some curious hum-
ming-bird j have been consumed by fevers to the very socket of
life, in order to pin an unknown beetle, or to procure some
rare and gorgeous-coloured fly. The passion for this science
seems to have long dwelt in the English race : our love of field-
sports, and keen relish of rural life, coupled with a habit of
minute observation, have all had a tendency to foster an acquaint-
ance with the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and
scarcely a village but boasts of some follower of White or
Waterton. This taste we carry with us to our vast colonial
possessions, and to that chain of military posts whose morning
guns echo round the world. "With such splendid opportunities
for observing and collecting animals, we have succeeded in
gathering together a menagerie which is by far the first in
existence, and which includes typical forms of most living
things — from the chimpanzee, in whose face and structure we
trace the last step but one of the highest form of mammal, to
the zoophyte, which shakes hands with the vegetable world.
Ancient Rome, it is true, in her degenerate days, witnessed
vaster collections of animals, and saw hippopotami, ostriches,
and giraffes, together with the fiercer carnivora, turned by
hundreds into the arena; but how different the spirit with
which they were collected ! With the debased and profligate
94 THE ZOOLOGICAL GAKDEXS.
Ptoman emperors the only object of these bloody shows was to
gratify the brutal appetite of their people for slaughter;
with us the intention is to display the varying wonders of
creation.
Most of our readers in the full flush of summer have leaned
over the balustrade of the carnivora terrace. From this ele-
vated situation the whole plan of the south side of the grounds
is exposed. To his right, fringing a still pool whose translucent
waters mirror them as they stand, the spectator sees the col-
lection of storks and cranes : more immediately in front of him
softly tread the llamas and alpacas — the beasts of burthen of
the New World : farther, again, we see the deer in their
paddocks ; and beyond, the sedgy pools of the water-fowl, set
in the midst of graceful shrubberies which close the Gardens
in from the landscape of the Regent's Park. Passing over
to the northern side of the terrace he sees the eagle aviary,
tenanted by its royal and solitary-looking occupants ; the otters
swimming their merry round, and perchance the seal flapping
beside his pool ; while the monkeys, with incredible rapidity
and constant chatter, swing and leap about their wire en-
closure. Immediately beneath him the Polar bears pace to and
fro, or, swaying their heads, walk backwards with a firmness
which a lord chamberlain might study with advantage ; and
close at hand the long neck of the " ship of the desert " is seen
sailing out from the gateway of the pretty clock-house. That
the dread monarch of the forest and the other " great cats " are
beneath his feet, he is made aware by angry growls and the
quivering sound of shaken iron bars, as the keeper goes round
with his daily beef-barrow. ISTo one can help feeling a certain
sense of strangeness at seeing these creatures of all climes
scattered amid a flourishing garden — to witness beasts, en-
sanguined in tooth and claw, impatiently pacing to and fro
between banks of scarlet geraniums or beds brilliant with the
countless blooms of early dahlias — or, still more oddly, to
witness birds of prey which love to career in the storm sur-
rounded by monthly roses. Had it been possible to have given
each class of bird and animal its appropriate vegetation, it
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 95
would doubtless have been preferable ; but such an arrange-
ment was manifestly impossible.
Descending from this general survey, the long row of dens
which run below the terrace on either side are the first to
attract the visitor's attention. Before this terrace was con-
structed, in 1840, the larger carnivora were cooped up in what
is now the reptile-house. The early dens of the establishment
form a good example of the difficulty Englishmen experience
in suiting themselves to altered circumstances. On the first
formation of the gardens the society seems to have taken for
its model some roving menagerie, as many of the houses of the
beasts were nothing better than caravans dismounted from
their wheels, and the managers encamped their collection in
a fashion little more permanent than Wombwell would have
done upon a village green. It was speedily found that the
health of the felidaB suffered materially from their close confine-
ment, which did not even admit of the change of air experienced
in the travelling caravan. In fact, the lions, tigers, leopards,
and pumas, did not live on an average more than twenty-four
months. To remedy this state of things the terrace dens were
constructed, and, rushing from one extreme to the other,
tropical animals were left exposed to the full rigour of winter.
The drifting rain fell upon their hair, and they were exposed
in cold, wet weather to a temperature which even man, who
ranges from the torrid zone to the arctic circle, could not resist
unprotected. The consequences were manifested in the increase
of inflammatory lung diseases, and it is now found necessary to
protect the dens by matting and artificial heat from the extreme
cold and damp of the winter months. In the summer the ex-
posure suits them admirably, and it must be confessed that the
tigers look only too fat and comfortable. One of the most
interesting cages is that which contains a family party, con-
sisting of the mastiff with the lion and his mate. They were
brought up together from cub-hood, and agree to a marvel ;
though the dog would prove little more than a mouthful for
either of his noble-looking companions. Visitors express a vast
deal of sympathy for him, and fancy that the lion is only saving
96 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
him up, as tlie giant did Jack, for a future feast. But their
sympathy, we believe, is thrown away. " Lion " has always
maintained the ascendancy he assumed when a pup, and any
rough handling on the part of his huge playfellows is imme-
diately resented by his flying at their noses. Although the dog
is allowed to come out of the den every morning, he shows a
great disinclination to leave his old friends. lb is, however,
thought advisable to separate them at feeding-time. Both the
lion and lioness are of English birth, and it is singular that out
of the great number that have been born in the society's
garden full fifty per cent, have come into the world with cleft
palates, and have perished in consequence of not being able to
suck. If the keepers were to fill their nostrils with tow, we
fancy they could accomplish this act, as well at least as chil-
dren who are suffering from cold in the head. The male
affords us an opportunity of showing the difference between
the African variety to which he belongs and the East
Indian specimen at the other end of the terrace. Our
young Cape friend has a fine mane, and a tail but slightly
bushed at the top, which droops towards the ground. The
full-grown animal from Goojerat, is, on the contrary, com-
paratively maneless, and his tail takes a short curl upwards at
the end. The caudal extremity of both is furnished with a
rudimentary claw. This little appendage was supposed by the
ancients to be instrumental in lashing the lion into fury, and
Mr. Gordon Cumming informs us that the natives of South
Africa believe it to be the residence of an evil spirit which
never evacuates its post until death overtakes the beast and
gives it notice to quit. The Goojerat or maneless lion is
supposed to be the original of the heraldic beast we regard with
such respect as a national emblem, but which foreigners main-
tain is nothing better than a leopard.
But why do we coop these noble anima'$Hn such nutshells of
cages ? What a miserable sight to see them pace backwards and
forwards in their box-like dens ! Why should they, of all the
beasts of the forest, be condemned to such imprisonment 1 The
bear has his pole, the deer his paddock, the otter his pool, where
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 97
at least they have enough liberty to keep them in health ; but
we stall our lions and tigers as we would oxen, till they grow
lethargic, fat, and puffy, like city aldermen. With half an acre
of enclosed ground, strewn with sand, we might see the king of
beasts pace freely, as in his Libyan fastness, and with twenty
feet of artificial rock, might witness the tiger's bound. Such
an arrangement would, we are convinced, attract thousands to
the gardens, and restore to the larger carnivora that place
among the beasts from which they have here been so unfairly
degraded. We commend this idea to the able secretary to
the society, who has shown, by his system of " starring," how
alive he is to the fact that it is to the sixpenny and shilling
visitors who flock to the gardens by tens of thousands on
holidays that he must look to support the wise and liberal
expenditure he has lately adopted.
On the other side of the terrace, in addition to the leopards
and hysenas, is to be found a splendid collection of bears, from
the sharp-muzzled sun-bear (who robs a beehive in a hollow
tree as artistically, as a London thief cuts a purse) to the enor-
mous Russian Bruin, the largest perhaps ever exhibited. " Prince
MenschikofF," * as he is called by the keepers, grew into exceed-
ing good condition in the gardens at Hull, where it appears he
chiefly dieted upon his brethren, the cannibal having consumed
no less than five bears ; and they appear to have had the same
effect upon him as cod-liver oil upon a human invalid. His
neighbours, the white Polar bears, contrast with him strangely
in physiognomy and form; their heads, sharp as polecats', seem
fashioned, like cutwaters, to enable them to make their way in
the sea ; and if they would lift their huge paws, we should see
that they were clothed almost entirely with hair, to aid them
in securing a firm footing en the ice. The largest of these
beasts managed to get out of his inclosure before the top of it
was barred in ; but he was peaceably led back again. Indeed,
even the wildest of the beasts, after a little confinement, seem
so frightened at recovering their liberty, that they easily allow
themselves to be recaptured.
* Since gone to make bears' grease.
H
98 THE ZOOLOGICAL GAKDENS.
In one year theFelidse alone consumed beef, mutton, and horse-
flesh to the value of £1,367. 19s. 5d. This sum is entirely
irrespective of the fish, snakes, frogs, and other " small deer "
given to the birds and inferior carnivora. They all live here
like gentlemen, emancipated from the drudgery of finding their
daily food. They have their slaughter-houses close at hand in
the gardens, where sheep, oxen, and horses are weekly killed
expressly for them. Some of them will only eat cooked meat.
Soon after the establishment of the gardens experiments were
made as to the best manner of feeding them, which proved that,
while they gained flesh and continued active upon one full meal
a day, they lost weight and became drowsy on two half-meals.
In the endeavour to follow nature still closer, they were dieted
more sparely, and even fasted at certain seasons. This treat-
ment, however, resulted in a catastrophe — a female leopard and
puma killing and eating their companions : a strong hint for
fuller rations, which was not neglected.
Let us now cross over from the cages of the king of beasts
to the aviary of the king of birds. The collection of eagles,
vultures, and condors, numbers upwards of twenty species,
among which we recognized " the oldest inhabitant " of the
Gardens — the vulture presented to the society by Mr. Brooks,
the surgeon, more than thirty years ago. Notwithstand-
ing his age, he looks one of the finest birds in the collection.
We question, however, if the last new-comer of the same
species will not " put his bill out," arriving as he does from a
distant shore to which thousands of anxious hearts have turned.
We allude to the vulture lately sent from the Crimea. He was
caught near the monastery of Saint George, and the proximity
of his retreat to many a battle-field suggests reflections too
painful to dwell upon. The prominent impression produced in
glancing at this aviary is the perfect isolation which each
bird maintains as he crowns the topmost pinnacle of the heap
of rocks reared in the centre of his den, where he perches,
motionless as a stone. There seems to be no recognition of
fellow-prisoners — no interchange of either blows or courtesies
between the iron netting. Each seems an enduring captive
THE ZOOLOGICAL GAKDENS. 99
that will not be comforted or won over to the ways of men.
Now and then unsheathing his piercing eye, we perceive the
huge wings spread, and perchance remembering the callow
eaglets in some Alpine eyrie, the bird soars upwards for a
moment, beats his pinions against the netting, and falls to the
earth again with the ignominious flop of a Christmas turkey.
It is impossible to contemplate these birds without pity, not
unmixed with pain. "Who can recognize, in the motionless
bunch of feathers before us, Audubon's magnificent descrip-
tion of the Bald Eagle as he swoops upon his prey 1 —
" The next moment the wild trumpet-like sound of a yet distant but
approaching swan is heard Now is the moment to witness a dis-
play of the eagle's powers. He glides through the air like a falling star,
and like a flash of lightning comes upon the timorous quarry, which now,
in agony and despair, seeks, by various manoeuvres, to elude the grasp of
his cruel talons. It mounts, doubles, and willingly would plunge into the
stream were it not prevented by the eagle, which, long possessed of the
knowledge that by such a stratagem the swan might escape him, forces it
to remain in the air by attempting to strike it with its talons from beneath.
The hope of escape is soon given up by the swan. It has already become
much weakened, and its strength fails at the sight of the courage and swift-
ness of its antagonist. Its last gasp is about to escape, when the ferocious
eagle strikes with his talons the under side of his wing, and with unresisted
power forces the bird to fall in a slanting direction upon the nearest shore."
This is the romance of the noble bird's mode of obtaining
food — here, as he marches off with a dead rat in his claw, or a
piece of raw beef, we behold its prose. But however un poetical
this treatment, it cannot be said to disagree with him, as fine
plumage and good condition prove. Passing on our way to the
monkey-house, the merry otters are seen playing " follow-my-
leader" round their rock -house, now plunging headlong in search
of the fiat-fish which shines at the bottom of the water — now
bringing it to shore, and crushing flesh, vertebrae, and all.
The admirably-arranged but vilely-ventilated monkey-house
is always a great source of attraction. The mixture of fun and
solemnity, the odd attitudes and tricks, and the human expres-
sion of their countenances, all tend to attract, and at the same
time to repel. Mr. Rogers used to say, that visiting them was
like going to see one's poor relations ; and wondrous shabby old
fellows some of them appear. We have only to look into their
faces for a moment to see that they differ from each other as
H 2
100 THE ZOOLOGICAL GAREENS.
much as the faces of mankind. There is a large, long-haired,
black-faced rascal, who looks as murderous as a Malay ; a little
way off we see another with great bushy whiskers and shaggy
eyebrows (the mona), the very picture of a successful horse-
dealer ; a third, with his long nose and keen eye, has all the air
of a crafty old lawyer. The contemplation of them brings
involuntarily to the mind the doctrine of the transmigration of
souls. The apes and baboons are indeed purely brutal, and
only excite disgust : towards the latter the whole company ot
smaller monkeys express the utmost hatred — as may be seen
when the keeper by way of fun takes one of them out of his
cage and walks him down the room. The whole population
rush to the front of their cages, and hoot, growl, and chatter at
him as only Eastern County shareholders can do when their
chairman takes his seat. The vivacious little capuchin monkeys
are evidently the favourites, and bag most of the nuts ; the
brown capuchin appears to be particularly knowing, as he keeps
a big pebble at hand, and when he finds that his teeth are not
equal to the task, he taps the nut with the stone with just
sufficient force to break the shell without bruising the kernel.
"We have often seen this little fellow take a pinch of snuff, and
assiduously rub his own and his companion's skin with it, with
a full knowledge, no doubt, of the old recipe for killing fleas.
He will also make use of an onion for a similar purpose.
Among the other quadrumana in this house we find the lemurs,
which look more like long-legged weasels than monkeys, and
the bright-faced little marmosets, who cluster inquiringly to the
front of their cage looking in their cap-shaped headdress of fur
like so many gossips quizzing you over the window-blinds.
At the present moment there is no specimen of either the
uran or chimpanzee in the Gardens, but there have been at
least half a dozen located here within the last ten years, one of
which, "Jenny," maintained her health for five years. The
damp, cold air. of the Gardens at last brought on consumption ;
and the public must remember the poor, wheezing, dying-
brute, with a plaster on her chest and blankets around her,
the very picture ot a moribund old man. The only specimen
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 101
now in Europe is in the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris. This
animal, one of the finest ever seen, is in excellent health, and
promises to maintain it in the bright air of La Belle France.
An accomplished naturalist has kindly furnished us with the
following particulars of this brute, which clearly indicate that
he is a very Dr. Busby among his fellows : —
"He passed through London on his way to Paris, having landed at
Plymouth. There were then two female Chims resident in the Gardens in
the Regent's Park, and the French Chim was allowed to lodge in their
hotel for a couple of nights. On his appearance both of these young ladies
uttered cries of recognition, which however evinced more fear than any-
thing else. Chim was put into a separate compartment, or room with a
double grille, to prevent the probable injuries which discordant apes will
inflict on each other. He had scarcely felt the floor under his feet when he
began to pay attention to his countrywomen thus suddenly and unex-
pectedly found. Their fear and surprise gradually subsided, and they stood
watching him attentively, when he broke out into a characteristic pas seid,
which he kept up for a considerable time, uttering cries scarcely more
hideous than seem the notes of a Chinese singer, and not far out of unison
with his loudly-beating feet. The owner, who was present, said that he
was imitating a dance ot the negroes, which the animal had often seen
while resident in his house in Africa. The animal was upwards of a year
and a half old, and had spent one year ot his life in this gentleman's house.
The Chim maidens gradually relaxed their reserve as the vivacity of the
dance increased, until at last, when it was over, each stealthily put a hand
through the grille and welcomed their friend and brother to their home in
a far land. As the weather was severe — it was early in December — it is
possible that their talk was of their native palm-groves and their never-
ending summer. Chim thenceforth made himself as agreeable as possible,
and when the time for his departure came, the maidens exhibited the liveliest
regret, short of tears, at losing him. At Paris he increased rapidly in
stature and intelligence. The climate, diet (he drinks his pint of Bordeaux
daily), and lively society of the French seem to be more congenial to Chim's
physique than our melancholy London. He makes acquaintance not only
with the staff but with the habitues of the Garden. The last time I saw him
(May, 1854) he came out to taste the morning air in the large circular
enclosure in front of the Palais des Singes, which was built for " our poor
relations" by M. Thiers. Here Chim began his day by a leisurely pi-o-
menade, casting pleased and thankful glances towards the sun, the beautiful
sun of early summer. He had three satellites, coati-mundis, either by
chance or to amuse him, and while making all manner of eyes at a young
lady who supplies the Singerie with pastry and cakes, one of the coati-
mundis came up stealthily behind and dealt him a small but malicious bite.
Chim looked round with astonishment at this audacious outrage on his
person, put his hand haughtily upon the wound, but without losing his
temper in the least. He walked deliberately to the other side of the circle,
and fetched a cane which he had dropped there in his promenade. He
returned with majestic wrath upon his brow, mingled, I thought, with
contempt ; and, taking Coati by the tail, commenced punishment with his
cane, administering such blows as his victim could bear without permanent
injury, and applied with equal justice to the ribs on either side, in a
102 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
direction always parallel to the spine. When he thought enough had been
done, he disposed of Coati without moving a muscle of his countenance, by
a left-handed jerk, which threw the delinquent high in air, head over heels.
He came down a sadder and a better coati, and retired with shame and
fear to an outer corner. Having executed this act of justice, Chim betook
him to a tree. A large baboon, who had in the mean time made his
appearance in the circle, thought this was a good opportunity of doing a
civil thing, and accordingly mounted the tree and sat down smilingly, as
baboons smile, upon the next fork. Chim slowly turned his head at this
attemp tat familiarity, measured the distance, raised his hind foot, and, as
composedly as he had caned the coati, kicked the big baboon off his perch
into the arena below. This abasement seemed to do the baboon good, for
he also retired like the coati, and took up his station on the other side. To
what perfection of manners and development of thought the last year and
a half may have brought him I can scarcely guess ; but one day doubtless
some one will say of him, as an Oriental prince once said to me, after look-
ing at the uran • Peter,' — ' Does he speak English yet ?'"
The monkeys before they were transferred to this house
suffered a great mortality, and indeed, on taking possession of
their new apartment, the keepers used to remove the dead
by the barrowful in the morning. This extreme mortality was
produced by want of ventilation, and a system of heating which
burnt the air and induced inflammation of the lungs. Dr.
Marshall Hall and Dr. Amott, upon being consulted, directed
the substitution of an open stove, when the deaths ceased.
As we pass towards the small building once used as the
parrot-house, but now dedicated to the smaller felidse, we go by
the seal-pond, and see that strange beast which resembles a
Danish carriage-dog with his legs amputated. He is an epicure
as regards his regular meals, and turns up his nose at any fish
less recherche than whiting, of which expensive delicacy he con-
sumes ten pounds weight daily. Meanwhile, however, he is " a
snapper- up of unconsidered trifles," and we see him, as the
visitors circulate round his enclosure, flop, flop, around the
margin of his pond, keeping a sharp look-out above the railings
for stray favours. The house of the smaller carnivora is
generally overlooked, but it is worthy of a visit, if only to see
the beautiful clouded tigers as they are misnamed, for they
more resemble hunting leopards both in size and skin-markings.
These elegant creatures are quite tame, and permit the utmost
familiarities of their keeper ; but their neighbour, the caracal
or lynx, never seems tired of making the most ferocious rushes
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 103
at the bars, accompanied by a vindictive and incessant spitting,
which impresses us with the idea that it possesses the very
quintessence of catlike nature. There is one little cage in this
apartment which is deserving of especial inspection — that con-
taining a specimen of the indigenous black rat, which, according
to Mr. Waterton, was entirely eaten out of the country by the
grey rats of Hanover, which came over in the same ship with
Butch William, and which are, according to that hearty
naturalist, the very emblems of " Protestant rapacity." Those
who have read his delightful essays know well with what
perseverance the author hunts the grey rodent through every
chapter of his book.
If we now retrace our steps along the border of the plantation,
which forms a deep green background for countless dahlias,
and moreover screens the garden from the biting east, we shall,
by turning to the right hand, come upon the Aquarium, the
latest and most attractive sight in the gardens. How cool and
delicious ! Around us we perceive slices of the deep sea-bed
and the rapid river. "Were we mermen we could not examine
more at ease the rich pavement of the ocean set with strange
and living flowers. In the midst of the green walls of water
which surround us, mimic caves, waving with sea-weed and
other marine plants, afford shelter and lurking-holes for bright
fish which stare and dart, or for shambling crustacese which
creep over the pebbly bottom. Against the dark verdure of
these submerged rocks, the sea-anemone rears its orange base
tipped with flower-like fans, or hangs its snake-like tentacles,
writhing as the head-dress of Medusa. But we must look
narrowly into each nook and under every stone, if we wish to
realize the amount of animal life, which here puts on such
strange vegetable forms. Let us consider well for a few minutes
one of the tanks running down the middle of the building.
For months all the minute animal and vegetable life has been
multiplying and decaying, and yet the water remains pure and
bright. The explanation of this phenomenon affords one of the
most beautiful examples of the manner in which nature on a
grand scale holds the balance true between her powers. If we
104 THE ZOOLOGICAL GAKDEX3.
were to put these little bright-eyed fish alive into the crystal
tank, in a week's time they would die, because they would have
withdrawn all the oxygen it originally contained, and con-
laminated it with the poisonous carbonic acid gas exhaled from
their lungs. To prevent this, the philosopher hangs these
mimic caves with verdant seaweed, and plants the bottom with
graceful marine grasses. If the spectator looks narrowly at the
latter, he finds them fringed with bright silver bells : these
bells contain oxygen, which the plants have eliminated from
their tissues under the action of light, having previously con-
sumed the carbonic acid gas thrown out by the fishes and
zoophytes. Thus plants and animals are indispensable to the
preservation of each others life. But even now we have not
told the entire causes which produce the crystal clearness of
the water. The vegetable element grows too fast, and if left
to itself the sides of the tank would be covered with a con-
fervoid growth, which would speedily obscure its inmates from
our view.
"We want scavengers to clear away the superfluous regeta-
tion, and we find them in the periwinkles which we see at-
tached by their foot-stalk to the glass. These little mollusca
do their work well : Mr. Gosse, who has watched them feeding
with a pocket-glass, perceived that their saw-like tongues
moved backwards and forwards with a crescentic motion, and
thus, as the animal advances, he leaves a slight swathe-like
mark upon the glass, as the mower does upon the field. But it
is clear that there are not enough labourers in the tank we are
inspecting to accomplish their task, as the lobster, who comes
straggling over the stones in such an ungainly manner, is more
like a moving salad than any living thing, so thickly are back,
tail, feelers, and claws, infested with a dense vegetable growth.
A few more black mowers are imperatively called for. The
fish, the weed, and the mollusc having secured to us a clear
view of the inhabitants of the tank, let us inspect them one by
one. Here we see the parasitic anemone. Like the old man
of the sea, it fixes itself upon some poor Sinbad in the shape of
a whelk, and rides about at its ease in search of food. Another
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 105
interesting variety of this zoophyte is the plumose sea-anemone,
a more stay-at-home animal, which generally fixes itself upon a
flat rock or an oyster-shell, and waits for the food to come to
it, as your London housewife expects the butcher and baker to
call in the morning.
The pure white body of the neighbouring actinia renders it
more observable. Its tentacles, displayed in plumes over the
central mouth, which is marked with yellow, give it the exact
appearance of a chrysanthemum, and should be much in favour
with the mermaids to adorn their hair. A still more extra-
ordinary creature is the Tcibella ventildbrum. The tube of this
strange animal is perfectly straight, and its large brown silk-
like radiating fans, whilst in search of food, revolve just as the
old-fashioned whirling ventilators did in our windows. The
instant this fan is touched it is retracted into the tube, the
ends just appearing outside, and giving it the appearance of a
camel' s-hair brush.
We shall not attempt to describe the different species of
zoophytes and annelides, amounting to hundreds — indeed, they
are not all familiar to scientific men. We have little more to
say of the Crustacea that go scrambling about, yet it would be
impossible to overlook that peripatetic whelk-shell, which,
climbs about the stones with such marvellous activity. On a
narrower inspection we perceive that it moves by a foreign
agency. Those sprawling legs protruding from its mouth dis-
cover the hermit crab, which is obliged to dress its soft body in
the first defensible armour it can pick up. A deserted whelk
or common spiral shell is its favourite resort, but, like many
bipeds, it has a love of changing its house ; and those who
have narrowly watched its habits state that it will deliberately
turn over the empty shells upon the beach, and, after examining
them carefully with its claws, pop its body out of one habita-
tion into another, in order to obtain the best possible fit. But
there are still stranger facts connected with this intelligent
ittle crustacean. We have before observed that the parasitic
ja-anemone invariably fixes itself when possible upon this
lovable house, perfectly regardless of the many bumps and
106 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
rubs which necessarily fall to its lot. Another -warm friend,
the cloak-anemone, clings still closer, for it perfectly envelopes
the lip of the shell with its living mantle. Our hermit has still a
third intimate acquaintance, who sponges upon him for bed and
board, in the shape of a beautiful worm, Nereis bilineata, which
stows itself behind the crab in the attic of the whelk-shell, and,
the moment its protector by his motions indicates that he has
procured food, glides between the two left-foot jaws, and drags
a portion of the morsel from his mouth, the crab appearing to
evince no more animosity at the seizure than the Quaker who
suddenly finds his spoons taken for church-rates. The interest-
ing specimens we have dwelt upon are confined to the sea-water
tanks, which line the Aquarium on the side opposite the door,
and those which run down the centre of the apartment. Vis-
a-vis are the fresh-water tanks, in which we may watch the
habits of British fishes. There is a noble pike lying as still as
a stone — a model sitter for the photographer who lately took
his portrait. The barbel, bream, dace, and gudgeon are seen
going about their daily duties as though they were at the
bottom of the Thames, instead of sandwiched between two
panes of glass, and inspected on either side by curious eyes.
Those who go early in the morning will have a chance of seeing
the lampreys hanging like leeches from the glass- by their
circular mouths, and breathing by the seven holes which run
beside their pectoral fins. The marine fish should also be
studied ; strange forms with vicious-looking jaws, the dog-fish
for example, which is a young fry as yet, but which will grow
a yard or two in length.
At the east end of the building the alligators' pool discovers
here and there a floating reptile's head, the outline of which
reminds us of the hippopotamus. In both cases the habit of
resting in the water with the head and body almost entirely
submerged necessitates a raised form of the nostril and eye-
socket, in order to allow the animal to see and breathe. A
similar formation of the face is observable in the wart hog (in
another portion of the gardens), which wallows up to its eyes
in slush and mire. The alligators have the tank to themselves,
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 107
with the exception of a couple of turtles, which are too hard
nuts for even them to crack.
The council has only established the aquarium a few years,
and already it is well stocked with specimens of British zoophytes
and annelides, for the most part dredged from the neighbour-
hood of Weymouth. If these are so beautiful, what must be
the wonders of the deep sea in tropical climates 1 Who knows
what strange things a bold adventurer might pick up who, like
Schiller's diver, would penetrate the horrid depths of the whirlpool,
not for the jewelled cup of the monarch, but for the hidden living
treasures nature has planted there 1 Doubtless, among the rusty
anchors and weed-clung ribs of long-lost armadas, there nestle
gigantic zoophytes and enormous starfish, which would make
the fortune of the Gardens in a single season. At all events, we
hope to see the aquarium greatly extended, as it will afford the
means of studying a department of natural history of which we
have hitherto been almost wholly in the dark.
If we pursue our walk down the broad path which skirts the
paddocks enclosing the deer and llamas, we cannot help being
struck with the fact that the finest half of the gardens — that
which is open to the setting sun — is not yet built on, whilst the
more exposed portion is inconveniently crowded. The reason is,
that the Commissioners of the Woods and Forests will not allow
any permanent buildings to be erected on these parts, for what
cause we cannot tell. We trust the prohibition will be with-
drawn, and that we shall see constructed here an enclosed
exercising-ground for the poor confined inhabitants of the
terrace-dens. At the northern extremity of the path we have
been following we come upon the paddock and pool dedicated
to cranes and storks. What spectre birds have we got among %
See yonder, on the very edge of the pool, the gaunt adjutant,
his head muffled up in his shoulders, looking like some traveller
attempting to keep his nose warm in the east wind. They say
every man has his likeness among the lower animals, and we
have seen plenty of adjutants waiting on a winter's night for
the last omnibus. What an elegant gentleman seems the
Stanley crane beside him ! There is as much difference
103 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
between the two as between a young guardsman in full dress
at the opera and the night cabman huddled up in the multi-
tudinous capes of his great-coat. A third claimant for our
admiration steps forward like a dancing-master, now bending
low, now with the aid of his wings lifting himself on the light
fantastic toe, now advancing, now poussetting, and all the time
calling attention to his grotesque but not altogether inelegant
attitudes by a peculiar cry. We defy the gravest spectator to
watch the beautiful crowned crane at his antics without laugh-
ing. But we hear the lady beside us exclaiming, " Is it possible
that the Maraboo feathers which so often gracefully sway in
obeisance before the queen, were ever portions of such ugly
birds as these 1 " Unlikely as it may seem, it is verily from
these dirty ill-favoured looking Maraboo storks that this
fashionable plumage is procured. Close by, sitting upon a
stone, we see the melancholy-looking heron, and the audacious
sparrows hop within a foot of his legs, so inanimate he seems.
Ah ! it is the vile deceit of the bird : in an instant he has
stricken the intruder with his bill, and the next the sparrow has
disappeared down his throat. That elegant grey crane is the
"native companion" from Australia, so called from his love
of consorting with man in that country. We all know what
familiars cranes and storks are in Holland and the East, where
they build on the chimney-pots without the slightest fear ; and
we are glad to find that they possess the same confidence in the
savages of the New World. They are handsome birds, but not
richly plumed as the European crane, with his black and white
feathers and full-clustered tail. Once these cranes were common
here, when " England was merrie England ; " that is, before
windmills and steam-engines were set to work to rescue many
counties from a state of marsh. With civilization they utterly
disappeared from the land, and with civilization we once more
find them amongst us — a sight to gaze at. Not long since the
odd population of this paddock embraced a secretary-bird,
whose velvet breeches, white stockings, and reserved air gave
him an official appearance worthy of Somerset House in the
last century. Take care, little girl, how you feed them ; a
THE ZOOLOGICAL GAEDENS. 109
charge with fixed bayonets is scarcely more formidable than
the rush of sharp long bills through the railings which imme-
diately follows a display of provisions.
A few steps take us to the magnificent aviary, 170 feet in
length, constructed in 1851, through the nineteen divisions of
which a pure stream of water is constantly flowing, and the
space enclosed by iron netting is so spacious that the birds have
room freely to use their wings. The first compartment contains
two of the rarities of the gardens — the satin bower-bird and the
Tallagulla or brush- turkey. The former, a bird of a shining
blue-black colour, is the only remaining one of three brought to
this country in 1849. Immediately upon their arriving in the
gardens they commenced the construction of one of their bowers
or " runs," which, according to the secretary, has been constantly
added to and re-arranged from that period to the present time.
The bower is, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary things in
bird-architecture, as it is constructed not for the useful purpose
of containing the young, but purely as a playing-place — a deco-
rated ball-room, in fact, wherein the young couple flirt and make
love previous to entering upon connubial life. The bower is con-
structed, in the present instance, from the twigs of an old besom,
in the shape of a horse-shoe ; or perhaps we should convey a
better idea of it by stating that the sticks are bent into a shape
like the ribs of a man-of-war, the top being open, and the length
varying from six to twelve inches. Against the sides, and at
the entrance of the bower, the bird, in a state ot nature, places
bright feathers, snail-shells, bleached bones — anything, in fact,
containing colour. When it is remembered that Australia is
the very paradise of parrots and gaudy-plumaged birds, it will
be seen that the little artist cannot lack materials to satisfy his
taste for ornament ; nevertheless, we are told he goes for a con-
siderable distance for some of his decorations. When the structure
is completed, he sits in it to entice the female, fully aware, no
doubt, that the fair are attracted by a handsome establishment.
Be that as it may, the couple speedily commence running in and
out of it, with as much sense, and probably with as much enjoy-
ment, as light-heeled bipeds perform a galop. The consequence,
110 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
however, of the male bird being bereft of his companions, he
seems careless of his bower, which is in a most forlorn condi-
tion — a ball-room, in fact, a day after a fete. May a new com-
panion speedily arrive and induce him to put his house once
more in order ! The satin bower-bird, like the magpie, is well-
known by the natives to be a terrible thief; and they always
search his abode for any object they may have lost. " I myself,"
says Mr. Gould, in his account of these birds, " found at the
entrance of one of them a small neatly-worked stone tomahawk
of an inch and a half in length, together with some slips of blue
cotton rags, which the birds had, doubtless, picked iip at a
deserted encampment of the natives."
Scarcely a less interesting bird is the brush-turkey. In
appearance it is very like the common black turkey, but is
not quite so large ; the extraordinary manner in which its eggs
are hatched constitutes its singularity. It makes no nest, in
the usual acceptation of the term, but scratches decayed vege-
table matter into a pyramid with its feet. It then carefully
dibbles in its eggs at regular intervals, with the small end down-
ward, and covers them over with the warm fermenting gather-
ings. The pair in the gardens, shortly after they were received
from Australia, commenced making one of these hatching-
mounds, which, by the time it was finished, contained upwards
of four cart-loads of leaves and other vegetable matter. After
the female had deposited sixteen eggs, each measuring not less
than four inches in length — an enormous size, considering the
bulk of the bird — the male began to keep watch over this
natural Eccaleobion, and every now and then scratched away
the rubbish to inspect them. After six weeks of burial, the
eggs, in succession, and without any warning, gave up their
chicks — not feeble, but full-fledged and strong : an intelligent
keeper told us that he had seen one fly up out of the ground at
least five feet high. .At night the chicks scraped holes for them-
selves, and, lying down therein, were covered over by the old
birds, and thus remained until morning. The extraordinary
strength of the newly-hatched bird is accounted for by the size
of the shell, which contains sufficient nutriment to nourish it
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. Ill
until it is lusty. Unfortunately, all the young but one
have perished through various accidents quite independently
of temperature ; and the next brood will probably be
reared. As both the flesh and the eggs of these birds are
delicious, the council is anxious to naturalize them among us.
In fact, one of the objects of the gardens, under their enligh-
tened management, is to make it what Bacon calls in his
" Atlantis," " a tryal place for beasts and fishes." For centuries
a system of extermination has been adopted towards many
indigenous animals ; the wolf and buzzard have quite dis-
appeared, and the eagle is fast being swept away even from
the highlands of Scotland — so rapidly, indeed, that Mr. Gordon
Cumming is anxious, we hear, for the formation of a society for
the protection of its eggs. Noxious animals have been replaced
by the acclimatization of many of the foreign fauna, which are
either distinguished for their beauty or valuable for their flesh.
This transfer, which adds so much to the richness of the country,
can be vastly accelerated through the agency of these gardens,
which are a kind of "tryal ground" for beasts, as the fields of
some of our rich agriculturists are for foreign roots and grasses,
in which those likely to be of service can be discovered, and
afterwards distributed throughout the land.
If we may quote the brush-turkeys as instances of birds
capable of affording a new kind of delicate and easily-reared
food, the splendid Impegan pheasants, close at hand, bred here
from a pair belonging to her Majesty, and which endure, in
the open air, the rigour of winter, may be looked upon as
"things of beauty," which may be produced among us to charm
the eye. The elands, again, on the north side of the garden,
which have bred so prolifically, and made flesh so rapidly, have
been with advantage turned out into our parks, where their
beautiful forms prove as attractive to the eye as their venison,
of the finest quality, do to the taste.
But we can no longer tarry to speculate further on the
riches of this aviary, which contains rare specimens of birds
from all parts of the world. Passing along the path which
takes us by the north entrance, we reach the pelicans' paddock,
112 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
in which we see half a dozen of these ungainly creatures, white
and grey, with pouches beneath their bills as capacious as the
bag of a lady's work-table. The visitor may sometimes have
an opportunity ot witnessing an explanation of the popular
myth that the old bird feeds its young from the blood of its
own breast. This idea evidently arose from the fact that it can
only empty the contents of its pouch into the mouths ot its
young by pressing it against its breast, in the act of doing
which the feathers often became insanofuined from the blood of
the mangled fish within it. The close observance of birds and
beasts in zoological collections has tended to reduce many
fabulous tales to sober reason. On the other side of the walk
may be seen in immature plumage one of the red flamingoes
from South America, which are said to simulate so closely a
regiment of our soldiers, as they stand in rows fishing beside the
banks of rivers; and here, too, are the delicate rose-colour
specimens of the Mediterranean, which are likewise exceedingly
beautiful. Those accustomed to navigate the Red Sea fre-
quently witness vast flights of these birds passing and re-passing
from Arabia to Egypt ; and we are informed by a traveller that
on one occasion, when he had a good opportunity of measuring
the column, he convinced himself that it was upwards of a
mile in length ! What a splendid spectacle to see the pure
eastern sky barred by this moving streak of brilliant colour !
But we have not yet explored the north side of the grounds,
where the huge pachydermatous animals are lodged. The
difficulty caused by the carriage -drive running between the two
gardens has been vanquished by means of the tunnel, the ascent
from which on the opposite side, flanked as it is with graceful
ferns, is one of the most charming portions of the grounds on
a hot summer's day. If after passing through the subterranean
passage we turn to the right, we come immediately upon the
reptile-house. Unless the visitor selects his time, he will gene-
rally find little to amuse him here. The great snakes have
either retired from public life under their blankets, or lie coiled
upon the branches of trees in their dens. The reptiles are
offered food once a week, but will not always feed at this
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 113
interval. One huge python fasted the almost incredible time
of twenty-two months, having probably prepared himself for
his abstinence by a splendid gorge. After a fast of seven days,
however, the majority of the serpents regain their appetites.
Three o'clock is the feeding-time, and the reptiles which are on
the look-out seem to know full well the errand of the man who
enters with the basket, against the side of which they hear the
fluttering wings of the feathered victims and the short stamp of
the doomed rabbits. The keeper opens the door at the back of
the den of the voluminous serpents on our right —for of these
there is no fear, — takes off their blanket, and drops in upon the
clattering pebbles a scampering rabbit, who hops from side to
side, curious to inspect his new habitation ; presently, satisfied,
he sits on his haunches and leisurely begins to wash his face.
Silently the rock-snake glides over the stones, uncurling his
huge folds, which, like a cable, seem to move as though by some
agency from without, looks for an instant upon his unconscious
victim, and the next has seized him with his cruel jaws. His
constricting folds are twisted as swiftly as a whip-lash round his
shrieking prey, and for ten minutes the serpent lies still, main-
taining his mortal knot until his prey is dead, when, seizing him
by the ears, he draws him through his vice-like grip, crushing
every bone, and elongating the body preparatory to devouring
it. The boa and the rock-snake always swallow their prey
head foremost. How is that fine neck and delicate head to
make room for that bulky rabbit 1 thinks the spectator. Pre-
sently he sees the jaws gape, and slowly the reptile draws him-
self over, rather than swallows, his prey, as you draw a stocking
upon your leg. The huge lump descends lower and lower beneath
the speckled scales, which seem to stare with distension, and the
monster coils himself up once more to digest his meal in quiet.
Rabbits and pigeons form the food of the pythons in these
gardens. While the smaller birds are preyed upon in the
reptile-house, their big brothers, the storks in the paddock, are
reciprocating the law of nature by eating snakes. As we pass
to the opposite side of the serpent- room, where the venomous
kinds are kept, we perceive that a more cautious arrangement
I
114 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
is made for feeding. The door opens at the top instead of at
the sides of their dens, and with good reason ; for no sooner does
the keeper remove with a crooked iron rod the blanket from
the cobra, than the reptile springs, with inflated hood, into an
S-like attitude, and darts laterally at his enemy. He seems
incapable of striking well any object above or below his level :
watch, for instance, that guinea-pig : again and again he dashes
at it, but misses his aim ; now he hits it, but only to drive the
poor frightened creature with a score of flying pebbles before
him : when at last he succeeds in piercing the sides of his
victim, tetanic spasms immediately commence, and it dies
convulsed in a few seconds. It is said by those who have
watched venomous snakes, that the manner of dying exhibited
by their stricken prey discloses the nature of the reptile that
inflicted the poisoned wound. It is scarcely necessary to state
that the popular idea that the tongue darts forth the venom is
a fallacy. The poison is contained in glands which lie at the
root of the fangs on either side, and, by the compression of the
powerful muscles which make the head appear so broad and
flat, it is forced into the fine tube which runs at the sides of the
fang, and finds its exit near the point by a minute opening.
The cobra at present in the collection, with its skin a glossy
black and yellow, its eye black and angry, its motions agile and
graceful, seems to be the very personification of India. As we
watch it when ready to spring, we suddenly remember that only
a film of glass stands between us and " pure death." But there is
nothing to fear : the python, in the adjoining room, which
weighs a hundred and twenty pounds, being incensed on his
first arrival at being removed from his box, darted with all his
force at a spectator. Yet the pane of glass had strength enough
to bring him up, and he fell back so bruised about the head and
muzzle by the collision, that he could not feed well for several
months. The cobra that we see is the same that destroyed its
keeper. In a fit of drunkenness, the man, against express
orders, took the reptile out, and, placing its head inside his
waistcoat, allowed it to glide round his body. When it had
emerged from under his clothes from the other side, apparently
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 115
in good humour, he squeezed its tail, when it struck him
between his eyes ; in twenty minutes his consciousness was
gone, and in less than three hours he was dead. Before we
leave this reptile-room, let us peep for a moment into the little
apartment opening from the corner, where, hanging from the
wall, we see all the cast-off dresses of the serpents. If the
keeper will allow us to handle one of them for a moment, we
shall see that it is indeed an entire suit of light- brown colour
and of gauzy texture, which covered not only the body and head,
but the very eyeballs of the wearer.
The Python-bouse on the other side of the Museum contains
two enormous serpents. The adventures of one of them — the
Python reticulatus — deserve to be written : when small enough
to be placed in the pocket, he was, with a companion now no
more, taken from Ceylon to Brazil by American sailors ; they
were then exhibited in most of the maritime towns of South
America, and were publicly sold for a, high price at Callao to
the captain of a ship, who brought them to the gardens, and
demanded £600 for the pair ; fully persuaded of their enormous
value, he had paid £30 to insure them on the voyage, and it
was not until he had long and painfully cogitated that he agreed
to sell them for £40. We have before referred to the extra-
ordinary length of time a python has been known to fast
without injury. Their fancies as well as their fastings are
rather eccentric. Every one has heard of the snake which
swallowed his blanket, a meal which ultimately killed him. A
python who had lived for years in a friendly manner with a
brother nearly as large as himself, was found one morning solus.
As the cage was secure, the keepers were puzzled to know how
the serpent had escaped : at last it was observed that the
remaining inmate had swollen remarkably during the night,
when the horrid fact became plain enough ; the fratricide had
succeeded in swallowing the entire person of his brother ; it
was his last meal, however, for in some months he died. A
friend informs us that he once saw in these gardens a rat-
snake of Ceylon devour a common Coluber natrix. The rat-
snake, however, had not taken the measure of his victim, as by
i 2
116 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
no effort could lie dispose of the last four inches of his tail,
which stuck out rather jauntily from the side of his mouth,
"with very much the look of a cigar. After a quarter of an
hour, the tail began to exhibit a retrograde motion, and the
swallowed snake was disgorged, nothing the worse for his living
sepulchre, with the exception of the wound made by his
partner when first he seized him. The ant-eater, who lately
inhabited the room leading out of the python apartment, has
died of a want of ants.
As we issue again into the open air, we have before us the
whole length of the avenue, arched with lime-trees, in summer
a veritable isle of verdure. What a charming picture it used
to be to see the docile elephant pacing towards us with pon-
derous and majestic steps, whilst, in the scarlet howdha, happy
children swayed from side to side as she marched. She, who
was t)ur delight for so many years, died some time since of a
storm of thunder and lightning. Such indeed was what may seem
at first the singular verdict of the medical man who made his
post mortem. The terror, however, inspired by the storm
appears to have produced some nervous disease, under which
she succumbed. There is a suspicion that the carcase, five
thousand pounds and upwards in weight, which was disposed of
to the nackers, ultimately found its way to the sausage-makers.
Do not start, good reader ; elephant's flesh is considered excel-
lent eating by the tribes of South Africa, and the lion-slayer
tells us that the feet are a true delicacy. He used to eat them
as we do Stilton cheese, scooping out the interior and leaving
the rind ; he exhibited to his audience some of these relics, which
looked like huge leather fire-buckets. And now we have only
the 3 T oung animal left, that once sucked his huge mother, to the
delight of the crowd of children, and to the disgust of the
rhinoceros, who is the sworn enemy to all elephants. The little
one is growing apace, however, and has already been promoted
to carry the long-deserted howdha. The rhinoceros, close
at hand, is the successor of the fine old fellow purchased in
1836 for 1,050/., the largest sum ever given by the society for
a single animal. The specimen now in the gardens cost only
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 117
3501. in 1850, so much do these commodities fluctuate in value.
His predecessor, who departed this life full of years, was con-
stantly forced upon his belly by a pugnacious elephant, who
pressed his tusks upon the back of his neighbour when he came
near the palings which separated their inclosures. This rough
treatment appears to have led to his death, as Professor Owen
found, on dissecting the massive brute, which weighed upwards
of two tons, that the seventh rib had been fractured at the
bend near the vertebral end, and had wounded the left lung.
ISTot far from the picturesque house built by Decimus Burton,
in one of the cages fronting the office of the superintendent of
the gardens, is to be seen a beaver. The wonderful instinct
of this little animal is certainly not inferior to that of the huge
elephant. As yet he has not been placed in circumstances to
enable the public to witness his building capacities ; but it is the
intention, we understand, of the Council to give him a stream
of running water and the requisite materials to construct one
of those extraordinary dams for which this animal is so famous.
In Canada, where he used to flourish, the backwoodsmen often
came upon hill-sides completely cleared of good-sized trees by
colonies of these little creatures, who employed the felled
timber to construct their dams — dams, not of a few feet in
length, but sometimes of a hundred and fifty feet, built accord-
ing to the best engineering formula for resisting the pressure
of water, namely, in an angle with its apex pointed up the
stream, and gradually narrowing from base to summit. In
short, Mr. Brunei himself could not outdo your beaver in his
engineering operations. Even in confinement this sagacious
Bodent loves to display his skill, as we may learn, from
Mr. Broderip's account of his pet Binney ; —
" Its building instinct," says that accomplished naturalist, " showed
itself immediately it was let out of its cage, and materials were placed in
its way, and this before it had been a week in its new quarters. Its
strength, even before it was half-grown, was great, it would drag along a
large sweeping-brush, or a warming-pan, grasping the handle with its teeth,
so that the load came over its shoulder, and advancing in an oblique direc-
tion till it arrived at the part where it wished to place it. The long and
large materials were always taken first ; and two of the longest were
generally laid crosswise, with one of the ends of each touching the wall,
118 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
and their other ends projecting out into the room. The area caused by the
cross-brushes and the wall he would fill up with hand-brushes, rush baskets,
books, boots, sticks, cloths, dried turf, or anything portable. As the work
grew high, he supported himself on his tail, which propped him up admir-
ably ; and he would often, after laying on one of his building materials, sit
up over against it, appearing to consider his work, or, as the country
people say, 'judge it.' This pause was sometimes followed by changing
the position of the materials, and sometimes they were left in their place.
After he had piled up his materials in one part of the room (for he generally
chose the same place), he proceeded to wall up the space between the feet
of a chest of drawers which stood at a little distance from it, high enough
on its legs to make the bottom a roof for him, using for this purpose dried
turf and sticks, which he laid very even, and filling up the interstices with
bits of coal, hay, cloth, or anything he could pick up; the last place he
seemed to appropriate for his dwelling, the former work seemed to be
intended for a dam. When he had walled up the space between the feet
of the chest of drawers, he proceeded to carry in sticks, cloths, hay, cotton,
and to make a nest ; and when he had done, he would sit up under the
drawers, and comb himself with the nails of his hind feet."
Well done, Binney ! If the beaver in the garden will only
work out his natural instincts as perfectly, we may expect some
amusement. Up to a late period the beaver had become rather
a scarce animal, the exigencies of fashion having nearly exter-
minated him. When silk hats came in, however, the annual
slaughter of hundreds of thousands of his race, for the sake of
the fur, gradually slackened, and now he is beginning to increase
in his native retreats, — a singular instance this of the fashions
of Paris and London affecting the very existence of a prolific
race of animals in the New World ! In the very next com-
partment is a hare, who for years played the tambourine in the
streets of the metropolis, but his master, finding that his
performances did not draw, exchanged him at these gardens
for a monkey ; and now, whilst he eats his greens in peace,
poor Jacko, in a red cloak and a feathered cap, has probably to
earn his daily bread by mimicking humanity on the top of a
barrel-organ. But the hippopotamus surges into his bath in
the inclosure as we pause, and there is a rush of visitors to see
the mighty brute performing his ablutions. He no longer
gives audience to all the fair and fashionable folks of the town.
Alas for the greatness of this world ! the soldier-crab and the
Esop prawn now draw better " houses." Whether or no this
desertion has embittered his temper, we cannot say, but he has
certainly lost his amiability, notwithstanding that he still
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 119
retains the humorous curl-up of the corners of his mouth
which Doyle used to hit off so inimitably. At times, indeed,
he is perfectly furious, and his vast strength has necessitated
the reconstruction of his house on a much stronger plan.
Those only who have seen him rush with extended jaws at the
massive oaken door of his apartment, returning again and again
to the charge, and making the solid beams quiver as though
they were only of inch-deal, can understand the dangerous
fits which now and then are exhibited by a creature, who was
so gentle, when he made his debut, that he could not go to sleep
without having his Arab keeper's feet to lay his neck upon.
This affection for his nurse has undergone a great change, for,
on Hamet's countryman and coadjutor, Mohammed, making
his second appearance with the young female hippopotamus,
Obaysch very nearly killed him in the violence of his rage.
He has a peculiar dislike to the sight of working men, espe-
cially if they are employed in doing any jobs about his apart-
ment. The smith of the establishment happening one day to
be passing along the iron gallery which runs across one side
of his bath, the infuriated animal leapt out of the water, at
least eight feet high, and would speedily have pulled the whole
construction down, had not the man run rapidly out of his
sight. We trust his temper will improve when his young bride
in the adjoining room is presented to him ; but she is as yet
but a baby behemoth, although growing fast. . The enormously
strong iron railings in front of his apartments are essential to
guard against the rushes he sometimes makes at persons he
does not like. Look at that huge mouth, opened playfully to
receive nic-nacs ! What is a bun or a biscuit to him 1 Down
that huge throat goes one hundred pounds weight of provender
daily. Surely the dragon of Wantley had not such a gullet.
The giraffes in the adjoining apartment have been in the
gardens so long that they are no longer thought a rarity ; but
it should be remembered that the four procured in 1835 from
Khordofan by the agent of the society were, like the hippopo-
tamus, the first ever exhibited in Europe since the days of an-
cient Rome. Of these only one female now remains ; but very
120 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
many have been bred in the gardens, and have continued in
excellent health. At the present moment three of their
jDrogeny are housed in the apartment we are entering. The
finest, a male, is a noble fellow, standing nearly seventeen feet
high. "When he strides out into the inclosure, high up as the
trees are protected by boarding, he yet manages to browse as in
his African forests, and it is then that the visitor sees the full
beauty of the beast, which is lost in the house. The giraffe,
in spite of his mild and melancholy look, which reminds us
forcibly of the camel, yet fights ferociously with his kind at
certain seasons of the year. Two males once battled here so
furiously that the horn of one of them was actually driven
into the head of the other. Their method of fighting is very
peculiar : stretching out their fore and hind legs like a rocking-
horse, they use their heads, as a blacksmith would a sledge-
hammer, and swinging the vertebral column in a manner
calculated, one would think, to break it, they bring the full
force of the horns to bear upon their antagonist's skull. The
blow is severe in the extreme, and every precaution is taken to
prevent these conflicts.
As we pass along a narrow corridor in which the ostriches
are confined, we reach at length the last inhabitant of the
garden, and the most curious creature, perhaps, which it con-
tains. If the keeper is at hand, he will open the door of the
box in which it lives, and drive out for us the bewildered-
looking apteryx — the highest representative, according to
Professor Owen, of the warm-blooded class of animals that
lived in New Zealand previous to the advent of man. Strange
and chaotic-looking as are most of the living things brought
from Australia and the adjacent islands, this creature is cer-
tainly the oddest of the bird class, and is, we believe, the only
one ever seen out of New Zealand. As it vainly runs into the
corners and tries to hide itself from the light of day, we per-
ceive that it is wingless and tailless ; it looks, in short, like a
hedgehog mounted upon the dwarfed yet powerful legs of an
ostrich, whilst its long bill, which seems as though it had been
borrowed from a stork, is employed when the bird leans for-
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 121
ward, to support it, just as an old man uses a stick. This
strange creature seems to hold among the feathered bipeds of
Polynesia a parallel position to the New Holland mole (Orni-
thorhynchus paradoxicus) — which possesses the bill and webbed
feet of a duck with the claws of a land animal — among the
quadrupeds. Mr. Gould remarks that nature affords an appro-
priate vegetation to each class of animal life. Our universal
mother seems to have matched her Flora to her Fauna in this
portion of the globe ; at least, the paradoxical creatures we
have mentioned seem in happy accord with Australian vege-
tation, where the stones grow outside the cherries, and the
pear-shaped fruits depend from the branch with their small
ends downwards ! The apteryx is entirely nocturnal in its
habits, pursuing its prey in the ground by smell rather than
by sight j to enable it to do which, the olfactory openings are
placed near the point of the beak. Thus the bird scents the
worm on which it feeds far below the surface of the ground.
We must not regard the apteryx as an exceptional creature,
but rather as the type of a large class of birds peculiar to the
islands of New Zealand, which have been destroyed, like the
dodo in the Mauritius, since the arrival of man. Professor
Owen, long before the apteryx arrived in England, pronounced
that a single bone found in some New Zealand watercourse had
belonged to a wingless, tailless bird that stood at least twelve
feet high.* This scientific conjecture has lately been trans-
formed into a certainty by the discovery of a number of bones,
which demonstrate that several species of Moas once roamed
among the fern-clad islands which stud the bright Polynesian
ocean. These bones have been found mixed with those of
the apteryx, which thus becomes linked to a race of myste-
rious creatures, which, it is supposed, have long passed away,
although a tale is told — an American one, it is true — of an
Englishman having come across a dinornis, whilst out on its
* The great merit of this inference may be judged from the circumstance
that several eminent naturalists, out of an honest regard for the reputation
of Professor Owen, endeavoured to prevent the publication of the paper in
which, with the sure sagacity of scientific genius, he confidently announced
the fact.
122 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
nocturnal rambles, and of his having fled from it with as much
terror as though it had been a griffin of old.
Our walk through the gardens has only enabled us to take a
cursory glance at a few of the 1,300 mammals, birds, aud rep-
tiles at present located there ; but the duty of the zoologist is
to dwell minutely on each. To such these gardens have, for
the last twenty-six years, been a very fountain-head of infor-
mation. During that time a grand procession of animal life,
savage and wild, has streamed through them, and for the major
part has gone to that " bourne from which no traveller re-
turns." Let us rank them, and pass them, before us : —
Quadrumana 1,069
Carnivora 1,409
Eodentia 1,025
Pachydermata 204
Puminantia 1,098
Marsupialia 219
Peptilia 1,861
Aves 7,320
— making a total of 14,205. Out of this large number many
curious animals have doubtless left no trace ; but through the
care of the Council, no rare specimen has died, within these
five years at least, without previously sitting for his portrait.
The first part of the valuable collection of coloured drawings,
from the inimitable pencil of Mr. Wolf, accompanied by a
description from the pen of the late Mr. Mitchell, the editor of
the work, is published, under the title of " Zoological Sketches,
&c," and the others will speedily follow. The work, when
completed, will be unique in the annals of zoology, both for
the extreme beauty of the drawings, which may be said to
daguerreotype the subjects in their most characteristic atti-
tudes, and for the nature of the letterpress, which proves that
the editor has written from the life.
This splendid collection has been got together by presents,
purchase, breeding, and exchanges. Out of the 14,205 speci-
mens, however, which have been in the possession of the
society, scarcely a tithe were bought. The Queen, especially,
has been most generous in her presents, and the stream of
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 123
barbaric offerings in the shape of lions, tigers, leopards, &c,
which is continually flowing from tropical princes to the fair
Chief of the nation, is poured into these gardens. Her Ma-
jesty evidently pays no heed to the superstition once common
among the people, that a dynasty was only safe as long as
the lions flourished in the royal fortress. In fact, the gardens
are a convenience to our gracious monarch as well as to her
subjects ; for wild animals are awkward things to have in one's
back premises. Neither must we overlook the reproduction
which has taken place in the gardens ; to such an extent,
indeed, has the stock increased, that sales to a large amount
are annually made. The system of exchanges which exists
between the various British and continental societies helps to
supply the garden with deficient specimens in place of dupli-
cates. Very rare, and consequently expensive animals, are
generally purchased. Thus, the first rhinoceros cost 1,000?. ;
the four giraffes 700?., and their carriage an additional 700?.
The elephant and calf were bought in 1851 for 800?. ; and the
hippopotamus, although a gift, was not brought home and
housed at less than 1,000?. — a sum which he more than
realized in the famous Exhibition season, when the receipts
were 10,000?. above the previous year. The lion Albert was
purchased for 140?. ; a tiger in 1852 for 200?. The value of
some ot the smaller birds will appear, however, more startling :
thus, the pair of black-necked swans were purchased for 80?.
(they are now to be seen in the three-island pond) ; a. pair of
crowned pigeons and two maleos, 60?. ; a pair of Victoria
pigeons, 35?. ; four mandarin ducks, 70?. Most of these rare
birds (now in the great aviary) came from the Knowsley col-
lection, at the sale of which, in 1851, purchases were made to
the extent of 985?. It would be impossible from these prices,
however, to judge of the present value of the animals. Take
the rhinoceros, for example : the first specimen cost 1,000?. ;
the second, quite as fine a brute, only 350?. Lions range
again from 40?. to 180?., and tigers from 40?. to 200?. The
price is generally ruled by the state of the wild-beast market,
and by the intrinsic rarity of the creature. A first appearance
124 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
t the
in Europe, of course, is likely to draw, and is therefore at
top price ; but it is wonderful how demand produces supply.
Let any rare animal bring a crowd to the gardens, and in a
twelvemonth numbers of his brethren will be generally in the
market. The ignorance displayed by some persons as to the
value of well-known objects is something marvellous. We have
already spoken of the sea captain who demanded 600?. for a
pair of pythons, and at last took 40?. ! On another occasion,
an American offered the society a grisly bear for 2,000?., to be
delivered in the United States ; and, more laughable still, a
moribund walrus, which had been fed for nine weeks on salt
pork and meal, was offered for the trifling sum of 700?. !
We could go on multiplying, ad nauseam, instances of this
kind, but must conclude the catalogue of absurdities by
stating that there is a firm belief on the part of many persons
that it is the Zoological Society which has proposed the large
reward, which every one has heard of, for the tortoiseshell Tom.
" The only one ever known" has been offered accordingly at the
exceedingly low figure of 2501. On one occasion a communica-
tion was received from some person of consideration in Thu-
ringia, requesting to be informed of the amount of the proffered
prize, which he was about to claim. This was shortly followed
by a letter from another person, evidently written in a fury,
cautioning the society against giving the prize to the previous
writer, as he was not the breeder of the cat, but was only try-
ing to buy it for less than its value, " in which he would never
succeed so long as the true breeder lived." To prevent further
applications on the behalf of growers of this unique animal,
we may as well state that tortoiseshell Toms may be had in
many quarters.
We have said that the value of animals depends upon the
state of the wild-beast market. " Wild-beast market !" ex-
claims the reader; "and where can that be?" Every one
knows that London can furnish anything for money ; and if
any lady or gentleman wants lions or tigers, there are dealers
in Ratcliffe Highway and the adjacent parts, who have them on
the premises, and will sell them at five minutes' notice. They
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 125
" talk as familiarly of lions as ladies do of puppy dogs ;" and a
gentleman who purchased a bear of one of them, lately in-
formed us that the salesman coolly proposed that he should take
him home with him in a cab ! We once had occasion to visit
the establishment of one of these dealers, and were shown up a
ladder into a cockloft, where, hearing a bumping, and perceiving
a lifting motion in a trap-door, we inquired the reason, which
called forth the dry remark that it was only three lions at play
in a box below. Although these men generally manage to
secure their live stock in a satisfactory manner, yet accidents
will occur in the best-regulated lion-stores. A wild-beast
merchant, for instance, informed us that one night he was
awakened by his wife, who drew his attention to a noise in the
back-yard, where he had placed two lions on the previous
evening. On putting his head out of the window — his room
was on the ground-floor — there were the lions loose, and, with
their paws on the window-sill, looking grimly in upon him.
A good whip and a determined air consigned Leo to his cage
again without further trouble. On another occasion this same
man, hearing a noise in his back premises, found to his horror
that an elephant, with his pick-lock trunk, had let out a hyaena
and a nylghau from their cages, and was busy undoing the
fastenings of a den full of lions ! The same resolute spirit,
however, soon restored order. Amateurs have not always the
same courage or self-possession, and they immediately have
recourse to the garden-folks to get them out of their difficulties,
as a housekeeper would send to the station-house on finding a
burglar secreted in his cellar. On one occasion a gentleman,
who had offered a rattlesnake and its young to the gardens at
a high price, sent suddenly to the superintendent to implore
immediate assistance, as the said snake, with half a score
venomous offspring, had escaped from their box and scattered
themselves in his nursery. The possessor, to avoid worse losses,
was only too glad to be rid of his guests at any pecuniary
sacrifice.
We cannot close our survey without touching upon the cost
of the commissariat. The slaughtered beasts appropriated to
126 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
the carnivora, we have before stated, cost in the year 1854 no
less a sum than 1,367?. 19s. 5d. If we go through the other
items of food, we shall give some notion of the expense and the
variety of the banquet to which the animals daily sat down
during that year. Thus we see hay figures for 9121. 14s. ; corn,
seeds, &c, 700?. 8s. 8d. ; bread, buns, &c. (for the monkeys),
150?. 16s. 8d. ; eggs, 87?. 4s. Id. (for the ant-eater principally) ;
milk, 69?. 6s. 2d. ; mangold-wurzel, carrots, and turnips, 221. 6s. ;
dog-biscuit, 135?. 19s. lOd. (for the bears and wolves and dogs
chiefly) ; fish (for the otters, seal, pelicans, &c), 214?. 8s. 8d. ;
green tares, 23?. 16s. 8d. ; rabbits and pigeons (for the snakes),
33?. 13s. 2d. ; rice and oil-cake, 661. 15s. ; sundries, including
fruit, vegetables, grasshoppers, snakes, mealworms, figs, sugar,
<fcc. (for the birds principally), 157?. Is. lid. : making a total
of 3,942?. 8s. 3d. ; a great increase on the food bill of 1853, and
which was caused entirely by the advance of prices.
The pitch of excellence to which the gardens have arrived
has naturally resulted in drawing the increased attention of the
public towards them. We have only to contrast, for instance,
the number of people who entered in the year 1848 — the first
in which a more liberal system of management came into play —
with those who passed in in 1854, to see that the establishment
nourishes under the auspices of the new management ; for while
in the former year only 142,456 persons passed through the
turnstiles, the number had risen in the latter to 407,676. It
is interesting to observe that, although an increase of full 100
per cent, took place upon the privileged and ordinary shilling
visitors during that interval, yet that the reduction of the
admittance-charge to sixpence on Mondays and holidays was
the main cause of the gradual influx of visitors — the year 1848
showing only 60,566 admittances of these holiday-folks and
working-people, to 196,278 in 1854. Here, then, we have an
increase of 135,712 persons, many of whom were, no doubt,
rescued, on those days at least, from the fascinations of the
public-house. With all this flood of life — the greater portion
of it undoubtedly belonging to the labouring-classes, — not the
slightest injury has been done to the gardens. A flower or two
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 127
may have been picked, but not by that class of Englishmen
who were once thought too brutal to be allowed access un-
watched to any public exhibition. Every year that passes over
our heads proves that such shows as these are splendid ex-
amples of the method ot teaching introduced by Bell and
Lancaster ; that they furnish instruction of a nature which
is never forgotten, and which refines at the same time that it
delights;
RATS.
Boswell relates that the wits who assembled at the house of
Sir Joshua Reynolds to hear Grainger's poem on the " Sugar-
cane" read in manuscript, burst into laughter when, after much
pompous blank-verse, a new paragraph commenced with the
invocation —
" Now, Muse, let's sing of rats."
But if a mean topic for the bard, they are an interesting subject
to the naturalist, an anxious one to the agriculturist, and of
some importance to everybody. Though it was no easy matter
to throw around them a halo of poetry, and to elevate them
into epic dignity — a difficulty which was nowise surmounted
by calling them, as Grainger subsequently did, " the whisker'd
vermin race" — yet there was nothing with which they had a
more serious practical connection than the " sugar-cane." It
was reckoned that in Jamaica they consumed a twentieth part
of the entire crop, and 30,000 were destroyed in one year in a
single plantation. In fact, rats are to the earth what sparrows
are to the air — universally present. Unlike their feathered
analogues, we rarely see them, and consequently have little idea
of the liberality with which they are distributed over every
portion of the habitable globe. They swarm in myriads in the
vast network of sewers under our feet, and by means of our
house-drains have free access to our basements, under which
they burrow; in the walls they establish a series of hidden
passages ; they rove beneath the floors and the roof, and thus
establish themselves above, below, and beside us. In the
RATS. 129
remote islands of the Pacific they equally abound, and are
sometimes the only inhabitants. But we shall not attempt to
write the universal history of the rat. It is enough if we
narrate his doings in Great Britain.
There are in England two kinds of land-rats — the old
English black rat, and the Norwegian or brown rat. According
to Mr. Waterton, the black rat is the native and proper in-
habitant of the island ; the brown rat not only an interloper
and exterminator, but a Whig rat — a combination which he
thinks perfectly consistent. In his charming essays on Natural
History he says —
"Though I am not aware that there are any minutes in the zoological
archives of this country which point out to us the precise time at which
this insatiate and mischievous little brute first appeared among us, still
there is a tradition current in this part of the country (Yorkshire), that it
actually came over in the same ship which conveyed the new dynasty to
these shores. My father, who was of the first order of field naturalists,
was always positive upon this point, and he maintained firmly that it did
accompany the House of Hanover in its emigration from Germany to
England."
Having thus given the " little brute" a bad name, he perti-
naciously hunts him through the two volumes of his essays ;
nay, he does more, for, on account of his Whiggism, he is the
only wild animal banished for ever from Waterton Hall, that
happy home for all other fowls of the air and beasts of the field,
against which gamekeepers wage war as vermin. In Carpenter's
edition of Cuvier, however, an account is given of the brown
rat, or Surmulot, which, if true, entirely disposes of this pretty
account of his advent. We are there told that he originally
came from Persia, where he lives in burrows, and that he did
not set out on his travels until the year 1727, when an earth-
quake induced him to swim the "Volga and enter Europe by
way of Astrakan.* When once he had set foot in England, he
no doubt treated his weaker brother and predecessor, the black
* The history of the migrations of the rat is involved in doubt, and none
of the accounts can be relied on. Goldsmith bad been assured that the
Norway rat, as it is called, though it was quite unknown in that country
when it established itself in England, cjime to us from the coast of Ireland,
whither it had been carried in the ships that traded in provisions to
Gibraltar."
130 RATS.
rat, much as the Stuart dynasty was treated by the house of
Hanover. Though the black rat was not himself an usurper,
but rather an emigrant who took possession of an unoccupied
territory, his reign is also said by some to have been contem-
poraneous with an earlier change in the royal line of England,
for he is asserted to have come over in the train of the Con-
queror. He still abounds in Normandy, and to this day is
known in Wales under the name of Llyoden Ffancon — the
French mouse.
Rats are no exception to the law which, Wordsworth says,
prevails among " all the creatures of flood and field."
" The good old rule,
Sufficeth them — the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can."
But the black rat Las kept more than is commonly imagined.
Mr. Waterton is mistaken when he adopts the popular notion
that the old English breed which came in with the Conqueror
is almost totally annihilated by his brown cousin. The first
comer has no more been destroyed by the subsequent invader
than the Celt is annihilated by the triumphant Saxon. As we
find the former still holding their ground in Cornwall, Wales,
and the Highlands of Scotland, so we find the black rat flourish-
ing in certain localities. In the neighbourhood of the Tower,
in Whitbread's brewery, and in the Whitechapel sugar-refineries,
he still holds his own, and woe be to any brown trespasser who
ventures into his precincts. The weaker animal has learnt that
union is strength, and, acting in masses, they attack their
powerful foe as fearlessly as a flight of swallows does a hawk ;
but if an equal number of the two breeds are placed together
in a cage without food, the chances are that all the black rats
will have disappeared before morning, and, even though well
fed, the brown Brobdingnags invariably eat off the long and
delicate ears of their little brethren, just as a gourmand, after
a substantial meal, amuses his appetite with a wafer-biscuit.
The rapid spread of the rat is due to the fearlessness with
which he will follow man and his commissariat wherever he goes.
EATS. 131
Scarcely a ship leaves a port for a distant voyage but it takes in
its complement of rats as regularly as the passengers, and in
this manner the destructive little animal has not only distributed
himself over the entire globe, but, like an enterprising traveller,
continually passes from one country to another. The colony of
four-footed depredators, which ships itself free of expense, makes,
for instance, a voyage to Calcutta, whence many of the body
will again go to sea, and land perhaps at some uninhabited
island where the vessel may have touched for water. In this
manner many a hoary old wanderer has circumnavigated the
globe oftener than Captain Cook, and set his paws on twenty
different shores. The rat-catcher to the East-India Company
has often destroyed as many as five hundred in a ship newly
arrived from Calcutta. The genuine ship-rat is a more delicate
animal than the brown rat, and has so strong a resemblance to
the old Norman breed, that we cannot help thinking they are
intimately related. The same fine large ear, sharp nose, long
tail, dark fur, and small size, characterize both, and a like
antipathy exists between them and the Norwegian species. It
is by no means uncommon to find distinct colonies of the two
kinds in the same ship — the one confining itself to the stem, the
other to the stern of the vessel. The same arrangement is often
adopted in the warehouses of seaports, the ship's company
generally locating themselves as near the water as possible, and
the landsmen in the more inland portion of the building.
When rats have once found their way into a ship, they are
secure as long as the cargo is on board, provided they can com-
mand the great necessary — water. If this is well guarded, they
will resort to extraordinary expedients to procure it. In a
rainy night they will come on deck to drink, and will even
ascend the rigging to sip the moisture which lies in the folds of
the sails. YVhen reduced to extremities, they will attack the
spirit-casks and get so drunk that they are unable to walk
home. The land-rat will, in like manner, gnaw the metal tubes
which in public-houses lead from the spirit- store to the tap,
and is as convivial on these occasions as his nautical relation.
The entire race have a quick ear for running liquid, and they
K 2
132 EATS.
constantly eat into leaden pipes, and, much to their astonishment,
receive a douche-bath in consequence. It is without doubt the
difficulty of obtaining water which causes them in many cases
to desert the ship the moment she touches the shore. On such
occasions they get, if possible, dry-footed to land, which they
generally accomplish by passing in Indian file along the mooring-
rope, though, if no other passage is provided for them, they will
not hesitate to swim. In the same manner they board ships
from the shore, and so well are their invading habits known to
sailors, that it is common upon coming into port to fill up the
hawser holes, or else to run the mooring-cable through a broom,
the projecting twigs of which effectually stop the ingress of
these nautical quadrupeds. Their occupancy of the smaller
bird-breeding islands invariably ends in their driving away the
feathered inhabitants, for they plunder the nests of their eggs,
and devour the young. The puffins have in this way been
compelled to relinquish Puffin's Island, off the coast of Caer-
narvon.
The ship-rat must not be confounded with the water-rat,
which is an entirely different species. The latter partakes of
the habits of the beaver, and is somewhat like him in appearance.
He possesses the same bluff head and long fur, in which are
buried his diminutive ears. He dwells in holes in the banks of
rivers, which he constructs with a land and water entrance to
provide against destruction by the sudden rising of the stream.
This animal lives entirely upon vegetable food, which he will
now and then seek at some distance inland, and we suspect that
to him may be traced many of the devastations in the fruit and
vegetable gardens for which the poor sparrows get the blame.
"We have seen water-rats cross a wide meadow, climb the stalks
of the dwarf beans, and, after detaching the pods with their
teeth, shell their contents iu the most workmanlike manner.
They will mount vines and feed on the grapes ; and a friend
informs us that on one occasion he saw a water-rat go up a
ladder which was resting against a plum-tree, and attack the
fruit. If a garden is near the haunts of water-rats, it is neces-
sary to watch narrowly for the holes underneath the walls, for
RATS. 133
they will burrow under the foundation with all the vigour of
sappers and miners. Such is the cunning with which they drive
their shafts, that they will ascend beneath a stack of wood, a
heap of stones, or any other object which, will conceal the
passage by which they obtain an entrance. The water-rat is,
however, a rare animal compared with its first-cousin, the
common brown or Norway rat, which is likewise, as Lord Bacon
says of the ant, "a shrewd thing in a garden." They select,
according to Cobbett, the prime of the dessert — melons, straw-
berries, grapes, and wall-fruit ; and though they do but taste of
each, it is not, as he remarks, very pleasant to eat after them.
Not many years since they existed in millions in the drains and
sewers of the metropolis. Several causes have been in operation
to diminish their numbers, and in some quarters of the town
almost wholly to extinguish them. In the first place, the me-
thod of flushing the sewers lately adopted is exceedingly fatal
to them. When the sluices are opened, go they must with the
rush of waters, and they may be seen shot out by hundreds from
the mouths of the culverts in the Thames. The fact that rats
are worth three shillings a dozen for sporting purposes proves,
however, the most certain means of their destruction, for it
insures their ceaseless pursuit by the great hunter, man. The
underground city of sewers becomes one vast hunting-ground,
in which men regularly gain a livelihood by capturing them.
Before entering the subterraneous world, the associates generally
plan what routes they will take, and at what point they will
meet, possibly with the idea of driving their prey towards a
central spot. They go in couples, each man carrying a lighted
candle with a tin reflector, a bag, a sieve, and a spade ; the spade
and sieve being used for examining any deposit which promises
to contain some article of value. The moment the rat sees the
light, he runs along the sides of the drain just above the line of
the sewage water ; the men follow, and speedily overtake the
winded animal, which no sooner finds his pursuers gaining upon
him, than he sets up a shrill squeak, in the midst of which he is
seized with the bare hand behind the ears, and deposited in the
bag. In this manner a dozen will sometimes be captured in as
134 EATS.
many minutes. When driven to bay at the end of a blind
sewer, they will often fly at the boots of their pursuers in a
most determined manner.
The favourite stronghold of the rat is that portion of the
house-drain which opens at right angles into the main sewer.
Here he sits like a sentinel, and in security watches with his
keen but astonished eyes the extraordinary apparition running
with a light. It is a remarkable fact that most untrapped
house-drains are inhabited by their own particular rats, and
woe be to the intruder who ventures to interfere with those in
possession. The rat as well as the cat may thus be classed
among the domestic animals of the household, who acts as a
kind of preventive puss in keeping out the whole underground
community of vermin, which otherwise would have the run of
our basements.
These vermin congregate thickest in the neighbourhood of
slaughter-houses, or, in other words, where food is most plenti-
ful. They are frequently found sitting in clusters on the ledge
formed by the invert of the sewers. As the scavengers of
drains, they undoubtedly do good service, but it is a poor set-
off for the mischief they perpetrate in destroying the brick-
work of the sewers — burrowing in every direction, and thus
constructing lateral cesspools, the contents of which permeate
the ground and filter into the wells. In making these excava-
tions, moreover, they invariably transfer the earth to the main
sewers, and form obstructions to the flow. The accumulations
of their paw-work have regularly to be removed in small trucks
constructed for the purpose, and if this precaution were not taken
they would in a few years entirely destroy the vast system of
subterranean culverts which have been laboriously constructed
at the expense of millions. The pipe-drains with smooth barrels,
which the rat's tooth cannot touch, alone baffle him ; indeed,
the rapid flow of water in their narrow channel prevents his
even retaining his footing in them. In revenge for thus being
circumvented, he has in many cases entirely ruined the newly-
laid channel of pipes by burrowing under them, and causing
them to dip and open at the joints.
EATS. 135
In France the sewer authorities hold an annual hunting-
match, on which occasion there is a grand capture of rats ; these
animals are not destined to afford sport to the "fancy" under
the tender manipulations of a dog "Billy;" on the contrary,
our neighbours have too much respect for the integrity of his
hide. We are informed that they have established a company
in Paris, upon the Hudson's Bay principle, to buy up all the
rats of the country for the sake of their skin. The soft nap of
the fur when dressed is of the most beautiful texture, far
exceeding in delicacy that of the beaver, and the hatters con-
sequently use it as a substitute. The hide is employed to
make the thumbs of the best gloves, its elasticity and texture
rendering it preferable to kid.
Parent Duchatelet collected several particulars of the rats
which in his day frequented the knackers' yards at Montfaucon.
Attracted by the abundance of animal food, they increased so
enormously that the surrounding inhabitants, hearing that the
government intended to remove these establishments, were
seized with apprehension lest the vermin, when deprived of
their larder, should spread through the neighbourhood, and,
like a flight of locusts, swallow up everything. The alarmists
may even have feared lest they should meet with a similar fate
to that of the Archbishop of Mayence, who, if old chronicles
are to be believed, retired to a tower in one of the isles of the
Bhine to escape being devoured by a host of these creatures
whose appetites were set upon him, and who, pertinaciously
pursuing him to his retreat, succeeded in eating him up at last.
The report of the Commission instituted to inquire into the
circumstances of the Montfaucon case, showed that the appre-
hensions of serious damage were by no means unfounded.
" If the carcases of dead horses be thrown during the day in a corner,
the next morning they will be found stripped of their flesh. An old pro-
prietor of one of the slaughter-houses had a certain space of ground
entirely surrounded by walls, with holes only large enough for the ingress
and egress of rats. Within this inclosure he left the carcases of two or
three horses ; and when night came, he went quietly with his workmen,
stopped up the holes, and then entei-ed into the inclosure, with a stick in
one hand and a lighted torch in the other. The animals covered the ground
so thickly that a blow struck anywhere did execution. By repeating the
136 EATS.
process after intervals of a few days, he killed 16,050 rats in the space of
one month, and 2,650 in a single night. They have burrowed under all
the walls and buildings in the neighbourhood ; and it is only by such precau-
tions as putting broken glass bottles round the foundation of a house attached
to the establishment, that the proprietor is able to preserve it. All the neigh-
bouring fields are excavated by them ; and it is not unusual for the earth to
give way and leave these subterraneous works exposed. In severe frost,
when it becomes impossible to cut up the bodies of the horses, and when
the fragments of flesh are almost too hard for the rats to feed upon, they
enter the body and devour the flesh from the inside, so that, when the thaw
comes, the workmen find nothing below the skin but a skeleton, better
cleared of its flesh than if it had been done by the most skilful operator.
Their ferocity, as well as their voracity, surpasses anything that can be
imagined. M. Majendie placed a dozen rats in a box in order to try some
experiments; when he reached home and opened the box, there were but
three remaining ; these had devoured the rest, and had only left their bones
and tails."
"We have been informed that these rats regularly marched in
troops in search of water in the dusk of the evening, and that
they have often been met in single file stealing beside the walls
that lined the road to their drinking-place. As the pavement
in Paris overhangs the gutters, the rats take advantage of this
covered way to creep in safety from street to street. Their
migratory habits are well known, and every neighbourhood has
its tale of their travels. Mr. Jesse relates an anecdote, commu-
nicated to him by a Sussex clergyman, which tends to prove that
the old English rat at least shows a consideration and care for
its elders on the march which is worthy of human philanthropy.
" Walking out in some meadows one evening, he observed a great
number of rats migrating from one place to another. He stood
perfectly still, and the whole assemblage passed close to him.
His astonishment, however, was great when he saw amongst the
number an old blind rat, which held a piece of stick at one end
in its mouth, while another had hold of the other end of it, and
thus conducted its blind companion." x\. kindred circumstance
was witnessed in 1757 by Mr. Purdew, a surgeon's mate on
board the Lancaster. Lying awake one evening in his berth, he
saw a rat enter, look cautiously round, and retire. He soon
returned leading a second rat, who appeared to be blind, by the
ear. A third rat joined them shortly afterwards, and assisted
the original conductor in picking up fragments of biscuit and
placing them before their infirm parent, as the blind old patriarch
EATS. 137
was supposed to be. It is only when tormented by hunger that
they appear to lose their fellow-feeling and to prey upon one
another.
The sagacity of the rat in the pursuit of food is so great, that we
almost wonder at the small amount of its cerebral development.
Indeed, he is so cunning, and works occasionally with such
human ingenuity, that accounts which are perfectly correct are
sometimes received as mere fables. Incredible as the story may
appear of their removing hens' eggs by one fellow lying on his
back and grasping tightly his ovoid burden with his fore-paws,
whilst his comrades drag him away by the tail, we have no
reason to disbelieve it, knowing as we do that they will carry
eggs from the bottom to the top of a house, lifting them from
stair to stair, the first rat pushing them up on its hind and the
second lifting them with its fore legs. They will extract the
cotton from a flask of Florence oil, dipping in their long tails,
and repeating the manoeuvre until they have consumed every
drop. We have found lumps of sugar in deep drawers at a
distance of thirty feet from the place where the petty larceny
was committed : and a friend saw a rat mount a table on
which a drum of figs was placed, and straightway tip it over,
scattering its contents on the floor beneath, where a score of
his expectant brethren sat watching for the windfall. His
instinct is no less shown in the selection of suitable food. He
attacks the portion of the elephant's tusks that abounds with
animal oil, in preference to that which contains phosphate of
lime j and the rat-gnawn ivory is selected by the turner as fitted
for billiard-balls and other articles where the qualities of elas-
ticity and transparency are required. Thus, the tooth-print of
this little animal serves as a distinguishing mark of excellence
in a precious material devoted to the decorative arts. The rat
does not confine himself to inert substances : when he is hard
pressed for food, he will attack anything weaker than himself.
Frogs, Goldsmith says, had been introduced into Ireland some
considerable time before the brown rat, and had multiplied
abundantly, but they were pursued in their marshes by this
indefatigable hunter, and eaten clean from off the Emerald Isle.
1 38 EATS.
He does not scrapie to assault domestic poultry ; though a rat
which attempted to capture the chicken of a game-fowl was
killed by the mother with beak and spur in the course of twelve
minutes. The hen seized it by the neck, shook it violently, put
out an eye, and plainly showed that the fowl in a conflict would
be the more powerful of the two, if he was only equally daring.
The number of young ducks which the rats destroyed in the
Zoological Gardens rendered it necessary to surround the pools
with a wire rat-fencing, which half-way up has a pipe of wire-
work, the circle of which is not complete by several inches in
the under part, and the rat, unable to crawl along the concave
roof which stops his onward path, is compelled to return dis-
comfited.
The rats have been for a long time the pests of these gardens,
attracted by the presence of large quantities of food. The grating
under one of the tigers' dens is eaten through by this nimble-
toothed burglar, who makes as light of copper wire as of leaden
pipes. Immediately upon the construction of the new monkey-
house, they took possession, and eat through the floors in every
direction to get at poor Jacko's bread. Vigorous measures were
taken to exclude them ; the floors were filled in with concrete,
and the open roof was ceiled ; but they quickly penetrated
through the plaster of the latter, as may be seen by the holes
to this day. They burrowed in the old inclosure of the wombat
till the ground was quite rotten ; and they still march about
the den of the rhinoceros and scamper over his impregnable
hide. It is only by constantly hunting them with terriers that
they can be kept down ; and as many as a hundred in a fort-
night are often despatched, their carcases being handed over to
the vultures and eagles. Many of them seek in the daytime a
securer retreat. They have frequently been seen at evening
swimming in companies across the canal to forage in the gar-
dens through the night, and in the morning they returned to
their permanent quarters by the same route.
The proprietors of the bonded-wheat warehouses on the banks
of the Thames are forced to take the utmost precautions against
the entrance of these depredators ; otherwise, they would troop
RATS. 139
in myriads from the sewers and waterside premises, and, as they
are undoubtedly in the habit of communicating among their
friends the whereabouts of any extraordinary supplies, they
would go on increasing day by day as the report of the good
news spread through rat-land. To repel their attentions, the
wooden floors and the under parts of the doors of the granaries
are lined with sheet-iron, and the foundations are sometimes set
in concrete mixed with glass — matters too hard for even their
teeth to discuss.
Country rats in the summer take to the fields, and create
enormous havoc among the standing corn. They nibble off the
ears of wheat, and carry them to their runs and burrows, where
large stores have been found hoarded up with all the forethought
of the dormouse. Farmers are often puzzled to account for the
presence of rats in wheat stacks which have been placed upon
the most cunningly-contrived stands. The fact is, these animals
are tossed up with the sheaves to the rick, where they increase
and multiply at their leisure, and frequently to such an extent,
that a rick, seeming fair on the outside, is little better than a
huge rat-pie.
The propensity of the rat to gnaw must not be attributed
altogether to a reckless determination to overcome impedi-
ments. The never-ceasing action of his teeth is not a pastime,
but a necessity of his existence. The writer of an interesting
paper on rats in Bentleys Miscellany has explained so clearly the
dentistry of the tribe, that we extract his account : —
" The rat bas formidable weapons in the shape of four small, long, and
very sharp teeth, two of which are in the upper and two in the lower jaw.
These are formed in the shape of a wedge, and by the following wonderful
provision of nature have always a fine, sharp, cutting edge. On examining
them carefully, we find that the inner part is of a soft, ivory-like composi-
tion, which may be easily worn away, whereas the outside is composed of a
glass-like enamel, which is excessively hard. The upper teeth work exactly
into the under, so that the centres of the opposed teeth meet exactly in the
act of gnawing ; the soft part is thus being perpetually worn away, while the
hard part keeps a sharp, chisel-like edge ; at the same time the teeth grow
up from the bottom, so that as they wear away a fresh supply is ready.
The consequence of this arrangement is, that, if one of the teeth be removed,
either by accident or on purpose, the opposed tooth will continue to grow
upwards, and, as there is nothing to grind them away, will project from
the mouth and turn upon itself ; or, if it be an under-tooth, it will even
140 EATS.
run into the skull above. There is a preparation in the museum of the
Royal College of Surgeons which well illustrates this fact. It is an incisor
tooth of a rat, which, from the cause above mentioned, has increased its
growth upwards to such a degree, that it has formed a complete circle and
a segment of another ; the diameter of it is about large enough to admit a
good-sized thumb. It is accompanied by the following memorandum,
addressed by a Spanish priest to Sir J. Banks, who presented it to the
Museum : ' I send you an extraordinary tooth of a rat. Believe me, it
was found in the Nazareth garden (to which order I belong). I was pre-
sent when the animal was killed, and took the tooth ; I know not its virtues,
nor have the natives discovered them.'"
We once saw a newly-killed rat to whom this misfortune had
occurred. The tooth, which was an upper one, had in this case
also formed a complete circle, and the point in winding round
had passed through the lip of the animal. Thus the ceaseless
working of the rat's incisors against some hard substance is
necessary to keep them down, and if he did not gnaw for his
subsistence, he would be compelled to gnaw to prevent his jaw
being gradually locked by their rapid development.
The destructive nature of the rat, the extraordinary manner
in which he multiplies, and his perpetual presence — for where
there is a chink that he can fill, and food for him to eat, there
he will be, notwithstanding that a long line of ancestors have
one after another been destroyed on the spot* — necessitates
some counteracting influence to keep him within due bounds.
This is doue by making him the prey of hunting-animals and
reptiles, beginning with man, and running down the chain of
organized life to the gliding snake. The poor rat, although he
doubtless does service as a scavenger, and must have his use
in fulfilling some essential purpose of creation, finds favour no-
where : every man's hand, nearly every feline paw, and many
birds' beaks are against him. The world thinks of him, as of
the pauper boy in " Oliver Twist," — " Hit him hard ; he ain't
a'got no friends." Dwelling in the midst of alarms, he might
be supposed to pass an uneasy and nervous existence. But it
is nothing of the kind. The same Providence which has fur-
* When the atmospheric railway to Epsom was at work, the rats came
for the grease which was used to make the endless leather valve, which ran
on the top of the suction-pipe, air-tight. Some of them entered the tube,
from which they were sucked with every passing train ; nevertheless, day
by day, others were immolated in the same manner.
RATS. 141
nished him with the teeth suitable to the work they have to
perform, has endowed him with the feelings proper to his lot ;
and no animal, if he be watched from a distance, appears more
happy and complacent. In danger he preserves a wonderful
presence of mind, and acts upon the principle that while there
is life there is hope. His cunning on such occasions is often
remarkable, and evinces a reasoning power of no contemptible
order : —
"A traveller in Ceylon," says Mrs. Lee, in her entertaining" Anecdotes
of Animals," "saw his dogs set upon a rat, and, making them relinquish it,
he took it up by the tail, the dogs leaping after it the whole time. He
carried it into his dining-room, to examine it by the light of the lamp,
during the whole of which period it remained as if it were dead, — limbs
hanging, and not a muscle moving. After five minutes he threw it among
the dogs, who were still in a state of great excitement, and, to the astonish-
ment of all present, it suddenly jumped upon its legs, and ran away so fast
that it baffled all its pursuers."
The sagacity of the rat in eluding danger is not less than
his craftiness in dealing with it when it comes. A gentleman,
Mr. Jesse relates, who fed his own pointers, observed through
a hole in the door a number of rats eating from the trough
with his dogs, who did not attempt to molest them. Resolving
to shoot the intruders, he next day put the food, but kept out
the dogs. Not a rat came to taste. He saw them peering from
their holes, but they were too well versed in human nature to
venture forth without the protection of their canine guard.
After half an hour the pointers were let in, when the rats
forthwith joined their hosts, and dined with them as usual. If
it comes to the worst, and the rat is driven to bay, he will fight
with admirable resolution. A good-sized sewer-rat has been
known to daunt for a moment the most courageous bull-terrier,
advancing towards him with tail erect, and inflicting wounds of
the most desperate nature. The bite of any rat is severe, and
that of a sewer-rat so highly dangerous, that valuable dogs are
rarely allowed by their masters to fight them. The garbage on
which they live poisons their teeth, and renders the wounds
they make deadly. Even with his great natural enemy and
superior, the ferret, he will sometimes get the advantage by his
steady bravery and the superiority of his tactics. Mr. Jesse
112 ^ts-
describes an encounter of the kind, the circumstances of which
were related to him by a medical gentleman at Kingston : —
" Being greatly surprised that the ferret, an animal of such slow loco-
motive powers, should be so destructive to the rat tribe, he determined to
bring both these animals fairly into the arena, in order to judge of their
respective powers ; and having selected a fine large and full-grown male rat
and also au equally strong buck ferret, which had been accustomed to hunt
rats, my friend, accompanied by his son, turned these two animals loose in
a room wdthout furniture, in which there was but one window. Imme-
diately upon being liberated, the rat ran round the room as if searching for
an exit. Xot finding any means of escape, he uttered a piercing shriek,
and with the most prompt decision took up his station directly under the
light, thus gaining over his adversary (to use the language of other duel-
lists) the advantage of the sun. The ferret now erected his head, sniffed
about, and began fearlessly to push his way towards the spot where the
scent of his game was strongest, facing the light in full front, and preparing
himself with avidity to seize upon his prey. No sooner, however, had he
approached within tw T o feet of his watchful foe, than the rat, again uttering
a loud cry, rushed at him with violence, and inflicted a severe wound on
the head and neck, which was soon shown by the blood which flowed from
it ; the ferret seemed astonished at the attack, and retreated with evident
discomfiture ; while the rat, instead of following up the advantage he had
gained, instantly withdrew to his former station under the window. The
ferret soon recovered the shock he had sustained, and, erecting his head,
once more took the field. This second rencontre was in all its progress
and results an exact repetition of the former — with this exception, that, on
the rush of the rat to the conflict, the ferret appeared more collected, and
evidently showed an inclination to get a firm hold of his enemy ; the
strength of the rat, however, was very great, and he again succeeded not
only in avoiding the deadly embrace of the ferret, but also in inflicting
another severe wound on his neck and head. The rat a second time
returned to his retreat under the window, and the ferret seemed less anxious
to renew the conflict. These attacks were resumed at intervals for nearly
two hours, all ending in the failure of the ferret, who was evidently right-
ing to a disadvantage from the light falling full on his eye whenever he
approached the rat, who wisely kept his ground and never for a moment
lust sight of the advantage he had gained. In order to prove whether the
choice of this position depended upon accident, my friend managed to dis-
lodge the rat, and took his own station under the window ; but the mument
the ferret attempted to make his approach, the rat, evidently aware of the
advantage he had lost, endeavoured to creep between my friend's legs,
thus losing his natural fear of man under the danger which awaited him
from his more deadly foe."
Driven -from his defensive position, the rat continued bis
attacks, but with an evident loss of courage, and the ferret
ultimately came to the death-grapple with his crafty antagonist.
A similar battle was witnessed by a friend, with the difference
that the rat, being undisturbed in his advantageous position
with regard to the light, finally beat off the ferret, which wiu>
RATS, 143
absolutely bitten into shreds over the head and muzzle. The
repetition of the same conduct by a second animal shows that
this particular species of cunning is a general faculty of the
tribe. The main superiority of the ferret is in his retaining his
hold when once he has fastened on his prey, sucking his life's
blood the while; whereas the rat fights by a succession of single
bites, which wound but do not destroy. The snake prevails by
his venom. Mrs. Lee relates the particulars of a combat in
Africa, in which rat and snake repeatedly closed and bit at one
another, separating after each assault, and gathering up strength
for a fresh attack. At length the rat fell, foamed at the mouth,
swelled to a great size, and died in a few minutes.*
If he can be savage when self- protection requires, he also has
his softer moments, in which he shows confidence in man almost
as strong as that exhibited by the dog or cat. An old blind
rat, on whose head the snows of many winters had gathered,
was in the habit of sitting beside our own kitchen fire, with all
the comfortable look of his enemy, the cat ; and such a favourite
had he become with the servants, that he was never allowed
to be disturbed. He unhappily fell a victim to the sudden
spring of a strange cat. A close observation of these animals
entirely conquers the antipathy which is entertained towards
them. Their sharp and handsome heads, their bright eyes,
their intelligent look, their sleek skins, are the very reverse of
repulsive ; and there is positive attraction in the beautiful
manner in which they sit licking their paws and washing their
faces — an occupation in which they pass a considerable portion
of their time. The writer on rats in Bentleys Miscellany
relates an anecdote of a tame rat, which shows that he is
capable of serving his master as well as of passing a passive
* A native in India, observing one day a rat run across the floor,
stooped to look after it. While in this position he suddenly felt something
tugging him back by his hair, and on putting up his hand found a large
cobra struggling to free his teeth from his locks. The reptile had also
observed the rat, and had dropped from the roof, when the peon suddenly
interposed his person between the hunter and his prey. The snake and
the rat escaped ; but the magistrate of the district having ordered the
house to be pulled down the next day, the cobra was found with the rat
half digested in his stomach.
144 RATS.
existence under his protection. The animal belonged to the
driver of a London omnibus, who caught him as he was re-
moving some hay. He was spared because he had the good
luck to be piebald, became remarkably tame, and grew attached
to the children. At night he exhibited a sense of the enjoy-
ment of security and warmth, by stretching himself out at full
length on the rug before the fire ; and on cold nights, after the
fire was extinguished, he would creep into his master's bed. In
the daytime, however, his owner utilized him. At the word of
command, " Come along, Ikey," he would jump into the ample
great-coat pocket, from which he was transferred to the boot of
the omnibus. Here his business was to guard the driver's,
dinner ; and if any person attempted to make free with it, the
rat would fly at them from out the straw. There was one dish
alone of which he was an inefficient protector. He could never
resist plum-pudding ; and though he kept off all other in-
truders, he ate his fill of it himself. These are by no means
extraordinary instances of the amiable side of rat nature when
kindly treated by man, and we could fill pages with similar
relations. But it seems, in addition to his other merits, that
he possesses dramatic genius. We have heard of military fleas,
we Lave seen Jacko perform his miserable imitation of hu-
manity on the top of a barrel-organ ; but who ever heard of a
rat's turn for tragedy 1 Nevertheless, a Belgian newspaper not
long since published an account of a theatrical performance by
a trooj) of rats, which gives us a higher idea of their intellec-
tual nature than anything else which is recorded of them.
This novel company of players were dressed in the garb of men
and women, walked on their hind legs, and mimicked with
ludicrous exactness many of the ordinary stage effects. On one
point only were they intractable. Like the young lady in the
fable, who turned to a cat the moment a mouse appeared, they
forgot their parts, their audience, and their manager, at the
sight of the viands which were introduced in the course of the
j)iece; and, dropping on all- fours, fell to with the native voracity
of their race. The performance was concluded by their hanging
in triumph their enemy the cat, and dancing round her body.
EATS. 145
The rat, as we have said, has many enemies ; the weazel, the
pole-cat, the otter, the dog, the cat, and the snake hunt him
remorselessly all over the world. Man, however, is his most
relentless and destructive enemy. In some places he is killed
for food, as in China, where dried split rats are sold as a dainty.
The chi ffonniers oiTavis feed on them without reluctance. Nor
is rat-pie altogether obsolete in our own country. The gipsies
continue to eat such as are caught in stacks and barns, and a
distinguished surgeon of our time frequently had them served
up at his table. They feed chiefly upon grain ; and it is merely
the repulsive idea which attaches to this animal under every
form that causes it to be rejected by the same man who esteems
the lobster, the crab, and the shrimp a delicacy, although, he
knows that they are the scavengers of the sea. They were not
always so nice in the navy. An old captain in her Majesty's
service informs us that on one occasion, when returning from
India, the vessel was infested with rats, which made great
ravages among the biscuit. Jack, to compensate for his lost
provisions, had all the spoilers he could kill, put into pies, and
considered them an extraordinary delicacy. At the siege of
Malta, when the French were hard pressed, rats fetched a dollar
apiece ; but the famished garrison marked their sense of the
excellence of those which were delicately fed by offering a
double price for every one caught in a granary. Man directs
his hostility against the rat, however, chiefly because he con-
siders him a nuisance ; and the gin and poison, cold iron and
the bowl, a dismal alternative, are accordingly presented to
him. With the former he is not so easily caught, and will never
enter a trap or touch a gin in which any of his kind have
fretted and rubbed. Poison is a more effectual method, but it
is not always safe. Rats which have been beguiled into par-
taking of arsenic instantly make for the water to quench their
intolerable thirst, and, though they usually withdraw from the
house, they may resort in their agony to an in-door cistern, and
remain there to pollute it.* The writer who calls himself
* A single dead rat beneath, a floor will render a room uninhabitable.
A financier, of European celebrity, found his drawing-room intolerable. lie
L
145 EATS.
" Uncle James," and who, for a reason that will shortly appear,
is exceedingly anxious to impress the public with the belief
that the best mode of getting rid of the rat is to hunt him
"with terriers, states that a dairy-farmer in Limerick poisoned
his calves and pigs by giving them the shim milk at which rats
had drunk when under the pangs produced by arsenic. One
mode of clearing them out of a house is either to singe the hair
of a devoted rat, or else to dip his hind-quarters into tar, and
then turn him loose, when the whole community will take their
leave for a while. But this is only a temporary expedient, and
in the interim the offenders are left to multiply, and perchance
transfer their ravages to another part of the domain where
they are equally mischievous. The same objection applies to
the remedy of pounding the common dog's-tongue, when
gathered in full sap, and laying it in their haunts. They
retire only to return. The Germans turn the rat himself into
a police-officer to warn off his burglarious brethren. Dr. Shaw,
in his General Zoology, states that a gentleman who travelled
through Mecklenburg about thirty years ago saw one at a post-
house with a bell about its neck, which the landlord assured
him had frightened away the whole of the " whiskered vermin"
which previously infested the place. Mr. Neele says that at
Bangkok, the Siamese capital, the people are in the habit of
keeping tame rats, which walk about the room, and crawl up
the legs of the inmates, who pet them as they would a dog.
They are caught young, and, attaining a monstrous size by
good feeding, take the place of our cats, and entirely free the
house of their own kind. But the most effectual and in the
end the cheapest remedy is an expert rat-catcher. Cunning as
an experienced old rat becomes, he is invariably checkmated
when man fairly tries a game of skill with him. The well-
trained professor of the art, who by long habit has grown
familiar with his adversary's haunts and tactics, his hopes and
supposed that the drains were out of order, and went to a great expense to
remedy the evil. The annoyance continued, and a ratcatcher guessed the
cause of the mischief. On pulling up the boards, a dead rat was discovered
near the bell-wire. The bell had been rung as ha was passing, and the
crank had caught and strangled him.
RATS. 147
fears, his partialities and antipathies, will clear out a house or a
farmyard, where a novice would merely catch a few unwary
adventurers and put the rest upon their guard. The majority
of the world have, happily for themselves, a better office, and-
the regular practitioner might justly address the amateur in
much the same words that the musician employed to Frederick
the Great, when the royal flute-player was expecting to be
complimented on his performance : " It would be a discredit to
your Majesty to play as well as I."
" Uncle James," however, is of a different opinion. This author
considers that every man should be his own rat-catcher, which
he evidently believes to be the most improving,, dignified, and
fascinating calling under the sun, as he considers rats themselves
to be the crying evil of the day, second only in his estimation
to the grand injustice of the old corn-law. Indeed, we cannot
see from his own premises how the evil can be second to any-
great destructive principle, earthquakes included. He takes a
single pair of rats, and proves satisfactorily that in three years,
if undisturbed, they will have thirteen litters of eight each at a
birth, and that the young will begin littering again when six
months old ; by this calculation he increases the original pair at
the end of three years to six hundred and fifty-six thousand
eight hundred and eight. Calculating that ten rats eat as much
in one day as a man, which we think is rather under than over
the fact, the consumption of these rats would be equal " to that
of sixty-four thousand six hundred and eight men the year
round, and leave eight rats in the year to spare." Now, if a
couple of rats could occasion such devastation in three years
after the original pair marched out of the ark, how comes it
that the descendants of the myriads which ages ago co-existed
among us have not eaten up the earth and the fullness thereof?
Uncle James conveniently forgets that animals do not multiply
according to arithmetical progression, but simply in proportion
to the food provided for them. He must not, however, be
expected to be wiser than Mai thus on the subject of animal
reproduction, and he has the additional incentive to error, that
he evidently paints up his horrors for an artful purpose. There
l 2
148 EATS.
can be no sort of doubt that he has several well-bred terriers to
dispose of, and hence the following panacea for all the evils
which afflict society.
"A dog, to be of sound service, ought to be of sis to thirteen pounds
•weight ; over that they become too unwieldy. I would also recommend,
above all others, the London rat-killing terrier : he is as hard as steel,
courageous as a lion, and as handsome as a racehorse ! — [Uncle James is a
Londoner, of course.] Let the farmers in each parish meet and pass reso-
lutions calling upon their representatives in parliament to take the tax off
rat-killing dogs. Let them devise plans for procuring some well-bred
terriers and ferrets, and spread the young ones about among their men.
Let there be a reward offered of so much per head for dead rats, and let
there be one person in each parish appointed to pay for the same. Eats
are valuable for manure ; let there be a pit in each locality, and let this
man stick up an announcement every week, in some conspicuous place, as
to the number of rats killed, and by whom. Then, what will be the result ?
Why, a spirit of emulation will rise up among the villagers, and they
will be ransacking every hole and corner for rats. Thus will a tone of
cheerful enterprise, activity, and pleasantry come in among them, 'with a
fund of conversation ;' and instead of that crawling, dogged monotony
which characterizes their general gait and manner, they will meet their
employers and go to their labour with joyous steps and smiling coun-
tenances."
The coming man, so long expected, is it seems the rat-catcher.
Here is manure multiplied, agriculture improved, food hus-
banded, a smiling, enlightened, and conversible peasantry —
and all the result of rat-catching. But a difficulty has been
overlooked. When the entire population is converted into rat-
catchers, rats must shortly, like the dodo, be extinct. For a
while we shall become an exporting country, but this resource
must fail us at last, and England's glory will expire with its
rats. Then once more we shall have a sullen, silent, discon-
tented peasantry; " their fund of conversation" will be exhausted,
or at best the villagers will be reduced to talk with a sigh of the
golden age, never to be renewed, when the country enjoyed the
unspeakable blessing of rat-catching. In short, we fear that
Uncle James has been so exclusively devoted to the science of
rat-catching, that he has neglected to cultivate the inferior art
of reasoning ; but, interested as we suspect it to be, we join in his
commendation of the virtues of the terrier. The expedition
with which a clever dog will put his victims out of their misery
is such that a terrier not four pounds in weight has killed four
EATS. 149
hundred rats within two hours. By this we may estimate the
destruction dealt to the race by that nimble animal, " hard as
steel, courageous as a lion, and handsome as a race-horse." A
custom has sprung up within the last twenty years of watching
these dogs worry rats in a pit, and there are private arenas of
the kind where our fair countrywomen, leaning over the
cushioned circle, will witness with admiration the cleverness of
their husbands' or brothers' terriers. " Uncle James" might
commend their taste, and think the sport calculated to furnish
them with " a fund of conversation, and a spirit of cheerful enter-
prise and pleasantry ; " but except the fact had proved it to be
otherwise, we should have supposed that there was not an
educated man in Great Britain who would not have been
shocked at this novel propensity of English ladies.
LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
Horace "Walpole, whose pen has graven so deeply the social
characteristics of his age, in describing to his friend Mann the
terrors excited by the Lord George Gordon mob, says " they
threaten to let the lions out of the Tower, and the madmen out
of Bedlam." In this short sentence we have a clear view of the
opinion which our forefathers entertained of lunatics — an opinion
which the pictures of Hogarth's Madhouse Cells have impressed
on the popular mind even to this day. And in truth it is not
fifty years since the state of things which now exists only in
the imagination of the ignorant, was both general and approved.
The interior of Bethlehem at that date could furnish pictures
more terrible than Hogarth ever conceived. It is not our
purpose, however, to dwell upon these horrors of former days.
Through the instrumentality of the late Samuel Tuke, of York,
Gardner Hill, Charlesworth, Winslow, and Conolly, of London,
the old method of treatment, with its whips, chains, and mana-
cles, has passed away for ever ; and as a true emblem of the
revolution which has taken place, we may mention that some
years since a governor, in passing through the laundry of Beth-
lehem, perceived a wrist-manacle, which had been converted by
one of the women into a stand for a flat iron !
In spite of the ameliorations in the condition of the insane,
many among the higher, and nearly all among the lower classes,
still look upon the County Asylum as the Bluebeard's cupboard
of the neighbourhood. These unfounded ideas act as a powerful
drawback to the successful treatment of insanity, for as the
vast majority of cures are effected within three months of the
original attack, whatever deters the friends of the patient from
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 151
bringing him under regimen at the earliest possible moment,
probably ensures the perpetuation of the disease. We can well
imagine the undefined awe and tribulation of spirit with which
the unhappy creatures who are stricken in mind enter the
gates of an abode in which they are supposed to be given over
to a durance worse than death ; but so mistaken is the im-
pression, that the feelings of desperation are almost immediately
succeeded by the inspiriting dawnings of hope. The furious
maniac who arrives at Colney Hatch or Hanwell in a cart, or a
hand-barrow, bound with ropes like a frantic animal, the terror
of his friends and himself, is no sooner within the building which
imagination invests with such terrors, than half his miseries
cease. The ropes cut, he stands up once more free from
restraint, kind words are spoken to him, he is soothed by a
bath, and, if still violent, the padded room, which offers no
aggravating mechanical or personal resistance, calms his fury,
and sleep, which has so long been a stranger to him, visits him
the first night which he spends in the dreaded asylum. An old
lady — a relapsed patient — whose silver locks hung dishevelled
on her shoulders, was, when we visited Hanwell, waiting in a cab
in a state of the wildest excitement. Immediately she was
admitted, and recognised the faces of the nurses who had
formerly been kind to her, her whole countenance changed.
" What, you Burke and you Thomson again !" she exclaimed,
delighted at renewing former friendships \ and settling herself
down peaceably in the ward, she appeared as comfortable as at
her own fireside.
irSot only have the old methods of treatment been abandoned,
but many changes have been made to render the houses for the
insane less repulsive to the eye. Thousands of pounds have
been spent in replacing the dungeon-like apertures (often with-
out glass) with light-framed windows, undarkened by dismal
bars ; the gratings have been removed from the fireplaces ; and
that all the other associations may be in harmony with the
improved appearance of the building, the harsh title of keeper
has given place to that of attendant, and the madhouse has
become the asylum. In the old plan, the entire treatment
152 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
seemed to consist in secluding the patient from every sight
which renders life sweet, and in wrenching him violently from
all the conditions which formerly surrounded him ; the new
idea is to bring within the walls as much of the outside world
as possible. Here the artisan finds employment in various
handicrafts, the agricultural labourer renews his commerce with
the soil, and the female plies her needle or pursues her accus-
tomed occupations in the laundry or the kitchen. Amusement
takes its turn, and those who travel by the Great Western
train on winter evenings are surprised to see the lights stream-
ing from the great hall of Hanwell, and to hear perchance the
sounds of music. These issue from the ball-room of the estab-
> lishment ! In place of the dark dungeon, the bonds and the
blows which once added outward to inward woe, the inmates
are realising the poetic picture of Gray, —
" With antic Sport and blue-eyed Pleasures,
Frisking light in frolic measures ;
Now pursuing, now retreating,
Now in circling troops they meet :
To brisk notes in cadence beating
Glance their inany-twinkling feet."
Mental aberration is not of necessity the bane o± mental
enjoyment. There are many sweets by which its bitterness
may be diluted and diminished, though our ancestors were so
ignorant of the fact, as to believe that the best thing to be
done for a mind o'erthrown was to pour vinegar to gall.
Dr. Conolly,in his lately-published volume on "The Treatment
of the Insane without Mechanical Restraint," looks upon the
banishment of the strait-waistcoat with a just pride, for to him
we owe the abolition of the last mechanical means of coercing
temporary violence ; but we cannot participate in his fear that
the selfishness and ignorance of human nature will ever be able
to restore the gloomy reign which has at last been brought to a
close. We can no more go back to the days of hobbles and
handcuffs, chains and stripes, than we can go back to the days
of the rack and thumbscrew. We may have, it is true, lament-
able exposures, such as took place at Bethlehem in 1851, but
the depth of the public outcry, and the promptness with which
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 153
the irregularities were remedied, is of itself an evidence that
general opinion will prove the corrective of occasional abuses.
Nor can we, from a fancied apprehension of the return to
obsolete practices, join in the fanaticism which forbids the use
of the strait-jacket as a means of coercion under all circum-
stances. There can be no doubt that the treatment which
requires its frequent use is a bad one ; but to deny that there
are cases which call for its restraints would be to deny the
evidence of our senses. Mr. Wilkes, the late medical officer to
the Stafford County Lunatic Asylum, and now Commissioner
in Lunacy, in answer to a series of questions issued by the
Commissioners on Lunacy upon the subject, makes the following
remarks : —
"With every disposition to advocate the disuse of restraint to the
utmost extent, I am compelled to admit that the result of my experience
in this asylum, up to the present time, leads me to the conclusion that
cases may occur in which its temporary employment may be both necessary
and justifiable. Besides the occasional use of some means of confining the
hands when feeding patients by means of the stomach-pump, a more pro-
longed use of restraint was necessary in two cases which occurred some
years since. One of these was a man of so determined a suicidal disposi-
tion, that on more than one occasion he nearly effected his purpose by
trying to beat his head and face against the walls, to throw himself from
tables and" chairs, and thrust spoons and other articles down his throat.
When first admitted, he was not suspected of having any suicidal tendency,
and for some weeks did not show any ; as a matter of precaution he slept
in a padded room, and one night he so battered his head with a tin vessel
that he was found nearly dead from loss of bood, and his life was subse-
quently in much danger from extensive sloughing of the scalp. In this
case it was absolutely necessary to confine the hands to keep any dressings
on the head, and after the wounds had healed, and the confinement of the
hands had been discontinued, he wore a thickly-padded cap for many
months. Several years after this, he bit both his little fingers off; and
though the suicidal disposition has in a great measure subsided, he is still
at times much excited, but does not require any restraint. The second
case was one of acute mania. A powerful young man refused all food
under the impression that it was poisoned, and imagined that everyone
who went near him intended to murder him. Every inducement to get
him to take food was in vain, and though a sufficient body of attendants,
under my own inspection, attempted to do what was necessary for him,
he became so much bruised in holding him in his struggles to assail the
attendants, when it was urgently requisite that food should be administered
into the stomach, that I decided upon confining his hands, and both food
and medicine were then readily administered. The result certainly justified
the means employed, as the excitement subsided, and he soon recovered."
So much for the experience of the medical attendant of a
154 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
public asylum ; now let us hear the testimony of Dr. Forbes
"Win slow, whose experience in his private asylum, Sussex House,
Hammersmith, has been as great perhaps as that of any man,
since he has lived with his family for ten years in the very
midst of his patients, and who is surpassed by no one in his
enlightened and gentle treatment of the insane.
"Patients," he says, in his Eeport to the Commissioners, " have of ten
expressed a wish to be placed n rider mechanical restraint, should I. in my
judgment, believe that they would, when much excited, commit overt acts
of violence, and be dangerous to themselves and others. In cases like
these, mechanical restraint may for a short period be applied, not only
without detriment, but with positive advantage as a curative process.
Several instances relative of this fact have come under my observation. I
have seen cases where no food or medicine could be administered without
subjecting the patient to restraint. In these cases, if all idea of cure had
been abandoned, and I could have reconciled it to my conscience to allow
the disease to take its uninterrupted course, and have permitted the
patient to exist upon the minimum amount of nutriment, and take no
medicioe, all restraint might easily be dispensed with ; but considering the
cure of my patient paramount to every other consideration, I had no
hesitation as to the humane and right mode of procedure."
In a case which came under our knowledge, a patient
imagined that the text, " If thine eye offend thee pluck it out,"
was literally intended, and, after various attempts to comply
with the command, he succeeded in destroying the sight of one
orbit. Such instances are rare, but the medical man should at
all times be prepared to meet them, instead of folding his arms
and looking helplessly on whilst the mischief is being done,
through a craven fear of the n on -restraint cry. The strait-
waistcoat is certainly liable to great abuse, but less than the
padded room, which may be converted into a cruel means of
coercion in the hands of unwatched attendants.
There yet remains a vast amount of restraint, which is almost
as irritating, if not so strongly reprobated, as the implements
which bind the limbs of the suicidal or violent. Restraint is
only comparative. The strait-waistcoat is the narrowest zone
of confinement, and the padded room but a little wider. Next
to these comes the locked gallery for a class, then the encircling
high wall for the entire lunatic community ; and lastly, that
aerial barrier the parole, for those who can be trusted to go
beyond the asylum. The efforts of philanthropists will not.
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 155
we are convinced, cease, until all the methods of confinement,
down to the parole, are removed ; or at least so disguised as to
hinder their present irritating action upon the inmates. As
long as the chief ic^ea in connection with these establishments
is that they are receptacles for the detention of the insane, so
long perhaps the means taken to prevent flight will obtain ;
but when they are simply regarded as hospitals for the cure of
mental disease, we shall witness the abandonment of many
arrangements which are as barbarous and ineffectual as the
cruelties practised in the last century. The asylums where the
restraint is greatest are precisely those from which the largest
number of patients contrive to escape ; whereas, when restric-
tions of all kinds are abolished, as at the insane pauper colony
ot Gheel, in Belgium, but few persons ever attempt to get
away.
In former days the public were admitted to perambulate
Bedlam on the payment of twopence. A writer in the World
gives a narrative of a visit to it in Easter-week, 1753, when he
found there a hundred holiday-makers, who " were suffered un-
attended to run rioting up and down the wards, making sport
of the miserable inhabitants." Richardson, the novelist, had,
a few years earlier, depicted the scene in the assumed character
of a young lady from the country, describing to her friends the
sights of London.
"I have this afternoon been with ray cousins to gratify the odd curiosity
most people have to see Bethlehem, or Bedlam Hospital. A more affecting
sceue my eyes never beheld, I had the shock of seeing the late polite and
ingenious Mr. in one of these woful chambers. No sooner did I put
my face to the grate, but he leaped from his bed. and called me with
frightful fervency to come into his room. The surprise affected me pretty
much, and my confusion being observed by a crowd of strangers, I heard
it presently whispered that I was his sweetheart and the cause of his mis-
fortune. My cousin assured me that such fancies were frequent upon these
occasious ; but this accident drew so many eyes upon me as obliged me
soon to quit the place. I was much at a loss to account for the behaviour
of the generality of people who were looking at these miserable objects.
Instead of the concern I think unavoidable at such a sight, a sort of mirth
appeared on their countenances, and the distempered fancies of the
miserable patients provoked mirth and loud laughter in the unthinking
auditors ; and the many hideous roarings and wild motions of others
seemed equally entertaining to them. Nay, so shamefully inhuman were
some, among whom, I am sorry to say it, were several of my own sex, as
to endeavour to provoke the patients into rage to make them sport."
156 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
Supposed to be degraded to the level of beasts, as wild beasts
they were treated. Like them they were shut up in dens
littered with straw, exhibited for money, and made to growl
and roar for the diversion of the spectators who had paid their
fee. No wonder that Bedlam should have become a word of
fear ; no wonder that in popular estimation the bad odour of
centuries should still cling to its walls, and that the stranger,
tempted by curiosity to pass beneath the shadow of its dome,
should enter with sickening trepidation. But now, instead of
the howling madhouse his imagination may have painted it, he
sees prim galleries filled with orderly persons. Scenes of cheer-
fulness and content meet the eye of the visitor as he is con-
ducted along well-lit corridors, from which the bars and gratings
of old have vanished. He stops, surprised and delighted, to
look at the engravings of Landseer's pictures on the walls, or to
admire the busts upon the brackets ; he beholds tranquil
persons walking around him, or watches them feeding the birds
which abound in the aviaries fitted up in the depths of the
ample windows. Indeed the pet animals, such as rabbits,
squirrels, &c, with the verdant ferneries, render the conva-
lescent wards of this hospital more cheerful than any we have
seen in similar institutions. At intervals the monotony of the
long-drawn corridors is broken by ample-sized rooms carpeted
and furnished like the better class of dwellings. If we pass
along the female side of the hospital, we find the apartments
occupied by a score of busy workers, the majority of whom
appear to be gentlewomen. Every conceivable kind of needle-
work is dividing their attention with the young lady who reads
aloud " David Copperfield," or "Dred;" while beside the fire,
perhaps, an old lady with silver locks gives a touch of do-
mesticity to the scene, which we should little have expected to
meet within these walls. In traversing the male side, instead of
the workroom Ave find a library, in which the patients, reclining
upon the sofas or lolling in arm-chairs round the fire, beguile
the hours with books or the Illustrated News. Many a scholar,
the silver chord of whose brain jingles for the moment out ot
tune, here finds a congenial atmosphere, and such materials for
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 157
study as lie often could not obtain out-of-doors ; and here many
an artist, clergyman, officer, and broken-down gentleman, meets
with social converse, which the world does not dream could
exist in Bedlam.*
No cases of more than twelve months' standing are admitted
within the walls of Bedlam, and only ninety persons termed in-
curables are allowed to remain beyond that period. These
regulations exclude the idiotic and epileptic patients, who form,
such distressing groups in other establishments, and the interest
required to obtain admission into this amply endowed charity
ensures at the same time a much higher class of inmates. Clergy-
men, barristers, governesses, literary men, artists, and military
and naval officers make up the staple of the assembly. The
representatives of the lower orders are also present, but the
educated element prevails, and the tone of dress and manners is
vastly above that to be found in the pauper-swarming county
asylums. There is a ball on the first Monday in every month,
and the company that gathers in the crystal chamber at the
extreme end of the south wing would not disgrace in behaviour
and appearance any sane and well-bred community. The polka,
the waltz, and the mazurka, performed with grace and ease,
declare the social standing of the assembly ; and many a pedes-
trian who sees the dark silhouettes of the dancers as they whirl
across the light, is astonished at the festivities of the inmates.
In the summer evenings the spacious courts are crowded with
the patients, not gloomily walking between four dismal walls in
which the very air seemed placed under restraint, but enjoying
themselves in the bowling-green or in the skittle alley. The
garden is at hand for those who love the culture of flowers.
When we contrast the condition of the Bethlehem of fifty years
ago with the Bethlehem of to-day, we see at a glance what a
* In a comfortable little apartment, which looked quite domestic in
comparison with the workhouse wards of ordinary lunatic asylums, we saw,
on our last visit, a young musician playing on a violoncello to an admiring
audience. Touches of similar enjoyment continually meet the visitor,
lighting up the moral atmosphere of the building with a cheerfulness
totally at variance with his preconceived notions of this notorious mad-
house.
1(8 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
gulf has been leaped in half a century — a gulf on one side of
which we see man, like a demon, torturing his unfortunate
fellows, on the other like a ministering angel carrying out the
all-powerful law of love. Can this be the same Bethlehem
where, in 1808, Mr. Westerton, Mr. Calvert, and Mr. Wakefield
saw ten patients in the women's gallery, each fastened by one
arm or leg to the wall, with a length of chain that only allowed
them to stand up by their bench, and dressed in a filthy blanket
thrown poncho-like over their otherwise naked bodies? Can
this be the same institution in which poor Norris, like a fierce
hound in a kennel, was favoured with a long chain that passed
through the wall into the next room, and which, while permit-
ting him a little extra tether, enabled the keeper to haul him
up to the side of the cell when it was necessary to approach
him 1 But this indulgence did not last, and from the pages of
Esquirol we learn the infernal torture which was finally put
upon him.
"A stout iron ring was riveted round his neck, from which a short chain
passed to a ring made to slide upwards or downwards on an upright massive
iron bar, more than six feet high, inserted into the wall. Round his body
a strong iron bar, about two inches wide, was riveted ; on each side of the
bar was a circular projection, which, being fastened to and enclosing each
of his arms, pinioned them close to his side."
In this position, in which he could only stand upright or lie
upon his back, he lived for twelve years ! But in nothing,
perhaps, is the contrast between the nast and the present more
apparent than in the two pictures presented by Dr. Hood, the
resident physician, from the case book of the Bethlehem Hos-
pital, which at once show the difference of treatment and the
different results which attended it.
"A. F., admitted into the Hos- " M. C, admitted into this Hos-
pital, February 6, 1808, aged 34. pital, Sept. 30, 1853, in a state of
This woman was born at Derby. violent raging excitement, depend-
At the age of 20 she came to London ing upon acute . mania. She had
to seek for service, but she soon been in this state three days previous
lost her character. The natural to her admission, and had wandered
violence of her disposition was in- about the streets in a comparatively
creased by her intemperance. She naked state, under the excitement
was the most turbulent of all the of religious enthusiasm. She was a
females that disturb the night about powerful, muscular woman ; and to
Fleet Market, and has been re- bring her to the Hospital it was neces-
LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
159
sary to impose upon her the restraint
of a strait-jacket. She screamed
violently all the way to the Hos-
pital, and used the most threatening
language, refusing to listen to any-
thing that was said to her, but when
tired of vociferating, contented her-
self with kicking and spitting at
those within her reach. On ad-
mission, the mechanical restraint
was removed ; she was ordered a
warm bath, and two grains of the
acetate of morphia, and afterwards
placed in a bed in a padded room.
She continued noisy for an hour or
two, and then became quieter ; but
the attendant, who looked at her
every half-hour, always found her
sleepless. The following day she
continued tranquil, but when ad-
dressed, responded with an oath.
She was ordered one grain and a
half of acetate of morphia. The
third day she continued quiet and
sullen, but permitted the nurse to
dress her and place her in a chair
in the day-room with the other
patients. The following day (the
fourth) she continued tranquil and
rational, rather shrinking from
convei-sation ; and being a little
feverish, was ordered ' henbane,'
with a saline. From that day she
speedily became convalescent, and
was discharged cured, November
11, 1853, having been a patient in
the Hospital forty-two days."
Thus diversely does disordered nature answer to an appeal
according to the spirit in which it is made. There is a reverse,
however, to every medal, and the skeleton cupboards of Beth-
lehem are the male criminal lunatic wards. These dens, for we
can call them by no softer name, are the only remaining
representatives of old Bedlam. They consist of dismal, arched
corridors, feebly lit at either end by a single window in double
irons, and divided in the middle by gratings more like those
which enclose the fiercer carnivora at the Zoological Gardens
than anything we have elsewhere seen employed for the detention
of afflicted humanity. Here fifty male lunatics are herded
together without regard to their previous social or moral
peatedly flogged at Bridewell for
her extreme violence and disorder.
She became at length the horror of
the watchmen, for punishing and
imprisonment had no effect in
checking her career. She was
known to her companions by the
name of 'Ginger.' In one of her
paroxysms of rage she attacked the
windows of the Mansion House, and
on her examination before the Lord
Mayor, it appeared that her violent
disposition had gradually passed
into a state of complete madness.
Uuder these circumstances she was
sent, February 6th, 1803, to the
Hospital, and placed on the curable
establishment. At the expiration
of twelve months, her lunacy con-
tinuing, she was admitted on the
incurable list. There is no record
of the manner in which she con-
ducted herself during the first year,
but it appears that she toas chained
to her bed of strato for eight years
without any covering or apparel. So
long as she continued thus coerced
the violence continued. The last
entry is ' coercion still makes her
ferocious, but when left at liberty she
is not in the least degree dangerous.' "
160 LUXATIC ASYLUMS.
condition. Thus the unfortunate clergyman, the Eev. Hugh
WUloughby, who fired a pistol two years since at the judge
at the Central Crimiual Court, is herded with the plebeian
perpetrator of some horrible murder. Side by side with the
unfortunate Captain Johnson, of the ship " Tory," who, in a fit
of extraordinary excitement during a mutiny on board his
vessel, cut down some of his crew, but is now perfectly sane,
sits perhaps the ruffian who murdered the warder in cold blood
at Coldbath Fields — a villain brought in mad by a tender-
hearted jury who shrunk from the responsibility of hanging
him. Here also poor Dad, the artist, who killed his father
whilst labouring under a sudden paroxysm of insanity, is
obliged to weave his fine fancies on the canvas amidst the most
revolting conversation and the most brutal behaviour. Those
who contend that all criminal lunatics should be treated alike,
do not consider the vast difference between the tone of mind in
an abandoned wretch who has lived a life of villany, and the
gentleman who has committed a casual offence. As the former
advances towards sanity the brutal disposition, w T hich early
training in vice and dissipation has engraved upon his nature,
comes into strong relief, whilst the good breeding which is
natural to the latter, and which was but temporarily eclipsed
in him, resumes its sway. Nay, nothing is more certain than
that the previous habits and manners of the lunatic are to a
great extent unaffected by his unfortunate malady, even when
it is at its height. The disgrace of thus caging up together the
coarse and the gentle, the virtuous and the abandoned, rests
wholly upon the shoulders of the Home Secretary. The
governors of the hospitals, the medical officers, and the lunacy
commissioners, have over and over again remonstrated against
the enormity, and to our national shame have remonstrated in
vain. It is proposed to build a special asylum for all the state
lunatics who are now distributed among county asylums,
hospitals, licensed houses, workhouses and jails, to the number
of 591,* and it is a duty which we trust will not be longer
* Steps are being taken, we believe, to effect this necessary change ; but
unless Parliament puts its pressure upon the Home-Office, we shall expect
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 161
delayed. There can be little doubt that the presence of these
crime-tainted individuals is felt deeply by the innocent lunatics,
and that their recovery is retarded by the indignation excited
at their degrading companionship with the outcasts of society.
The erection of a criminal asylum upon a large scale would both
compel a better system of classification, and would necessitate
some solution of the difficult question — "What shall be done
with criminal patients who have recovered 1 One class of cases
at least, as Dr. Tyler Smith has pointed out, leaves no room for
doubt. The females who have committed offences whilst under
the influence of the delirium attendant upon puerperal fever?
and who, having recovered, are past the age of child-bearing,
should at once be released. They are no longer liable to a
recurrence of mental aberration, and to keep them incarcerated
for life, is to treat past misfortune as an inexpiable crime.
Nothing can be more cruel, unjust, and motiveless.
' It is proposed to remove Bethlehem Hospital into the country,
on the plea that ground cannot be obtained in sufficient quantity
for the use of the inmates. If by this is meant that agricultural
pursuits cannot be carried on in St. George's Fields, we rejoice
in the fact. A sane man, accustomed to the busy scene of a
large town, would be wretched if he was condemned to pass the
remainder of his days amid the silence of the fields, and the
lunatic remains for the most part under the same domination
of former habits. The notion that his faculties are universally
disordered, all his perceptions destroyed, all his tastes oblite-
rated, and all his sympathies extinct, is one of the grossest errors
which can prevail. Nor do the better class of patients (such as
form the inmates of Bethlehem) require the hard exercise which
is necessary for the maintenance of health with an agricultural
pauper. They find far more recreation in stroljjng through the
streets in the neighbourhood of the asylum, under the care of
an attendant, than in wading through ploughed fields, or in taking
a turn at spade husbandry. To this we must add, that insanity
is often a sudden seizure, that individuals go raving mad in the
to see the .irrangement completed when the Nelson Column is finished,
and not before.
162 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
streets ; that, in short, there are frightful casualties of the mind,
as of the body, which require the instant attention of the mental
physician. For this reason alone every lunatic asylum should
no more be removed into the country than every ordinary hos-
pital. But, apart from this circumstance, we repeat that
Bethlehem, within call of friends and within the hum of the
busy world, glimpses of which, can be caught by the patients
from the loopholes of their retreat, and into which they are
occasionally allowed to enter, is far better placed for purposes
of cure than in any rural district, however well supplied with the
means of pursuing agricultural labour. At present all the sights
of the metropolis are from time to time enjoyed by the inmates.
" The male patients last year," says Dr. Hood, the resident phy-
sician, " who were not fit to be discharged, were allowed to spend
a day at Kew ; another day they went by steamboat to the
Nore; and, conducting themselves well under the charge of
careful attendants, visited many public exhibitions — the National
Gallery, the Crystal Palace, Marlborough House, the Zoological
Gardens, Smithfield Cattle-show, &c." Who can doubt that
people accustomed to such sights and sounds would infinitely
prefer them to the delights of walking between hedge-rows,
hoeing weeds, or digging potatoes 1 Who can doubt that these
little excursions of the wall-bound inmates into the cheerful
life of the outside world are a vast advantage to the slowly-
recovering brain, and constitute just that desirable transitional
training necessary to their safe restitution to unlimited freedom 1
In fact, under the old system, when convalescent patients, who
had been confined for months in dungeon-like cells, bristling
with bars, were taken to the gates and returned suddenly to
unrestrained liberty, the effect of the contrast was often so great,
that they set oflLrunning in a paroxysm of excitement, and were
frequently brought back again in a few days, reduced by a too
abrupt release to their old condition. It would not perhaps be
undesirable to add to Bethlehem some small rural establish-
ment, answering to the succursales of foreign lunatic asylums ;
but this should be strictly an appendage, to which patients
should be sent for a short time, for change of air and scene, just
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 163
as all the world now and then take a trip to the country to
refresh the wearied eye with the sight of green trees and fields,
and to cure that moral scurvy contracted by perpetually dwell-
ing upon the dismal vistas of blackened bricks which constitute
metropolitan prospects.
For the fullest development of the prevalent system of treating
the insane we must go to Colney Hatch and Hanwell, the two
great lunatic asylums for the county of Middlesex. The former,
situated on the Great Northern Railway, only six miles from the
metropolis, is the largest and perhaps the most imposing-looking
non-metropolitan building of the kind in Europe. In this esta-
blishment, built within the last six years, we may study the
merits and demerits of modern asylums. Containing within its
walls a population, inclusive of officers and attendants, of 1.380
persons, which is equal to that of our largest villages, and pre-
senting the appearance of a town, its wards and passages amount-
ing in the aggregate to the length of six miles, it is here that
we shall find the completest system of organization, and, if we
may use the term, of official routine. The enormous sum of
money expended upon Colney Hatch, which has reached already
to .£270,000, prepares us for the almost palatial character of its
elevation. Its fagade, of nearly a third of a mile, is broken at
intervals by Italian campaniles and cupolas ; and the whole aspect
of the exterior leads the visitor to expect an interior of commen-
surate pretensions. He no sooner crosses the threshold, how-
ever, than the scene changes. As he passes along the corridor,
which runs from end to end of the building, he is oppressed with
the gloom ; the little light admitted by the loop-holed windows
is absorbed by the inky asphalte paving, and, coupled with the
low vaulting of the ceiling, gives a stifling feeling and a sense
of detention as in a prison. The staircases scarcely equal those
of a workhouse ; plaster there is none, and a coat of paint or
whitewash does not even conceal the rugged surface of the
brickwork. In the wards a similar state of things exists : airy
and spacious they are, without doubt ; but of human interest
they possess nothing. Upwards of a quarter of a million has
been squandered principally upon the exterior of this building;
m 2
164 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
but not a sixpence can be spared to adorn the walls within with
picture, bust, or even the commonest cottage decoration. This
is the vice which pervades the majority of county asylums lately
erected. The visiting justices doubtless believe that it would
be a superfluous and even mischievous refinement to trouble
themselves about pleasing the eye or amusing the brain of the
lunatic ; but this is a mighty error, as every person knows who
understands how keenly sensitive are the minds of the majority
of the insane.
" Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage,"
sings the graceful Lovelace ; but it should be remembered that
the lunatic has no divine Althea to muse upon in his house of
detention, and the majority of the insane have no healthy wiugs
by which their minds can leap beyond the dreariness of the
present. To divert them from the demon in possession, all the
ingenuity of philanthropy should be employed ; but this truth
has been overlooked both here and at Hanwell ; and we are lost
in astonishment when we reflect upon the folly of lavishing
hundreds of thousands upon outward ornamentation, whilst the
decorations common among the poorest labourers are denied to
the inmates for whom all this expense has been incurred. There
is no more touching sight at Colney Hatch than to notice the
manner in which the female lunatics have endeavoured to
diversify the monotonous appearance of their cell-like sleeping-
rooms with rag dolls, bits of shell, porcelain, or bright cloth
placed symmetrically in the light of the window-sill. The love
of ornament seems to dwell with them when all other mental
power is lost ; and they strew gay colours about them with no
more sense, but with as much enjoyment, as the bower-bird of
the Zoological Gardens adorns his playing-bower.* The prison
* The walls of one of the wards of Colney Hatch are decorated through-
out with well-executed bas-relief pictures from Greek subjects by a patient.
"We are informed that the lunatics who are transferred here from the un-
derrated wards, enter the apartment with expressions of delight, and are
particularly careful to preserve the objects of their pleasure in good con-
dition. In some metropolitan asylums the inmates have adorned their
prison-house with pieces of sculpture and pictures ; and the Germans are
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 165
dress of the male patients is in keeping with the desolate walls.
It is infinitely depressing, even to the visitor, to see nothing
but dull grey garments ; and the lunatics themselves feel
degraded by a uniform dedicated to the gaol-bird. The medical
officers of both this asylum and Hanwell are deeply impressed
with its injurious effects, and they have long denounced it.
Happily the system is confined to the men, not, however, from
any benevolent feeling towards the females, but simply because
gown-pieces of the same pattern cannot be procured in sufficient
quantities to clothe the entire community. Among the sane,
self-respect is increased by the possession of decent clothes, and
the lunatic is often still more amenable to their influence. A
refractory patient at Colney Hatch was in the habit of tearing
his clothes into shreds. Mr. Tyerman, one of the medical offi-
cers, ordered him to be dressed in a bran-new suit. The poor
man, a tailor by trade, either from a professional appreciation
of the value of his new habiliments, or from being touched by
this mark of attention, respected their integrity, and from that
moment rapidly recovered. Before leaving the asylum he stated
that he owed his cure to the good effect produced upon his
mind by being intrusted with this new suit of clothes. At
Hanwell, the patients who destroy their dresses are put into
strong canvas garments, bound round with leather and fastened
with padlocks. This plan is adopted at some other lunatic
asylums ; but it always looks repulsive.
It is only, we believe, in the metropolitan county asylums,
which should be model establishments, that the grey prison dress
is retained. In the majority of county asylums the smock-frock
of the district is used, and the patient moves about undistin-
guished from the rest of the population by any repulsive badge.
In France and Belgium they manage better still. Dr. Webster,
in his notes on foreign lunatic asylums, published in the Psycho-
logical Journal of Medicine, speaks of the bright head-dresses
and vivid shawls used in France, as giving a cheerful appearance
fond of indulging the love of colour by filling some of the windows with
stained glass. In France, abundance of flowers are placed about the
establishment, as being eminent sources of delight. In these particulars we
have not a little to learn from our continental brethren.
166 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
to the assembled inmates. Nothing less could be expected from
the known disposition of a people of whom it has been said, that
if any man among them was thrown naked into the sea, he would
rise up clothed from head to foot with a sword, bag-wig, and
ruffles to boot. In the present matter they have been wiser in
their generation than ourselves; and we can imagine with what
surprise they would learn that at Hanwell, the most celebrated
English establishment for the treatment of the insane, patients
are rewarded for good conduct by allowing them to wear a fancy
waistcoat. ^This fact of itself shows the aversion to the prison
garb, and the necessity of discarding it. But the same visiting-
committee which inspects the county gaol governs the asylum,
and we regret to say that they allow the organization of the
former to be introduced into the latter.
In spite of these drawbacks, the progress made within the last
twenty years has been immense. A walk through the wards and
workshops of Golney Hatch will prove that the lunatic is at last
treated as though he had human sympathy and desires, and was
capable of behaving in many respects like a rational being. All
large asylums possess an advantage over smaller ones in their
greater ability to classify their inmates. The wards and
corridors of Colney Hatch and Hanwell are so extensive that
they may be likened to different streets inhabited by distinct
classes. It is usual to name the compartments according to
the mental condition of the patients contained in them. Thus
in most asylums we have the refractory ward, the epileptic
ward, the paralytic ward, the ward for dirty patients, and the
convalescent ward. At Colney Hatch it is considered better
to use numbers instead, as the patients soon become acquainted
with the denomination of the class to which they belong, and
often behave in conformity with it. Thus the lunatic, finding
himself in a refractory ward, will sometimes act up to the part
assigned to him, when he would otherwise be peaceable. The
vice of classification is that it separates the population of an
asylum into so many mental castes, which in some measure
prevents that easy transition from lunacy to sanity, which it is
desirable to maintain. In the choice of difficulties, however,
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 167
there can be little doubt that these divisions in lunatic estab-
lishments, as at present constructed, present the most convenient
as well as the best means of treating the insane, and the errors
to which it is liable can at all times be obviated by the careful
supervision of the medical officers.
Nothing strikes the visitor with greater admiration than the
care taken of the paralytic and imbecile patients, who form
so large a per-centage of the inmates of the county asylums. In
most cases the sleeping apartments of these poor creatures at
Colney Hatch andHanwell are padded round breast-high, in order
that they may not damage themselves against the walls whilst
seized with convulsions in bed ; and a pillow has been invented
perfectly permeable to the air, on which they can lie with their
faces downward during the paroxysm of a fit, without the risk
of suffocation. In extreme cases even the floor is padded, lest
the sufferer should unconsciously throw himself upon it. The
bed-ridden paralytic reclines upon a water-bed, and is tended
night and morning as sedulously as a helpless babe. The test
of the care which prevails in an asylum is to be found in the
condition of the persons who cannot help themselves. Where
trouble begins, negligence begins also, in an ill-regulated esta-
blishment. Nowhere do the alleviations of humanity seem more
required than with the idiots and paralytics. Of all the wards
at Colney Hatch, these are the most depressing. It is impos-
sible to contemplate a room full of creatures moving about on
their seats with a monotonous action like a company of apes, or
when paralyzed in their lower limbs, to see them dragging them-
selves like seals along the floor by the aid of their arms, without
being oppressed by the sense of the dreadful condition to which
man can be reduced when the mind is ruined and the nerve-
power diseased. It is only in these wards and the refractory
that on ordinary occasions the stranger would discover that he
was among the mentally afflicted. It is reported that a lady,
after she had been shown over a large asylum by the celebrated
Esquirol, inquired. " But where are the mad people 1 " All the
infinitely finely-shaded stages of lunacy which lie between mental
health, wild fury, and chronic dementia are, in the popular idea,
168 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
merged in the raving maniac. Yet it is rare for a casual visitor
to witness scenes of violence in a lunatic asylum. Those who
are mischievous are trained to concentrate their dislike upon
the medical officers and attendants rather than upon their fellow-
patients. The matron of Hanwell Asylum, in her report for
1856, thus speaks of one of the criminal lunatics who belongs
to this refractory class :—
" She seldom interferes with any other patient, the officers and attendants
being the special objects of her furious attempts, and her mode of attack
is peculiar ; there is not usually anything in her manner or appearance to
indicate mischief, and she has perhaps previously spoken calmly to the
person upon whom — having watched until she has turned her back ; for
as long as the face is towards her the individual is safe — she springs with
the quickness and velocity of a tigress, fastening her hands in the hair,
and bringing her victim to the ground in an instant. If not immediately
rescued, the head of the unfortunate person is dashed repeatedly upon the
floor ; and it has been found impossible hitherto to detach the hand of this
patient without a quantity of hair being torn by her from the head of the
sufferer."
The visiting magistrates are also highly obnoxious to the
patients ; and their passage through a ward generally leaves
behind it a trail of excitement which often generates outbreaks
that do not subside for some hours. On the whole, however, it
is remarkable how small an amount of violence is attempted by
the insane. In Colney Hatch, with its 1,250 patients, there are
far fewer personal assaults in a year than would take place in
any village containing half the number of inhabitants. Still
precautions are always necessary ; and the attendants, from long
observation, are generally forewarned, and, consequently, fore-
armed. Special arrangements are made for those persons who
have an unusual tendency to injure themselves or their com-
panions. The suicidally inclined are always placed at night in
dormitories with other patients, an arrangement which effectu-
ally prevents any attempts at self-destruction ; while those who
have a propensity to commit homicide are provided with separate
cells. There is at the present moment a person at Colney Hatch
who labours under the delusion that he can only recover his liberty
by killing one of the keepers, and in accordance with this idea
he has already made several attempts on their lives. A lament-
able death took place at Hanwell the year before last, through
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 169
the neglect on the part of an attendant* to see a homicidal
patient properly secured in his apartment for the night.
" On the 12th of April, the patients of No. 7 ward (twenty-five in number)
having had their supper, were going to bed at a quarter before eight o'clock
— all of them, being more or less refractory, have a single bedroom each.
The attendant, in seeing them to bed, inadvertently locked up two (B. and
W.) in one room ; he stated that, observing the day-clothing of all out-
side their doors, he supposed that the patients were in their rooms, and,
therefore, did not take the precaution to look into them. The room No. 19
was the one usually occupied by W., a man of exceedingly clean habits, of
a mild expression of countenance, but very violent, prone to strike sud-
denly and without provocation any person within reach of him ; so fre-
quently had he done this, that he was not allowed to sit near other
patients, even at meals, but took his food apart from them at a side-table.
B., whose room was No. 10, directly opposite to No. 19, was occasionally
violent, always dirty in his habits, and destructive of clothing. It is
supposed that this man entered No. 19 room by mistake, and that his
presence there excited the homicidal tendency of the other into action.
What is known is, that the night-attendant, when he visited the ward at
half-past ten o'clock, and went as usual to the room No. 10, found it un-
occupied, and the patient's clothes outside the door ; then hearing a noise
in the room 19, he opened the door, and saw B. extended at full length on
his back on the floor, naked and quite dead. W. came out of the room in
his shirt immediately the door was opened, and, pointing to B., said,
'That fellow will not allow me to sleep.' There was a mark round B.'s
neck as if caused by a cord, which had produced strangulation, and a mark
of a severe blow on the top of the nose, and of a bruise on the chest : the
bedclothes were in great disorder ; amongst them were found the shirt
and flannel of B. ; one sleeve of the former was twisted like a rope, as if
W. had strangled B. with it."
The utmost precaution will not always insure safety, for
patients considered quite harmless will now and then commit
the most horrible acts. A black man, a butcher, who had been
many years in an American asylum, and had never shown any
violence, one night secreted a knife, and induced another patient
to enter his cell. When his companion had lain down, he cut
his throat, divided him into joints, and arranged the pieces
round his cell as he had been accustomed to arrange his meat
in his shop. He then offered his horrible wares to his fellow-
lunatics, carrying such parts as they desired to those who were
chained. The keeper, hearing the uproar, examined the cells,
and found one man missing ; upon inquiring of the black
butcher if he had seen him, he calmly replied, " He had sold
the last joint ! " Even those who have apparently harmless
delusions, will sometimes, if thwarted, commit unlooked-for
170 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
atrocities. Not many years since, an inquisition was held
before Mr. Commissioner Winslow upon a young gentleman
who would travel considerable distances to see a windmill, and
sit watching it for days. His friends, to put an end to his absurd
propensity, removed to a place where there were no mills. The
youth, to counteract the design, murdered a child in a wood,
mangling his limbs in a terrible manner, in the hope that he
should be transferred, as a punishment, to a situation whence a
mill could be seen.
Idleness is perhaps a greater curse to the majority of lunatics
than to sane individuals. Occupation diverts the mind from its
malacty. Colney Hatch and Hanwell, from their populousness,
and from the fact of their being filled principally by metro-
politan lunatics, afford admirable examples of the new method
of employing patients in the trades they have been accustomed
to follow when in health. As the ranges of workshops at
Colney Hatch are the most extensive, we will draw our descrip-
tion from that establishment. Of the male patients, only 245,
out of an average of 514 in the house during the year 1855,
were employed in labour at all, the remainder consisting of
violent maniacs and those afflicted with paralysis, epilepsy, and
idiocy, none of whom are capable of undertaking any work.
Sixty -five persons were allotted to the gardens, grounds, and
farms, leaving 180 to be distributed in the workshops and
various offices of the asylum. The tailoring department is the
most extensive. Upon the occasion of our visit, there were at
least a score of cross-legged lunatics cutting out and making up
grey dresses for the inmates, or repairing, old clothing, their con-
duct being in no manner distinguishable from that of sane jour-
neymen. The shoemakers numbered a dozen, every man handling
his short knife. Those unaccustomed to lunatics will find it a
nervous proceeding to thread their way among so many armed
madmen, and will wish themselves well out of this apparently
dangerous assembly. Yet, in truth, they are no more to be
feared than any similar number of lucid workmen, as the homi-
cidally inclined are carefully excluded. The carpenters planed
away merrily among their chips in an adjoining apartment,
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. l71
using now and then chisel, gouge, and saw in perfect freedom.
Many excitable patients have been placed in these shops with-
out any bad result ; and even those who are disposed to be mis-
chievous when suspected, have become quiet when trusted with
edge-tools of the most formidable description. The greater the
confidence reposed in the majority of the insane, the more does
it tend to insure good behaviour. Of the other artificers in
different departments, we may mention paiuters, upholsterers,
bakers, butchers, brewers, and coopers ; whilst a still larger
number are employed in the kitchen and diniug-hall, or as
helpers in the corridors and wards. The services of all these
lunatic artisans and labourers were valued last year at
1,059/. 3s.
As far as possible, the men work at the trades they have pre-
viously followed j but there are many patients whose skilled
labour cannot be utilized in this comparatively confined com-
munity ; such, for instance, as rule-makers, jewellers, whale-
bone-cutters, coach-painters, gold-beaters, buhl-cutters, wax-
doll makers, and a score of other heterogeneous craftsmen, who
are only to be found in a great metropolis. These persons
engage in the employment most suited to them, and thus many
of them leave the asylum skilled in two trades. Equally effica-
cious is the occupation on the farm, which contains seventy- six
acres of pasture and arable land, principally dedicated to the
rearing and maintenance of stock. On the 1st of January,
1856, there were 28 cows, 1 bull, 2 calves, 152 pigs, 40 sheep,
7 horses, &c. The tending of these animals, the culture of the
fields and of the thirty-one acres of ornamental grounds, the
milking the cows, the slaughtering of the meat, and the pro-
duction of the butter, afford varied and healthy employment to
the sixty-five agriculturists. Some persons who never handled
a spade before, here set to work cheerfully and with a will, and
a French polisher, a Wesleyan minister, a school teacher, or a
law writer, may be seen digging away at a field of potatoes ; or
a ship-carpenter, saddler, cabman, coalheaver, and organ-player,
diligently engaged in filling a manure-cart. They would, it is
true, be better employed in occupations more in accordance
172 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
with their previous habits ; but these cannot be found for them,
and labour of any kind is preferable to idleness. On the female
side of the house industry is resorted to as a means of cure to
a still larger extent. Of the 503 equal to labour, 270 work as
needlewomen, 7 are employed in the kitchen, 72 wash, iron,
and clearstarch in the laundry, 125 help in the wards, and
29 attend school, and are otherwise engaged. The total value
of the female labour of the house is computed at 500?. per
annum.
Colney Hatch is not so extensively embarked in industrial
and agricultural pursuits as the North and East Riding Asylum,
where the patients are received from a mixed manufacturing
and agricultural population, and the produce of their fields and
workshops is much greater than could be extracted from worn-
out metropolitan patients. Not only do the lunatics rear the
vegetables, but they take them to the asylum gates and dispose
of them to the public. The result affords a proof of what we
hold to be a settled principle, that chronic cases of insanity
are greatly benefited by as much intercourse as possible with the
saner part of the community.
In accordance with the opinion that pursuits of lunatics
should be similar to their pursuits in former days, the south
wing of Haslar Hospital is devoted to the officers, seamen, and
marines of her Majesty's fleet who are afflicted with insanity.
Every window of the building commands a fine view of Spithead
and the Isle of Wight, and here the old Salts can sit and watch
the splendid panorama crowded with vessels, and active with
that nautical life which recalls so many happy associations to
their minds. They form fishing parties, make nets, and go on
pleasure excursions in row and sailing craft. The "madman's
boat" of eight oars, manned by patients and steered by an
attendant, is well known to the sailors on the Solent, and so
harmless are they considered, that young ladies often accompany
them on trips to the Isle of Wight, implicitly trusting in their
seamanship and politeness.
Mental labour, as a means of cure, has not been adopted in
England to any great extent ; most asylums have their libraries,
LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
173
in which attentive readers are always to be found, but the
inmates rarely attempt to produce amusement or instruction
for their fellows. There is one signal exception to this rule in
Murray's Royal Asylum at Perth. This establishment, under
the superintendence of Dr. Lauder Lindsay, appears to be the
very focus of intellectual activity. The programme for the
winter session of 1856-7 reads more like the prospectus of the
Athenaeum of some large city than the bill of fare for a lunatic
asylum. Famous professors reflect in its lecture-room the philo-
sophy and science of the outer world, and their choice of subjects
would not be disavowed by the committee of a London Scien-
tific Institution.
Lecturer.
1. Professor Blackie, University
of Edinburgh.
2. Hugh Barclay, Esq., LL.D.,
Sheriff- Substitute of Perth-
shire.
3. Thomas Miller, Esq., LL.D.,
Rector of Perth Academy.
4. George Lawson, Esq., Demon-
strator of Botanical Histology,
University of Edinburgh.
5. Rev. Dr. Cromble, of Scone,
late Moderator of General As-
sembly.
6. Rev. John Anderson, Kin-
noull.
7. Rev. Wm. Murdoch, Kinnoull.
8. Dr. Browne, Crichton Royal
Institution, Dumfries.
9. Dr. Fairless, Crieff.
10. Dr. Stirling, Perth.
11. Alex. Corall, Esq., Montrose.
12. Thomas R. Marshall, Esq.,
Edinburgh.
Subject.
Beauty.
Authenticity of Ossian's Poems.
Chemical Affinity.
Vital Phenomena of "Vegetation.
Winter : its lessons and associa-
tions.
Sketches from the History of An-
cient Nations.
Education : its aims and uses.
The Genesis of Thought.
Electricity : its phenomena and ap-
plications.
Natural History of Man.
Natural History of Zoophytes.
Art : in its applications to common
life.
These scientific and philosophic expositions are attended by
all the better class patients. The paupers have a separate set
of lectures and classes, the major part of which are delivered
and conducted by the inmates themselves. Galvanism, the
Blood, Time, Economic Botany, are among the subjects which
the deranged brains of the Perth asylum are contented to
174 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
hear elucidated. The activity of the place does not stop here :
chamber concerts, in which the patients perform ; grand
concerts, in which artists from without supply the leading
stars ; and theatrical performances, in which the different
characters are all taken by " resident actors," are among the
resources which were employed to amuse and interest the
inmates during the winter months just past. A pit full of
lunatics watching " Box and Cox" played by their fellows, is a
curious subject for contemplation. ISot content with these
efforts, they seem to think that they are nothing unless critical,
and accordingly they have set up a journal, in which they
review their own performances. The first number of Excel-
sior is now before us, in which we find poetry, news, and
criticisms on music, and contemporary literature ; and he who
reads with the idea of finding anythiLj odd in this production,
will most certainly be mistaken ; for no one could divine that
there was a "bee in the bonnet" of printer, publisher, and
contributor. Balls and conversaziones form the staple of the
lighter recreations of this singular community, whilst the more
athletic games of running, leaping, hurdle-racing, Highland
dancing, putting the stone, footing the bar," and lifting dead
weights, are pursued with such success, that the lunatics boast
with pride that they have beaten some of the prize-holders of
the outer world.
It might be supposed that intellectual striving was not the
medicine to offer to a diseased brain ; but we are informed by
Dr. Lindsay that in the vast majority of cases the best results
flow from this method of treatment, and that a large per-
centage of cures is obtained. Such patients as would be
injured by stimulating their faculties are debarred by the
physician from their undue exercise, and others must be too
far gone, or be too uninformed, to be capable of the pursuit. The
surprise that lunatics should be susceptible of healthy mental
exertion, arises from the common forgetfulness that many under-
standings are slightly affected, or are only deranged upon par-
ticular points. When Nat Lee was in Bedlam, he said that it
was very difficult to write like a madman, and very easy to
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 175
•write like a fool. The works of the fools are more voluminous
than the works of the madmen, because there are more fools
than lunatics ; but those who are completely mad are so far
from experiencing a difficulty in writing in their own character,
that they cannot write in any other. As many, however, who
are not altogether right in their minds, are no more exclu-
sively insane than people who are not absolutely wise are
entirely foolish, it is easy to see that they may still be equal
to much profitable mental exertion. In these days poor
Christopher Smart would not be deprived of his pen and ink,
and compelled to indent his long poem on " David " with a
key on the panels of his cell ; nor perhaps would the follow-
ing epigram, which a woman in Bedlam wrote on Martin
Madan's argument in favour of polygamy, be handed about as
a phenomenon to be wondered at : —
" If John marry Mary, and Mary alone,
It is a good match between Mary and John :
But if John marry more wives, what blows and what scratches !
'Tis no longer a match, but a bundle of matches."
In France, and we believe in some other continental coun-
tries, it is the habit to employ lunatic labour in the private
farms surrounding the asylum. This plan was in the olden
time pursued in England ; but it appears to have gone out
with the ancient system of coercion. When radical revolutions
are accomplished, good ideas sometimes perish with the bad ;
and we cannot help thinking that the abandonment of this
method of exercising lunatics was an error, and that a return
to the old practice, under proper regulations, would be of
advantage both to employer and employed. Never must we
lose sight of the wisdom of freeing the patient as much as
practicable from the companionship of his fellows, and of
placing him, to the utmost of our power, in the same free
condition which he enjoyed in his days of sanity.
At Colney Hatch, as at Hanwell, and indeed all other public
asj^lums, the sexes occupy separate portions of the building, and
are only allowed to be present together on particular occasions.
This unnatural arrangement undoubtedly arose from the in-
176 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
troduction into asylums of prison and workhouse systems of
management ; for certainly nothing can tend to render the life
of the patient more dreary than to find himself carefully ex-
cluded from the company of the other half of creation. It is
stated by the advocates of separation that the mingling of the
sexes among the insane would be productive of occasional mis-
behaviour ; but nothing could be more unjust than to deprive
the majority of the benefits which would arise from frequent
social reunion, in consequence of the erotic tendencies of the
few. It is with pleasure, therefore, we see the attempts which
are being made to assimilate the intercourse of lunatics to that
of the sane at Hanwell, Colney Hatch, and other asylums.
The most interesting feature of the former establishment is the
ball which takes place every Monday night. Shortly after six
o'clock the handsome assembly-room, brilliantly lit with gas,
becomes the central point of attraction to all the inmates, male
and female, who are considered well enough to indulge their
inclinations for festivity. On the occasion of our visit there
were about 200 patients present, together with a few visitors
and many of the attendants. In a raised orchestra five
musicians, three of whom were lunatics, soon struck up a merry
polka, and immediately the room was alive with dancers. In
the progress of this amusement we could see nothing grotesque
or odd. Had the men been differently dressed, it would have
been impossible to have guessed that we were in the midst of a
company of lunatics, the mere sweepings of the parish work-
houses j but the prison uniform of sad-coloured grey presented
a disadvantageous contrast to the gayer and more varied
costumes at Bethlehem, and appeared like a jarring note amid
the general harmony of the scene. In the corners of the room
whist-players, consisting generally of the older inmates, were
seen intent upon their game ; not a word was uttered aloud,
not a gesture took place that would have discredited any
similar sane assembly ; yet not a patient was free from some
strange hallucination, or some morbid impulse. Among the
merriest dancers in Sir Roger de Coverley was a man who
believed himself to be our Saviour, and who wore in his hair a
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 177
spike in imitation of the crown of thorns ; and one of the
keenest whist-players was an old lady, who, whilst her partner
was dealing, privately assured us she had been dead these three
years, and desired as a favour that we would use our influence
with the surgeon to persuade him to cut off her head. In the
midst of such strange delusions, it was curious to notice how
rationally those who were their dupes enjoy themselves ; and
it is impossible to deny that such reunions are eminently calcu-
lated to hinder the mind from morbidly dwelling upon its own
unhealthy creations. It is found that the too prolonged and
frequent repetition of the balls somewhat diminishes their in-
terest — an evil provided against at Hanwell by restricting the
time allotted to them. At nine precisely, although in the
midst of a dance, a shrill note is blown, and the entire assembly,
like so many Cinderellas, breaks up at once, and the company
hurry off to their dormitories. These hebdomadal balls
have not yet been introduced at Colney Hatch. A move-
ment has, however, been made latterly towards a limited
association between the sexes by allowing them to dine
together. Of the 500 patients who assemble in the ample
dining-hall, 200 are females and 300 males. The scene when
the women first made their appearance is described as some-
thing remarkable ; the men rose in a body apparently delighted
beyond measure, and the presence of the softer sex has not only
tended to break the former monotony, but to keep the assembly
in order and good humour. Before this happy meeting there
were occasional outbreaks of some of the more excited patients ;„'
but now, when any of the men are inclined to be fractious or
discontented, the women turn them into joke, and they are
silenced immediately. As yet the two sexes are not allowed to
sit at the same table, but are located on opposite sides of the
room. By far the better plan would be to seat them on dif-
ferent sides of the long tables ; but as many persons in authority,
wanting confidence in human nature, object to this natural
arrangement, the innovators must be satisfied for the moment
with the present imperfect concession. When it was first pro-
posed to introduce a billiard-table at Bethlehem, the scheme
178 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
was rejected by a majority of two-thirds of the governors, on
the score that the players would fight each other with the cues
and balls, and bagatelle, as a kind of half measure, was per-
mitted instead. As the patients confined the balls to their
legitimate purpose, and the mace was not turned into an
offensive weapon, the billiard-table was at last with reluctance
established. The same thing will doubtless happen with re-
spect to the dining arrangements at Colney Hatch • and before
long we trust male and female lunatics will exchange courtesies
across the table instead of across the room.
In the chapels of nearly all the larger lunatic asylums the
quieter inmates are accustomed to meet at the daily morning
and evening service. In the spacious chapels of Hanwell and
Colney Hatch, the attendance on week days, as well as on the
Sabbath, is far better than can be found among the same num-
ber of people out of doors, 250 on the average attending on
week days, and 500 on Sundays. We do not suppose that the
lunatic is more religious than the sane, but the ennui which, to
a certain extent, still attaches to the asylum renders any form
of reunion agreeable ; and as the going to chapel is " something
to do," numbers of the inmates obey the summons who might
stay at home if they were at large. The conduct, nevertheless,
of this congregation is most exemplary. " The heartiness,"
says the chaplain, in his report for 1856, "with which they join
in the responses and the psalmody is very encouraging, while
their quiet, orderly conduct — the prayer offered up by many on
entering chapel, the regularity with which they all kneel or
sit, according to the order of the service — would, I think, if
generally witnessed, put to the blush many of our parochial
congregations." Now and then an epileptic patient will dis-
turb the chapel by his heavy fall ; but as those who are thus
afflicted are located near the doors, the interruption is but
momentary. The chaplain of Colney Hatch has trained twelve
male and female patients to practise church music and psalmody.
The choral service is well performed, and, in conjunction with
the organ, has a visible effect in soothing the wilder patients,
and in pleasing all. The sacrament is not denied to those who
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 179
are fit to receive it, and no more touching scene can be wit-
nessed than that which is presented in the chapel, when a score
of communicants, disordered though their minds sometimes be,
humbly kneel, and
" Drain the chalice of the grapes of God."
The out-of-door games of the insane are very much regulated
by the extent of ground attached to the asylum. Where this
is ample, as at Colney Hatch, cricket is the favourite summer
recreation ; a skittle-alley, a bowling-green, and a fives-court,
are found in most county asylums. In America, where women
adopt more masculine habits than in England, female lunatics
play matches on the bowling-green ; and in France gymnastic
exercises are employed for the exercise of both sexes, and may,
we think, be introduced into the English asylums with ad-
vantage. The idiotic patients and those who are incapable of
much exertion may be seen in the airing courts enjoying the
monotonous swinging motion of the machine known in domestic
life under the name of " the nursery yacht," being nothing
more than a rocking-horse with the horse left out by particular
desire. In addition to these means of diverting the minds of
the patients, walking parties, under the superintendence of
officers of the establishment, are made up two or three times
a week. During the haymaking season it is customary to allow
the inmates of asylums to which farms are attached to go forth
into the fields to assist with the rake and the pitchfork. This
permission is always looked upon as a great treat, and its effect
upon the patients is of the happiest kind, especially if tlie scene
of their temporary labour admits no sight of the asylum and its
icearisome walls. Here for a few hours they seem to realize the
liberty and delight of younger days. The physician on such
occasions may read in their " grateful eyes" that we are at
present arrived only half way on the road of non-restraint.
Individual patients, again, are suffered to leave the public
asylums on a day's visit to their friends, under the care of a
nurse ; and some who are nearly convalescent are permitted to
go and return of their own accord. It is the custom of Colney
n 2
180 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
Hatch and Hanwell, and we believe of most asylums in Eng-
land, to grant the patients a certain period of probation among
their friends, in order to test their fitness to be discharged as
cured ; to give them, in short, mental tickets-of-leave. This is
an admirable plan, inasmuch as it secures to the patient the full
enjoyment of liberty, at the same time that it enables him to
keep himself well in hand, knowing that, as he is not uncon-
ditionally released, an immediate recall to the asylum would
follow any sign of returning irrationality.
The dietary in • public asylums is ample, and the quality
excellent. Hanwell may, perhaps, be considered the model
establishment in this respect. It is the joke of the other
asylums, that one man has been regaled there daily for years
with chicken and wine. Even the fancies of the patients are
now and then gratified at some expense. There is an old lady
in Hanwell who believes that the whole establishment is her
private property ; and, on one occasion, she complained to the
medical superintendent that, notwithstanding all the expense
she was at to keep up the grounds and forcing-houses, she never
could get any grapes. The next day she was presented with a
bunch, which had been purchased to appease her repinings.
This humouring method of treatment, as it is called in other
asylums, is much patronized by the matron, a person who seems
to enjoy as much power as the medical officers. In her report
for 1856 she thus speaks of a patient who died in the course of
last year : —
" She had been employed many years in the laundry, and always
imagined she was to be removed elsewhere — that on Monday morning a
waggon would call at the gate for herself and her property. Accordingly,
every Monday morning throughout the year, at 10 o'clock, she was ac-
companied to the gate, dressed with a coloured handkerchief pinned
fancifully over her cap instead of a bonnet, and carrying a small parcel {her
property) of the most heterogeneous contents— thimbles, ends of tape,
polished bones, pebbles, pieces of smooth coal, &c. The waggon was
never found to be in waiting, and Mary, without evincing any disappoint-
ment, walked cheerfully back to the laundry, telling the superintendent
that ' The waggon would be sure to come next Monday, but that she need
not lose time, so she would work all this week.' "
In many asylums this method of treatment is thought calcu-
lated to feed the original delusion ; but here, again, the judg-
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 181
nient of the physician ought alone to determine the course to be
taken in each individual case. In patients labouring under
violent excitement, to oppose an hallucination, however absurd,
would add fuel to the tire. Again, in a chronic case like that
of the laundry-maid, the harmless fancy of the poor creature
might not only be indulged in with impunity, but served to
renew week by week her stock of cheerfulness.
The lunatic colony of Gheel, situated twelve miles south of
Turnhont, in Belgium, amid a vast uncultivated plateau con-
sisting of heath and sand, called the Campine, affords an extra-
ordinary example of the pre-eminent advantages of the present
mode of managing lunatics. Until the era of railroads this spot
was so out of the ordinary track of the world, that but few
persons even of those who were interested in the treatment of
the insane were aware of its existence. Here we discover, like
a fly in amber, a state of things which has lasted with little
change for twelve hundred years. Here we see the last remnants
of the priestly treatment of insanity, coupled with a system of
non-restraint which certainly existed long before the term was
ever heard of in England and France. Gheel owes its origin
to a miracle. Saint Dympna, the daughter of an Irish king,
suffered martyrdom in tins place from the hand of her father in
the sixth century. So great was her fame as the patron saint
of lunatics, that her shrine, erected in the church dedicated to
her, speedily became the resort of pilgrims, who journeyed hither
in the hope of being cured of their madness or of preventing
its advent. Her elegantly-sculptured tomb contains among
other bassi-relievi one in which the devil is observed issuing
from the head of a female lunatic, while prayers are being
offered up by some priests and nuns, and close at hand another
chained maniac seems anxiously awaiting his turn to be deli-
vered from the demon. The idea carefully inculcated by the
priests, that lunacy meant nothing more than a possession by
the devil, has long been banished from other lands. Here,
however, it has flourished for many centuries, and the ceremony
of crawling beneath the tomb has existed so long, that the
hands and knees of the devotees have worn away the pavement.
182 LUNATIC ASYLU1T3.
The act is still occasionally performed amid a scene in which
superstition and terror are combined in a manner calculated to
cure any lunatic, if deep mental impressions were alone required
to purge away his malady. But what is far more interesting
and astonishing to those accustomed to the bolts and bars, the
locks, wards, and high walls of crowded European asylums, is
the almost entire liberty accorded to the lunatics resident in
the town of Gheel and its neighbouring hamlets, to the number
of 800, or one-tenth of the whole district. ~No palatial building,
such as we encounter in nearly every county in England, is to
be seen. The little army of pauper and other patients gathered
from the whole superficies of Belgium, instead of being stowed
away in one gigantic establishment, in which all ideas of life
are merged in the iron routine of an enormous workhouse, are
distributed over five hundred different dwellings, three hundred
of which are cottages, or small farmhouses, in which the more
violent and poorer classes are dispersed, and the remaining two
hundred are situated in the town of Gheel, and are appropriated
to quieter lunatics and those who are able to pay more liberally
for their treatment. In these habitations the sufferers are
placed under the care of the host and hostess ; more than three
persons never being domiciled under one roof, and generally not
more than one. The lunatic shares in the usual life of the
family ; his occupations and employment are theirs, his little
cares and enjoyments are the same as theirs. He goes forth to
the fields to labour as in ordinary life ; no stern walls perpe-
tually imprison him, and make him desire to overleap them, as
Rasselas desired to escape even from the Happy Valley. If it
is not thought fit for him to labour with plough or spade, he
remains at home, and takes care of the children, prunes the
trees in the garden, and attends to the potage on the fire ; or if
a female, busies herself in the ordinary domestic duties of the
house. The lunatics, as may be supposed, are not left to the
discretionary mercies of the host and hostess. A strict system
of supervision prevails, somewhat analogous to that of the
lunacy commissioners and the visiting justices of England. The
entire country is divided into four districts, each having a head
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 1S3
guardian and a physician, to whom is entrusted the medical
care of every inmate belonging to that section. There are, in
addition, one consulting surgeon and one inspecting physician
for the whole community. The general government of the
colony is vested in the hands of eight persons, who dispense a
code of laws especially devised for it. The burgomaster of
Gheel presides over this managing committee, whose duties are
to distribute the patients among the different dwellings, to watch
over their treatment, and to admit or discharge them. A
visiting commissioner is annually appointed, who inspects the
dwellings of the different hosts, and sees that the patients are
properly cared for. The oversight of the lunatics falls almost
wholly upon the hostess, the man rarely interfering, unless
called upon to control a disorderly patient. The people of
Gheel, from having been engaged for ages in the treatment of
the insane, are said to have acquired extraordinary tact in their
management, which, Dr. Webster remarks, may be considered
to exhibit a most judicious mixture of "mildness and force."
Although instruments of restraint, such as the strait-waistcoat,
and the long leathern thong below the leg, to prevent patients
from running away, are occasionally resorted to, the sectional
physician must be instantly informed of their imposition, and
their use cannot be continued without his sanction. So little
are they required, that Dr. Webster found less restraint in this
colony, unconfined by walls, than in the asylum at Mareville, in
France, containing a similar number of lunatics. Yet there
were fewer escapes than from the strictly-guarded restraint-
abounding prison, only eleven persons having fled from Gheel
in the course of last year, and nineteen from Mareville. Here
also, it will be observed, there is no separation of the sexes.
The lunatics live the life of the other inhabitants, and males
and females associate in the same household. If we compare
the effects of this simple treatment with that of the most
expensive of our own asylums, we are compelled to admit that
the balance is in favour of Gheel, where, notwithstanding the
free admission of chronic cases, upwards of twenty-two per cent,
of cures takes place annually, while at Hanwell and Colney
184 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
Hatcli the cures never exceed fifteen per cent. No fair com-
parison can be instituted between the expense per head at
Glieel and in our English establishments, inasmuch as living is
much cheaper in Belgium ■ but we may state, that the average
cost of board and lodging for each pauper in the colony is 101.
per annum, or exactly the sum charged for lodging alone in our
county asylums.*
A plan, towards which we have been slowly advancing during
the last half-century, will speedily, we hope, be more closely
followed. A trial is already, to some extent, being made of it
in the neighbourhood of existing asylums, and might supplant,
with immense advantage, the prevailing custom of building new
wings, and over-populating old wards. The present system of
enormous buildings, which destroys the individuality of the
inmates, and suppresses all their old habits and modes of life,
is evidently disapproved by the commissioners, as appears from
the language they hold in their tenth annual report : —
"We have the best reason for believing that the patients derive a direct
benefit, in many ways, from residing in cheerful, airy apartments de-
tached from the main building, and associated with officials engaged in
conducting industrial pursuits. A consciousness that he is useful, and
thought worthy of confidence, is necessarily induced in the mind of every
patient, by removal from the ordinary wards where certain restrictions are
enforced, into a department where he enjoys a comparative degree of
freedom ; and this necessarily promotes self-respect and self-control, and
proves highly salutary in forwarding the patient's restoration. As a
means of treatment, we consider this species of separate residence of
the utmost importance, constituting in fact a probationary system for
* These particulars respecting the pauper lunatic colony of Gheel are
taken from an article by Dr. Webster in Dr. Winslow's Journal of
Psychological Medicine. This review, which originated with and from
the first has been under the able editorship of Dr. Forbes Winslow, has
.given an immense impulse to the study of psychology. It has enlarged
the views of the physician of the insane, and, by extending his horizon,
has given him a far better knowledge of the special department to which
\he formerly confined his studies. It is as impossible to understand the
workings of a morbid mind without possessing a knowledge of its ordinary
action as it is to interpret the sounds of a diseased lung without being first
acquainted with those of a healthy one. The great service which Dr.
Forbes Winslow has rendered by unravelling the phenomena of mind in
its normal as well as in its disordered state, entitles him to a very high
meed of praise, and has deservedly ranked him among the first medico-
psychologists of the present day.
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 185
patients who are convalescing ; giving them greater liberty of action,
extended exercise, with facilities for occupation ; and thus generating
self-confidence, and becoming not only excellent tests of the sanity of the
patient, but operating powerfully to promote a satisfactory cure. The
want of such an intermediate place of residence is always much felt ; and
it often happens that a patient just recovered from an attack of insanity,
and sent into the world direct from a large asylum, is found so unprepared
to meet the trials he has to undergo, by any previous use of his mental
faculties, that he soon relapses, and is under the necessity of being again
returned within its walls. Commodious rooms contiguous to the farm-
buildings are now in the course of construction at the Somerset County
Asylum ; and there is every reason to believe that the patients will derive
benefit by residing in these apartments, which at once possess a domestic
character, and afford every facility to carry on agricultural pursuits."
It strikes us forcibly that the commissioners have tended to
create the evil they deprecate in not protesting against the
erection of gigantic asylums j but it is cheering to find that the
idea of supplemental buildings possessing a " domestic character"
has taken possession of their minds, and that they are now
enforcing it on the minds of others with their well-known zeal
and ability. The Devon Asylum, among others, has adopted
the plan ; and its accomplished physician, Dr. Bucknill, the
editor of the Asylum Journal, bears important testimony to
the great advantages to be derived from it.
" I have recommended the erection of an inexpensive building, detached
from, but within the grounds of the present asylum, in preference to an
extension of the asylum itself. My reasons for this recommendation are,
that such a building will afford a useful and important change for patients
for whom a change from the wards is desirable. The system of placing
patients in detached buildings, resembling in their construction and ar-
rangements an ordinary English house, has been found to afford beneficial
results in the so-called cottages which this institution at present possesses.
These cottages are much preferred to the wards by the patients themselves, and
permission to reside in them is much coveted. I am also conviuced that
such auxiliary buildings cau be erected at much less expense than would
be incurred by the enlargement and alteration of the asylum itself. I
propose that in the new building the patients shall cook and wash for
themselves."
" These cottages are much preferred to the wards by the
patients themselves, and permission to reside in them is much
coveted." In these few lines we read the condemnation of huge
structures like Colney Hatch, built externally on the model of a
palace, and internally on that of a workhouse, in which the
poor lunatic but rarely finds any object of human interest, where
186 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
liis free-will is reduced to the level of that of a convict, and the
very air of heaven necessary to his health is doled out at in-
tervals, when, with infinite lockings and unlockings, the
attendants order a batch of persons into the stagnant and
tiresome airing courts. Infinitely better for the lunatics would
be the freedom and homeliness of the smallest cottage to the
formal monotony of cheerless wards; better far that they should,
as Dr. Bucknill suggests, cook and wash for themselves, than
that the offices should be performed wholesale in the steam-
laundry and the steam-kitchen. A patient would undoubtedly
feel a far greater interest in peeling his own potatoes for the
pot, and in cooking his own bit of bacon, than in receiving them
ready cooked. It is the duty of the physician to interest the
patient in his daily work, and no more effectual method of
accomplishing this could be suggested than in putting him to
work for himself.
"Wherever large asylums are already erected, no better plan
could perhaps be suggested than the building of satellite
cottages, which would form a kind of supplementary Gheel to
the central establishment ; but we should like to see the
experiment tried, in some new district, of reproducing in its
integrity the Belgian system. The colony of Gheel was once a
desert like the country which surrounds it ; it is now, through
the happy application of pauper lunatic labour, one of the most
productive districts of the Low Countries. Have we no
unoccupied Dartmoors on which we could erect cottages, and
train the cottagers to receive the insane as members of the
family 1 The performance of domestic ofiices, the society of the
goodwife and goodman, and the influence of the children, would
do far more to restore the disordered brain of the lunatic —
pauper or otherwise — than all the organization of the asylum,
with its daily routine, proceeding with the inexorable mono-
tonous motion of a machine, and treating its inmates rather as
senseless atoms than as sentient beings, capable, though mad, of
taking an interest in things around them, and especially awake
to the pleasure of being dealt with as individuals rather than
as imdistinguishable parts of a crowd. The children are of
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 187
particular moment. Lunatics are singularly gentle to them,
and are interested in all their actions. At Gheel it is customary
to send the bairns into the fields to conduct the patients home
from their labour in the evening ; and we learn from Dr.
Webster that a violent madman, who would not stir upon the
command of his host, will suffer himself to be led, without a
murmur, by an urchin scarcely higher than his knee. The
presence of the young in the ward of an asylum seems to light
it up like a sunbeam. The love of children does indeed lie at
the very foundation of the human heart, and we cannot estimate
too highly their beneficial influence upon the brain which is
recovering from the horrors of insanity.
One of the most important points in reference to insane
paupers, as we have already intimated, is the bringing them as
speedily as possible under treatment. The reluctance of the
lunatic himself to be removed is usually extreme, and it is
marvellous what ingenuity he will often employ to thwart the
design. Southey relates that a madman who was being conveyed
from Eye to Bedlam slept in the Borough. He suspected
whither he was going, and, having contrived by rising early to
elude his attendant, he went to Bedlam, and told the keepers
that he was about to bring them a patient. " But," said he,
" in order to lead him willingly, he has been persuaded that I
am mad, and accordingly I shall come as the madman. He will
be very outrageous when you seize him, but you must clap on
a strait-waistcoat." The device completely succeeded. The
lunatic returned home, the sane man was shut up, and until he
was exchanged at the end of four days, remained in his strait-
waistcoat, having doubtless exhibited a violence which amply
justified its use. The aversion of the sufferer himself to be
taken away coincides with an equal aversion on the part of his
relatives and friends to send him from home, nor do they take
the step till the madness grows intolerable. Precious time is
thus lost at the outset, and when the removal occurs it is mostly
to the workhouse. Here the patient is usually kept during the
remainder of the curable stage of his malady. The parochial
authorities are generally guided by an immediate consideration
188 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
for the pockets of the rate-payers, rather than by any care for
the welfare of the lunatic ; and, as they can maintain him in
the " house" at three shillings a-week — when they would have
to pay nine if they transferred him to the county asylum — in
the workhouse he remains until he becomes so dirty or trouble-
some in his habits that the guardians are willing to pay the
difference to get rid of him. The first few months of the
disease, within the narrow limits of which full 60 per cent, of
the recoveries take place, are thus allowed to run to waste.
Months fly by, and the victim subsides into the class of incura-
bles. This produces a second evil. As the drafts of incurables
are perpetually flowing into the asylums, they become "blocked
up " in the course of* a few years, and are converted into houses
for the detention of hopeless cases. To this condition three-
fourths of the asylums are already reduced, and the efforts of
philanthropic medicine are brought to a dead lock by the short-
sightedness of the parish authorities, who do not consider that
for the sake of saving a few shillings in the board of Betty
Smith in the first weeks ol her craziness, they are converting
her into a chronic burthen, seeing that she will probably live on
to a good old age in the asylum, and cause them an ultimate
expenditure of hundreds of pounds. To the swifter removal
after the outbreak of the disorder we must look for a permanent
remedy ; but in the mean time something must be done to
disembarrass the public asylums of the dead-weight of hopeless
cases, if we seriously intend to take advantage of the curative
appliances we already possess. The commissioners seem
inclined to favour the erection of separate asylums for those who
are beyond the reach of medical art. To us it seems that the
more economical plan would be to apportion certain wards in
the various workhouses for the reception of chronic cases, and
to draft off the idiots alone to special establishments. By this
means our water-logged asylums would speedily right themselves,
and again become what they should never have ceased to be — ■
hospitals for the cure of the insane. At present we encourage
an elaborate system for the manufacture of life-long lunatics.
It is well known that the cures of early cases of insanity
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 189
throughout England amount to 45 per cent., and at Bethlehem
and St. Luke's, where no others are received, the cures have
amounted to 62 per cent, and 72 per cent, respectively; whereas
at Colney Hatch, Hanwell, and the Surrey County Asylum, the
three great receptacles for the sweepings of the metropolitan
workhouses, the average cures do not exceed 15 per cent. If
we take the lowest averages of cures, there is still a difference
of 30 per cent, of human creatures who sink down into the
cheerless night of chronic dementia and idiotcy, or who dream
away the remainder of their lives in hojDeless childishness.
Another ground of complaint is, that a degree of clerk's work is
imposed upon the medical superintendents of large asylums
which is quite inconsistent with a proper discharge of their
chief duty — the recovery of their patients. Irrespective of the
routine-labour of making daily and quarterly and yearly reports,
which is very considerable, they have far more to do in their
strictly professional capacity than they can possibly accomplish.
The three great asylums near the metropolis contain upwards
of 3,000 patients, or the population of a good-sized country
town ; and their moral and physical training is confided to
exactly six medical men, or as many as will be found in an
hospital of a hundred beds ! It is needless to observe how
little attention can be paid to each individual, and that the
more promising patients must be inevitably swamped in the sea
of hopeless lunatics. As long as our asylums remain mere
houses of detention, the want of medical superintendence is not
so apparent ; but immediately these establishments are restored
to their proper functions, we predict that the evil will become
too glaring to last.
In many boroughs the authorities have entirely evaded the
requirements of the Act of Parliament relative to their insane
pauper poor, and have not only neglected to erect proper
asylums, but have resisted for years the attempts of the
commissioners to compel them to do their duty. In all such
cases the lunatics not only suffer the ills consequent upon
insufficient care, but when too numerous for home accommoda-
tion are subjected to a system of transportation, which is not
190 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
only disgraceful to the municipal authorities themselves, but to
the age for permitting it. True to their economical instincts,
the guardians of the poor often " farm out " their insane paupers
to the proprietor of some private asylum, quite regardless of
distance. The commissioners, justly indignant at this sordid
practice, state in one of their Reports that —
" At present, large numbers of these patients are sent to licensed houses
far from their homes, to distances (sometimes exceeding, and often scarcely
less than, 100 miles) which their relations and friends are unable to
travel. The savings of the labouring poor are quite insufficient, in most
cases, to defray the expense of such journeys, and their time (constituting
their means of existence) cannot be spared for that purpose. The conse-
quence has been, that the poor borough lunatic has been left too often to
pass a considerable portion of his life, and in some cases to die, far from Ms
home, and without any of his nearest connexions having been able to comfort
him by their occasional presence. The visits of his parish officers are neces-
sarily cursory and unfrequent, and he is, in fact, cast upon the humanity
of strangers, whose prosperity depends upon the profits which they derive
from maintaining him and others of his class."
This is a system which we are confident is as illegal as it is
heartless, and we are astonished that bodies of Englishmen
should dare to insult the miseries of lunatics by thus punishing
them and their friends for their affliction. There were not long
since twenty-five insane paupers at Camberwell House, London,
who had been sent from Southampton, a distance of eighty miles,
though the Hants County Asylum is situated within sixteen
miles of the borough. Seventeen persons were in like manner
banished from Great Yarmouth to Highbridge House, near
London, and their relations, who had to travel 146 miles to see
them, passed, in the course of their journey, the Norfolk and
Essex County Asylums, both of which establishments had many
vacancies and would willingly have received them. The pauper
lunatics of Ipswich, King's Lynn, Dover, Canterbury, Ports-
mouth, and various other boroughs, are in the same way
transferred by the local authorities to some of the metropolitan
licensed houses.
The feelings of the poor for their afflicted relatives are often
of the deepest kind, and the utmost distress is entailed upon
them by these cruel separations from those they love. In one
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 191
case, a native of Ipswich, too poor to go by the railway, walked
to London and back on foot, a distance of 140 miles, for the
sole purpose of visiting his wife, who had been wickedly
banished to Peckham House, London. In other cases parents
have pleaded so piteously to be conveyed to their children, that
the commissioners have suggested that the expenses should be
paid out of the parish funds, but the authorities who had con-
trived the original proceeding in order to save two or three
shillings a head, could not of course be induced to furnish
money for so sentimental a purpose. The commissioners have
resolutely refused their sanction to such disgraceful transactions
whenever they have come within their knowledge and jurisdic-
tion — one instance out of many which prove that, however
much the borough authorities may denounce them as a cen-
tralized power, they have done excellent service in checking
local ignorance, selfishness, and inhumanity.
If we now turn to consider the condition of private asylums,
we shall find much in them to praise as well as to condemn.
"When men of reputation, acknowledged skill, and character —
such as Drs. Conolly, Forbes Winslow, Sutherland, and Munro,
of London ; Drs. Hitch, Noble, Newington, Fox, in the pro-
vinces, have the management of private asylums, the public
need be under no apprehension of patients being improperly
received, illegally detained, or cruelly and unscientifically
treated. The licensed houses in the metropolitan district
directly under the control of the Lunacy commissioners,
amounting to forty-one in number, represent, without doubt,
the fairest specimens of these establishments. Liable as they
are at any moment to the inspection of the commissioners, and
presided over as many of them are by the most eminent
members of the profession, they are generally maintained in a
high state of efficiency. They are principally devoted to the
care of the higher classes of the community, and afford perhaps
the nearest approach yet made to a perfect method of treat-
ment, being conducted in most cases on the principle of a
private family. The bolts, bars, high walls, and dismal airing-
192 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
courts of the public asylum are either unknown, or so hidden
as no longer to irritate the susceptible mind of the lunatic. The
unwise division of the sexes is not as a rule adopted. Scrupulous
attention to dress and all the forms of polite society are
enjoined alike for their own sake, and as a method of interest-
ing patients in the daily life of the community. When we
partook of the hospitalities of one of these establishments, we
could detect nothing in the countenances or the appearance of
the guests which was characteristic of their condition : the
restless eye, the incoherent conversation, the sudden movement
of the peculiarly formed head, which our preconceived notions
led us to expect, were none of them observable. One individual
indeed there was whom we mentally concluded to be certainly
mad. Yet, singular to say, this gentleman was the only sane
individual in the room, besides ourselves and the medical super-
intendent ; and on further acquaintance, having told our ill-
placed suspicions, he frankly confessed that he had in his own
mind paid ourselves a similar compliment. The eager glance
of curiosity natural to inquisitive strangers was the nearest
approach in this lunatic party to the outward appearance of
lunacy. So much for the " unmistakeable " countenance of
the insane ! It is not to be supposed that the more violent
can be allowed this social freedom even in private establish-
ments, or that madness is different in a metropolitan licensed
house from what it is in a public asylum ; but we unhesitatingly
assert that in the vast majority of cases the large amount
of freedom and the absence of any prison-like characteristics
have an undoubted effect, not only in calming the mind of the
patient, but in expediting his recovery. Hence the per-centage
of cures in a high-class private asylum are immeasurably
beyond those of any public establishment. The pleasure-
ground, out-of-door games, carriage and riding parties, billiards,
whist and evening parties, all contribute their aid in restoring
the unhinged mind. We have seen four or five patients leave
the doors of one of these licensed metropolitan houses (the
establishment of Dr. Forbes Winslow, " Sussex House," Ham-
mersmith), and remain out for hours without any attendant,
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 193
their word of honour being the only tie existing between them
and the asylum.*
The condition of a few of the provincial licensed houses is
* In the subjoined passage, which is extracted from an official commu-
nication to the Commissioners in Lunacy, and published in one of their
parliamentary reports, Dr. Forbes Winslow explains the principles which
should guide the physician in the moral treatment of the insane when
placed under legal control and supervision : — " In the management of the
insane, and in the conduct of asylums, both public and private, the prin-
ciple of treatment should consist in a full and liberal recognition of the
importance of extending to the insane the maximum amount of liberty and
indulgence compatible with their safety, security, and recovery ; at the
same time, subjecting them to the minimum degree of mechanical and
moral restraint, isolation, seclusion, and surveillance, consistent with their
actual morbid state of mind at the time. It is also necessary to bear in mind
as an essential principle of curative treatment, the importance of bringing
the insane confined in asylums, as much as possible, within the sphere of
social, kindly, and domestic influences. In many cases, isolation, seclusion,
and an absolute immunity from all kinds of stimuli, physical and mental,
are, during the acute and recent stages of insanity, indispensably necessary
to recovery ; but in certain forms of melancholia, monomania, and in some
chronic morbid states of mind, no mode of moral treatment is productive
of such great curative results as that now referred to. I need not observe
that this system of treatment cannot be adopted except in those establish-
ments where there is an active, experienced, and intelligent resident
medical officer, who fully appreciates the great value of such homely
family influences upon the minds of the insane. In our moral treatment,
do we not occasionally exhibit an excess of caution, and exercise, with the
best and kindest intentions, an undue amount of moral restraint and
vigilance ? I think we may sometimes err in being a little too distrustful
of the insane. Whilst urging the necessity, in certain forms of morbid
mind, of great and constant watchfulness, particularly in cases of suicidal
monomania, and recent and acute attacks, I would suggest, to those
having the management of asylums, the necessity, with the view to the
adoption of a curative process of treatment, of placing more confidence in
those entrusted to their care, and of allowing the patients a greater
amount of freedom, indulgence, and liberty than they at present enjoy in
many of our public and private asylums. In many phases of insanity in
which confinement is indispensable, the patient's word may fully be relied
upon ; and under certain well-defined restrictions, he should be permitted
to feel that confidence is reposed in him, and that he is trusted, and not
altogether (although in confinement) deprived of his free and independent
agency. I feel quite assured that a judicious liberality of this kind will be
generally followed by the happiest curative results, and greatly conduce to
the comfort and happiness of the patient. Patients should be permitted
occasionally to attend divine worship out of the asylum, when circumstances
do not contra-indicate this practice ; they should be allowed also to walk
out of the confines of the asylum, to attend places of amusement, visit
scientific exhibitions ; and the resident medical officer should make himself
their friend and companion ; thus inspiring them with confidence in his
skill and kindly intentions, and reconciling them to the degree of moral
restraint to which they may be unavoidably subjected."
O
194 LT7XATIC ASYLOIS.
still glaringly load, and shows that old ideas, with respect to
insanity, are not entirely obsolete. The Eeport of the Com-
missioners of Lunacy for 1856, relates circumstances which
lead us back to the old days of Bedlam. Thus at Hanbury
House the Commissioners found " one young lady fastened by
webbing wristbands to a leathern belt ; she was also tied down
to her chair by a rope." Again, they found on their last visit
to the Sandford Asylum, in December, 1855, "a patient just
dead, his body exhibiting sores and extensive sloughs, arising
necessarily, we think, from want of water-pillows or other
proper precautions. The room has a stone or plaster floor,
and is without a fire." It is, however, encouraging to find
that, as far as personal restraint goes, the very worst of our
private asylums are far superior to some of the best of the
public asylums of France. Dr. Webster, our great authority
on this point, gives in Dr. "Winslow's Psychological Journal,
the results gleaned in his visits to these establishments in the
August and September of 1850 : —
" Forty male lunatics out of 1464 then resident were in camisole (strait-
waistcoats), some being also otherwise restrained, thereby giving an
individual in restraint to every 33^ male inmates, or three per hundred.
Amongst the female lunatics, again, the proportion was somewhat larger,
72 persons of that sex, out of the total 1902 resident patients, being under
medical coercion ; thus making one female in restraint to every 26^ in-
mates, or at the rate of 3 "78 per cent. In contrast with this report
respecting the above-named French provincial asylums, I would now
place an official statement of the practice pursued at Bethlehem Hospital
during the same period. At this establishment, where formerly the strait-
waistcoat, with various kinds of personal coercion, were even in greater
use than on the other side of the Channel, not one insane patient, among
an average population of 391 lunatics, was under constraint of any descrip-
tion during the five weeks ending the 25th of September, when I first
visited that institution after my return from the Continent, and which
embraced the whole time referred to in this memorandum."
From these curious facts it will be seen that we are far in
advance of our French, and, we may also add, of our other
continental neighbours.* When the beneficent thought struck
the great Pinel to knock off the fetters of the English captain,
* In Belgium, where many of the pauper lunatics are located in religious
houses and are attended upon by the freres and scaurs of these establish-
ments, it is not uncommon to find the patients at certain times of the day
totally deserted and left to their own devices — the attendants being en-
gaged in their religious duties ]
LUXATIC ASYLUMS. 195
he sounded a note which reverberated through Europe, and
the poor insane captives issued from their dungeons in which
thej had been so long immured as the prisoners emerge from
their prison to the divine strains of Beethoven's " Fidelio."
Bat when this vast step was accomplished there still remained
an immense amount of coercion scarcely less injurious than the
old darkness and chains, and to Englishmen is mainly due the
credit of abolishing it. Nor shall we rest where we are. It is
our belief as well as our hope that, before another generation
has gone by, the last vestige of restraint, in the shape of dismal
airing-courts, and outside walls, which serve to wound the
spirit rather-than to enslave the limbs, will pass for ever among
us, and only be remembered with the hobbles and the manacles
of the past.
It has been asserted by some psychologists that lunacy is on
the increase, and that its rapid development of late years has
been consequent upon the increased activity of the national
mind. This statement is certainly startling and calculated to
arrest the attention of all thoughtful men. Is it true that
civilisation has called to life a monster such as that which
appalled Frankenstein 1 Is it a necessity of progress that it
shall ever be accompanied by that fearful black rider which,
like Despair, sits behind it ? Does mental development mean
increased mental decay ? If these questions were truly answered
in the affirmative, we might indeed sigh for the golden time
when
" Wild in woods the noble savage ran,"
for it would be clear that the nearer humanity strove to attain
towards divine perfection, the more it was retrograding towards
a state inferior to that of the brute creation. A patient ex-
amination, however, of the question entirely negatives such a
conclusion. Dr. Ray, of the United States, in taking the
opposite view of the case, says : —
"If we duly consider the characteristics of our times, we shall there
find abundant reason for the fact that insanity has been increasing at a
rate unparalleled in any former period. In every successive step that has
led to a higher degree of civilisation ; in all the means and appliances for
o 2
196 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
developing the mental resources of the race ; in the ever-widening circle of
objects calculated to influence desire, and impel to effort, we find so many
additional agencies for tasking the mental energies, and thereby deranging
the healthy equilibrium which binds the faculties together, and leads to an
harmonious result. The press and the rostrum, the railway and the
spinning-jenny, the steam engine and the telegraph, republican institutions
and social organizations, are agencies more potent in preparing the mind
for insanity than any or all of those vices and casualties which exert a
more immediate and striking effect."
Such is the burthen of the story of all those psychologists
who believe that insanity is fast gaining upon ns ; but if li - in
the ever-widening circle of objects calculated to influence desire
and impel to effort, we find so many additional agencies for task-
ing the mental energies, and thereby deranging the healthy
equilibrium which binds the faculties together," it should appear
that those classes of society which are in the van of civilization
should be the chief sufferers. Bankers, great speculators, mer-
chants, engineers, statesmen, philosophers and men of letters —
those who work with the brain rather than with their hands, —
should afford the largest proportion to the alleged increase of
insanity. How does the matter really stand 1 ? In the Report
of the Commissioners in Lunacy for the year 1847 we find the
total number of private patients of the middle and upper
classes then under confinement in private asylums, amounted
to 4,649. Xow, if we skip eight years, and refer to the Report
of 1855, we find that there were only 4,557 patients under
confinement, or about 96 less, notwithstanding the increase
of population during that period. If we compare the number
of pauper lunatics under confinement at these two different
periods, we shall find a widely-different state of things ; for in
1847 there were 9,654 in our public and private asylums,
whilst in 1855 they numbered 15,822. In other words, our
pauper lunatics would appear to have increased 6,170 in eight
years, or upwards of 64 per cent. It is this extraordinary
increase of pauper lunatics in the county asylums which has
frightened some psychologists from their propriety, and led
them to believe that insanity is running a winning race with
the healthy intellect. But these figures, if they mean any-
thing, prove that it is not the intellect of the country that
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 197
breeds insanity, but its ignorance, as it cannot be for one
moment contended that the grent movements now taking
place in the world originate with the labouring classes. We
shall be told, we know, that there is a constant descent of
patients from private asylums to the public asylums ; that the
professional man and the tradesman, after expending the means
of his friends and family for a year or two, in the vain hope of
a speedy cure, becomes necessarily in the end a pauper lunatic,
and that this stream aids to swell the numbers in the county
institution. Allowing its due weight to this explanation — and
those who know public asylums are well aware how small, com-
paratively speaking, is the educated element — yet as the same
disturbing element in the calculation obtained at both periods,
we may safely conclude that the figures are not thereby essen-
tially altered.
A still more convincing proof that mental ruin springs rather
from mental torpidity than from mental stimulation, is to be
found by comparing the proportion of lunatics to the population
in the rural and the manufacturing districts. Sir Andrew Hal-
liday, who worked out this interesting problem in 1828,* selected
as his twelve non-agricultural counties — Cornwall, Cheshire,
Derby, Durham, Gloucester, Lancaster, Northumberland, Staf-
ford, Somerset, York (West Riding), and Warwick, which con-
tained a population at that time of 4.493,194, and a total number
of 3,910 insane persons, or one to every 1,200. His twelve
agricultural counties were Bedford, Berkshire, Bucks, Cambridge,
Hereford, Lincoln, Norfolk, Northampton, Oxford, Rutland,
Suffolk, and Wilts, the total population of which were 2,012,979,
and the total number of insane persons 2,526 — a proportion of
1 lunatic to every 820 sane. Another significant fact elicited
was, that whilst in the manufacturing counties the idiots were
considerably less than the lunatics, in the rural counties the idiots
were to the lunatics as 7 to 5 ! Thus the Hodges of England
* It may be as well to state that the Poor-Law Commissioners also
worked out the problem with very similar conclusions in 1851. and that the
investigations made by the Swedish Government into the condition of the
insane in Norway in 1S35 further corroborate the statement that insanity
prevails to a greater extent in rural than in urban districts.
198 LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
who know nothing of the march of intellect, who are entirely
guiltless of speculations of any kind, contribute far more inmates
to the public lunatic asylums than the toil-worn artisans of Man-
chester or Liverpool, who live in the great eye of the world, and
keep step with the march of civilization, even if they do but
bring up its rear. Isolation is a greater cause of mental ruin
than aggregation — our English fields can afford cretins as plen-
tifully as the upland valleys of the mountain range, seldom
visited by the foot of the traveller ; whilst, on the other hand,
in the workshop and the public assembly, "As iron weareth
iron, so man sharpeneth the face of his friend."
If we required further proof of the groundless nature of the
alarm that mental activity was destroying the national mind, we
should find it in the well- ascertained fact that the proportion of
lunatics is greater among females than males. It may also be
urged that Quakers, who pride themselves on the sedateness of
their conduct, furnish much more than their share ; but for this
singular result their system of intermarriage is doubtless much
' to blame. Still the fact remains, that within a period of eight
: years, extending from 1847 to 1855, an increase of 64 per cent.
• took place in our pauper lunatic asylums. These figures, how-
ever, afford no more prooi of the increase of pauper lunatics than
the increase of criminal convictions since the introduction of a
milder code of laws and the appointment of the new police
afford a proof of increased crime. As the commissioners very
justly observe, medical practitioners of late years have taken a
far more comprehensive as well as scientific view of insanity
than formerly ; and many forms of the disease now fall under
their care that were previously overlooked, when no man was
considered mad unless he raved, or was an idiot. But the great
cause of the increase of lunatics in our asylums is to be ascribed
to the erection of the asylums themselves. With the exception
of three or four Welsh counties, and two or three in the north
of England, there is not a shire in England which does not
possess some palatial building. These establishments, in which
restraint, speaking in the ordinary acceptance of the term, is
unknown, and in which the inmates are always treated with
LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 199
humanity, have drained the land of a lunatic population which
before was scattered among villages or workhouses, amounting,
according to the computation of the commissioners, to upwards
of 10,500 — -just as the deep wells of the metropolitan brewers
have drained for miles around the shallow wells of the neigh-
bourhood in which they are situated. For the same reason the
number of lunatic paupers has declined in registered hospitals
since 1847 from 384 to 185, and in "licensed houses" from
3,996 to 2,313. Upon the whole, we may safely predict that, when
these disturbing causes have ceased to act, the annual returns of
the commissioners will show that, as the treatment of insanity
is every day better understood, so the pauper lunatics in our
public asylums, instead of increasing in a ratio far beyond that
of the general population, show a diminished proportion. Already
there are symptoms that the flood is returning to its proper
level ; for while the lunatics of all classes in the public asylums,
licensed houses, and in the Royal Hospital at Haslar, were
20,493 in 1855, they had only advanced in 1856 to 20,764,
which is an increase in the twelvemonth of but 271.
THE LONDON COMMISSABIAT.
"f, early on a summer morning before the smoke of countless
fires had narrowed the horizon of the metropolis, a spectator
were to ascend to the top of St. Paul's, and take his stand upon
the balcony, that with gilded rail flashes like a fringe of fire
upon the summit of the dome, he would see sleeping beneath
his feet the greatest camp of men upon which the sun has ever
risen. As far as he could distinguish by the morning light he
would behold stretched before him the mighty map of the
metropolis ; and could he ascend still higher, he would note the
stream of life overflowing the brim of hills which enclose the
basin in which it stands.
In the space swept by his vision would lie the congregated
habitations of two millons and a half of his species — but how
vain are figures to convey an idea of so immense a multitude.
If Norway, streching from the Frozen Ocean down to the
southern extremity of the North Sea, were to summon all its
people to one vast conclave, they would number little more
than half the souls within the London bills of mortality.
Switzerland, in her thousand valleys, could not muster such an
army ; and even busy Holland, within her mast-tbronged
harbours, humming cities, and populous plains, could barely
overmatch the close-packed millions within sound of the great
bell at his feet. As the spectator gazed upon this extraor-
dinary prospect, the first stir of the awakening city would
gradually steal upon his ear. The rumbling of wheels, the
clang of hammers, the clear call of the human voice, all deepen-
ing by degrees into a confused hum, would proclaim that the
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 201
mighty city was once more rousing to the labour of the day, and
the blue columns of smoke climbing up to heaven that the
morning meal was at hand. At such a moment the thought
would naturally arise in his mind, — In what manner is such an
assemblage victualled 1 By what complicated wheels does all
the machinery move by which two millions and a half of
human beings sit down day by day to their meals as regularly
and quietly as though they only formed a sung little party at
Lovegrove's on a summer's afternoon ? As thus he mused
respecting the means by which the supply and demand of so
vast a multitude is brought to agree, so that every one is
enabled to procure exactly what he wants, at the exact time,
without loss to himself or injury to the community, thin lines
of steam, sharply marked for the moment, as they advanced one
after another from the horizon and converged towards him,
would indicate the arrival of the great commissariat trains,
stored with produce from all parts of these isles and from the
adjacent continent. Could his eye distinguish in addition the
fine threads of that far-spreading web which makes London the
most sensitive spot on the earth, he would be enabled to take
in at a glance the two agents — steam and electricity — which
keep the balance true between the wants and the supply of
London.
If our spectator will now descend from his giddy height, and
will accompany us among the busy haunts of men, we will
attempt to point out to him whence those innumerable commo-
dities, which he has seen pouring into the town, have been
obtained, the chief marts to which they are consigned, and the
manner in which they are distributed from house to house.
Had London like Paris its octroi, the difficulty of our task
would be limited to the mere display of official figures, but,
thanks to a free policy, we have no such means of getting at
strictly accurate estimates, and must therefore content ourselves
with the results of patient inquiry among the foremost carriers
— the railway companies — aided by such other information as
we have been able to procure. For the sake of convenience,
and of sequence, let us imagine that the principal daily meal is
202 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT,
proceeding, and, according to the order of the courses, we will
endeavour to trace the various edibles to their source — the fish
to its sea — the beast to its pasture — the wild animal to its lair
— the game to its cover — and the fruit to its orchard ; to point
out how they are netted, fattened, bagged, gathered, and con-
veyed to their ultimate destination — the great red lane of
London humanity, Let us begin with fish, and that unrivalled
fish- market which all the world is aware rears its head by
London Bridge.
Those who remember old Billingsgate, with its tumble-down
wharf, and dock half choked with corruption and oyster-shells
— a dirty remnant of the days of Elizabeth — will enter with
pleasure Mr. Bunning's new market. Through its Italian colon-
nade are seen the masts of the fishing smacks, and the brown
wharves of the opposite side — a pleasing picture, which instantly
fixes the artistic eye. The busy scene within the market
between the hours of five and seven in the morning, is one of
the marvels of the metropolis. Billingsgate is the only whole-
sale fish-market in London, and it may therefore be imagined
how great must be the business transacted within its walls.
Of old, nine-tenths of the supply came by way of the river, the
little that came by land being conveyed from the coast, at great
expense, in four-horse vans. Now the railways are day by day
supplanting smacks, and in many cases steamers ; for by means
of its iron arms, London, whilst its millions slumber, grasps the
produce of every sea that beats against our island coast, and
ere they have uprisen it is drawn to a focus in this central mart.
Thus every night in the season the hardy fishermen of Yarmouth
catch a hundred tons (12,081 yearly), principally herring, which,
by means of the Eastern Counties Railway, are next morning at
Billingsgate. The South- Western Railway sends up annually,
with the same speed, 4,000 tons of mackerel and other fish, the
gatherings of the south coast. The North Western collects
over night -the " catch" from Ireland, Scotland, and the north-
east coast of England, and adds to the Thames-street mart
3,578 tons, principally of salmon, whilst the Great Northern
delivers to the early morning market, or sometimes later in
THE LONDON COMMISSAKIAT. 203
the day, 3,248 tons of like sea produce. The Great "Western
brings up the harvest of the Cornish and Devonshire coasts,
chiefly mackerel and pilchards, to the amount of 1,560 tons in
the year ; and the Brighton and South Coast conveys the incre-
dible number of 15,000 bushels of oysters, besides 4,000 tons of
other fish. Nearly one-half in fact of the fish- supply of London,
instead of following as of old the tedious route of the coast, is
hurried in the dead of night across the leDgth and breadth of
the land to Billingsgate, and, before the large consumers in
Tyburnia and Belgravia have left their beds, may be seen either
lying on the marble slabs of the fishmongers, or penetrating on
the peripatetic barrow of the costermonger into the dismal
lanes and alleys inhabited by " London Labour and the London
Poor." These prodigious gleanings from what Goldsmith
might well call the "finny deep," are conveyed from the termini
in spring-vans, drawn by two and occasionally by four horses.
Salmon comes in boxes, herrings in barrels, and all other kinds
of fish, in baskets. Sometimes as many as sixty of these vans
will arrive in the narrow street leading to the market in the
course of two or three hours, and the scene of confusion occa-
sioned by their rushing among the fishmongers' carts and the
costermongers' barrows, the latter often amounting to more
than a thousand, is almost as great as that at Smithfield ; for
the fish, like the live-stock trade, has long outgrown its mart :
and Billingsgate, as much as Smithfield, is choked for want of
space. Let the visitor beware how he enters it in a good coat,
for, as sure as he goes in in broad cloth, he will come out in
scale armour. They are not polite at Billingsgate, as all the
world knows, and " by your leave" is only a preliminary to
your hat being knocked off your head by a bushel of oysters or
a basket of crabs. In the early part of the morning, the traffic
is carried on in comparative quiet, for the regular fishmongers,
who have the first of the market, conduct their business with
little disturbance, but it would gladden the heart of a Dutch,
painter to see the piled produce of a dozen different seas glitter-
ing with silver and brilliant with colour. Gigantic salmon, fresh
caught from the firths and bays of Scotland, or from the pro-
204 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
ductive Irish seas, flounder about, as the boxes in "which they
have travelled disgorge them upon the board. Quantities of
delicate red mullet, that have been hurried up by the Great
"Western, all the way from Cornwall, for the purpose of being
furnished fresh to the fastidious palates at the West End ;
smelts brought by the Dutch boats, their delicate skins varying
in hue like an opal as you pass ; pyramids of lobsters, a moving
mass of spiteful claws and restless feelers, savage at their late
abduction from some Norwegian fiord ; great heaps of pinky
shrimps ; turbots, that lately fattened upon the Doggerbank,
with their white bellies bent as for some tremendous leap ; and
humbler plaice and dabs, from our own craft — all this bountiful
accumulation forms a mingled scene of strange forms and vivid
colours, that no one with an eye for the picturesque can con-
template without interest. Neither is the scene always one of
still life, for it is no rare occurrence for the visitor to behold a
yelliug knot of men dragging with ropes through the excited
crowd a royal sturgeon, nine feet in length. If the spectator
now peeps down the large square opening into the dismal space
below, which appears like the hold of a ship lately recovered
from the deep, he will see the shell-fish market, where piles
of blue-black muscles, whelks, and grey cockles turned up
with yellow, give the place a repulsive aspect of dirt and
slop. There are but few buyers seen here, and they are gene-
rally women belonging to the costermonger class, for the
men rather disdain the shell-fish trade. These female itine-
rants may be noticed wandering about from basket to
basket, occasionally gouging out a whelk from the shell
with the thumb, to test the lot, and then passing on to the
next.
Busiest among the busy is seen the " Bommeree," or middle-
man — sometimes called the forestalled The province of this
individual is to purchase the fish as it comes into the market,
and divide it into lots to suit large and small buyers, sepa-
rating the qualities according as they are designed for St. James's
or St. Giles's. These worthies used at one time to forestal
the market extensively, when they felt certain, from the state
THE LONDON C03IMISSAKIAT. 205
of the tide, that no fish supplies could be poured in for the day,
but now the railway defeats their tactics, and the utter uncer-
tainty of the arrivals has done away with this branch of their
business. After the "trade" has been supplied, and the serge-
aproned " regulars" have loaded their light spring carts, there
comes, especially in certain fish seasons, an eruption of pur-
chasers of a totally different character — the costermongers of
streets. This nomade tribe, which wanders in thousands from
market to market, performs a most important part in the
distribution of food. They are for the greater part the trades-
men of the poor, and by their energy and enterprise secure to
our working-classes many of the fruits of both sea and land,
which they would never taste but for them. About seven
o'clock the army of street-vendors, foot and " donkey," for the
greater number rattle up in barrows drawn by that useful
animal, begin visibly to change the whole hue and appearance
of the place. Young fellows in fustian coats and Belcher
handkerchiefs throng the market, and board the smacks,
" chaffing," higgling, joking, and swearing — but never fighting,
for the costermonger has too much to do at present to make
physical demonstrations. Among the most eager of the
itinerant salesmen the visitor speedily distinguishes the Judaic
nose. The Hebrews, who are in great force about this neigh-
bourhood on account of the dried-fruit trade, which is mainly
in their hands, deal largely also in fish. The poorer members
of the fraternity purchase the bigger portion of the fresh-water
supply, such as plaice, roach, dace, &c, in fact, nearly everything
caught by the Wandsworth fisherman, whose picturesque
"bawley" boats, which often contain both his family and
fortune, may generally be seen moored in the stream between
Battersea reach and Kew bridge, a mass of brown nets and
umber canopies lit up by the brilliant red caps of their owners,
just such as Constable loved to paint in the foregrounds of his
landscapes. These fish, if not alive, must at least retain the
spasmodic quivering of the flesh which remains immediately
after death, or the Jews will not buy, for reasons we suppose
connected with their religion, since their chief trade is among
206 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
tlie rich and poor of their own people. The Wandsworth fisher-
men also supply all the white-bait that is consumed at Green-
wich and Blackwall : it is caught generally between the latter
place and Woolwich at night, and it is singular that a fish
which is among the most delicate we have, should flourish in
one of the foulest parts of the foulest river in Europe. The
area of the market, as soon as the costermongers appear,
speedily becomes broken up into numbers of little circles,
strictly intent upon the eye of individuals who take up
a position high over their heads upon the boards or
stands. These are the salesmen, disposing by auction of the
fish consigned to them. Some of the dealers are moneyed
men, and will lay out their fifty pounds of a morning, re-selling
to their fellows again at a profit. The smaller capitalists
combine in threes and fours, and thus manage to get their com-
modities at wholesale prices. The activity of the market
mainly depends upon the season of the year and the amount of
fish. The energy of these peripatetics is surprising : they
look in at Billingsgate, and if the supply runs short they
are off again immediately to Covent Garden, for they deal
in everything, and the barrow that one morning you see
filled with fresh herrings, the next is blooming with plums. If,
on the contrary, a large cargo of sprats comes suddenly into
London, or if soles should be unusually plentiful, it is known in
an incredibly short space of time ail over the town, and they
flock to the market in thousands; as many as five thousand is
the usual attendance on such occasions. These costermongers
absorb more than a third of the whole Billingsgate supply ; of
sprats and fresh herrings they take fully two-thirds. Turbot
and all the costlier fish they purchase sparingly, but they buy
largely when it chances to be cheap, as in the cholera year of
1849, when prime salmon went a-begging at four-pence a pound!
If the market is dull, and prices are high, the fact is speedily
known, and the cry of " !N"o smacks at the Gate," is sufficient
to turn the current immediately in the direction of the
" Garden."
Steam, as we have already intimated, has revolutionized the
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 207
fish-trade, and is rapidly sweeping away the whole fleet of
smacks propelled by sails, as ruthlessly as the rail did stage-
coaches. A few years ago all the oysters were brought by
water to Billingsgate ; but a short time since a great natural
bed, called the Mid Channel Bed, which stretches for forty miles
between the ports of Shoreham and Havre, was discovered, and,
the dredging-ground being free to all comers, a vast field of
wealth, has been opened to fishermen, especially as from the
proximity of the Brighton and South Coast Railway the pro-
duce can be sent immediately to town, and escape the dues of
metage and other tolls to which all fish landed at the market is
liable. Seaborne oysters are thus placed at a great disadvan-
tage, and the different companies owning them justly complain
at a city exaction which takes a large sum annually out of their
pockets, besides the charge for porterage it entails upon the
purchasers. Mr. Alston, who is, without doubt, the largest
oyster-fisher in the world, sent up in one year between 40,000 and
50,000 bushels from his fishery, Cheyney Rock, near Sheerness,
and paid 800?. for metage. The whole trade paid no less than
3,000?., and this for services which their own men could do as
well as themselves, were it not for a custom which enforces
idleness upon the smack people,*
The " scuttle-mouths," as they are termed from their huge
shell, pay no attention to season, and consequently oyster-day
has now in a great degree lost its significance. The 4th of
August is still, it is true, the opening day at Billingsgate, but
the supply from without has taken the wind out of its sails.
Only those who have witnessed the crowds filling all the streets
* If the spectator, while leaning over the rail of the wharf and watching
"Oyster Street," as the costermongers call the line of oyster-boats moored
side by side, has ever been at a loss to understand why it is that in the
very heigh t of the market, when the decks are crowded with purchasers,
the sailors are seen hanging about the boats, or seated upon the bulwarks,
taking their morning pipes, whilst the duty of measuring and carrying the
oysters is being performed by the " Fellowships " belonging to the corpora-
tion of London, he will now know the reason. Steam will, however, surely
abolish many of these city abuses, and rail-borne oysters will lend their
powerful aid to rail-borne coal in abolishing regulations which are not in
accordance with the emancipated spirit of the age.
208 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
leading to the market long before the hour of business — six
o'clock in the morning — can understand the eagerness exhi-
bited of old to obtain some of the first day's oysters. All this
is now gone. There were not more than eighteen smacks at
the opening of the present year, and, few as were the arrivals,
the buyers were not eager. The Mid-Channel oysters, which
have thus disturbed the old trade, are of a large and by no
means delicate kind, such as come from Tenby, Jersey, &c. —
coarse fish, eaten by rough men — third-class oysters, in fact,
which rarely penetrate to the West End, unless to make sauce.
Real natives are greater aristocrats among their fellows than
ever ; the demand for them has for a long time far exceeded
the supply, and the price has consequently risen. Of the birth,
parentage and nurture of this delicate fish, a curious tale could
be told. Designed for fastidious palates, much care and atten-
tion is bestowed upon its breeding. The habitue of the Opera,
who strolls up the brilliantly lighted Haymarket towards mid-
night, and turns into any one of the fish supper-rooms that line
its western side, little dreams of the organization at work to
enable him to enjoy his native. Most of the oysters, with the
exception of the Mid-Channel bed, are regularly cultivated by
different companies, who rear and tend them at different parts
of the south coast, and of the Thames at its mouth. Of these
companies there are nine, in addition to individuals who possess
and work what might be called sea-farms, several of which are
miles in extent. In all the beds there is a certain space dedi-
cated to natives. At Burnham, Essex, the " spat," or fecun-
dated sperm, is stored in large pits, and sold as native brood,
which is afterwards " laid" in that portion of the different beds
appropriated to privileged oysters. Here the young natives
remain for three years, when they are generally brought to
market. So far their education is left, in a certain degree, to
nature ; but once in the possession of the fish-shopkeepers, art
steps in to perfect their condition. They are now stored in
large shallow vats, being carefully laid with their proper sides
uppermost, and supplied daily with oatmeal : a process which is
calculated rather to fatten than to flavour, and there are many
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 209
who think that, like show cattle, they are none the better for
over-feeding. " Natives," packed in barrels, form one of the
articles of food that is largely sent out of London into the
country, as all persons know who travel much at Christmas
time, and notice with astonishment the pyramids of oyster-
barrels whicj^L crowd the platforms of all the termini of the
metropolis.
The frying-pans of London are mainly supplied with soles all
the year round by the trolling-boats of Barking, of which there
are upwards of 150 belonging to different companies. They
fish the North Sea off the coasts of Yorkshire and Holland,
particularly the Silver and Brown banks. Of old the smacks
used to carry their own catch to Billingsgate, but the loss of
time was so great, that latterly fast-sailing cutters have been
emploj'ed to attend upon the fishing-smacks and bring their
produce to market packed in ice. Of this splendid craft, which
can sail almost in the eye of the wind, there are forty ; and the
total number of seamen employed is not less than 2,000, the
greater part of whom have been taken as boys from the work-
house, and trained by this capital service into first-rate seamen.
It is curious to follow the small proceedings of the world into
their ultimate results. The gastronome, smiling complacently
as he withdraws the cover and reveals a well-browned pair of
soles, would never guess that they and their kind are the imme-
diate cause of a happy transmutation of parish burthens into
the right arm of our strength. Eels are constantly imported
to Billingsgate by the Dutch boats. The galliots never moor
close alongside the wharf, as the wells in which they bring their
fish alive cause them to draw too much water, but they anchor
midway in the stream, by twos and threes — their brown sides,
flat bows, with high cheek-bones, like their navigators, and
bright verd-green rudders, adding to the picturesque appearance
of the river. The great fat creatures brought by them mainly
supply the eel-pie houses, and contribute largely, we are informed,
to that oleaginous kind of soup which people too hungry to
be curious mistake for veritable oxtail and calves' head. The
Dutch boats do not, however, confine themselves to eels. They
P
210 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
deal in turbot, soles, and all kinds of flat-fish, sncli as frequent
the Dogger Bank, much to the discredit of our native enter-
DO »
prise, neglecting, as we do, the splendid deep-sea fishing-ground
off the south-west coast of Ireland, where cod and salmon are
to be found in abundant quantities, whilst those who know the
west coast well, declare there is turbot enough in Gal way Bay
" to supply the whole of Europe for the next hundred years."
We believe, however, it is now in contemplation to go to
work upon a large scale in those waters, having screw-steamers
to collect the produce, and bring it to Milford Haven alive in
wells, from which port it would come, via the South Wales and
Great Western Railways, to Billingsgate, within twenty-four
hours after it was caught. The value of screw steamers having
capacious wells has been fully tested by Mr, Howard, of Man-?
ningtree, Essex, who fitted an engine and screw into one of
his welled fishing-smacks. Scarcely a lobster, out of twenty
thousand put alive into the boat, was lost, whilst large numbers
of those brought in sailing smacks perish. Salmon, cod, and
other fish, are brought alive with the same success in the welled
steamers from the North Sea and the coast of Scotland. It is
almost time that some new ground were found in place of the
famous Dogger Bank, which has now been preyed upon by so
many nations for centuries, and has supplied so many genera-
tions of Catholics and Protestants with fast and feast food.
jSTo better proof that its stores are failing could be given than
the fact that, although the ground, counting the Long Bank
and the north-west flat in its vicinity, covers 11,800 square
miles, and that in fine weather it is fished by the London com-
panies with from fifteen to twenty dozen of long lines, extend-
ing to ten or twelve miles, and containing from 9,000 to 12,000
hooks, it is yet not at all common to secure even as many as
four score fish of a night — a poverty which can be better appre-
ciated when we learn that 600 fish for 800 hooks is the catch
for deep-sea fishing about Kinsale.
Towards the latter end of August the great herring season
commences. Yarmouth is the chief seat of this branch of the
piscatory trade. Every night when the weather is fine the
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 211
fishermen of this old port " shoot " upwards of 300 square miles
of net. Neptune in his ample arms never gave the ocean so
magnificent an embrace. The produce of this wholesale sweep-
ing of the sea is brought to town by the Eastern Counties
Hail way. They come up to Billingsgate packed in barrels and
in bulk, and the number sold in the year seems almost fabulous,
being upwards of a billion. Next to the herring fishery the
sea-harvest of most importance to the poor of London is that
of sprats, which come in about Lord Mayor's Day, and it is a
popular belief that the first dish is always sent to the chief
magistrate of the city. If a telegraph were to be laid down to
all the alleys and courts, the fact of a large arrival of these
little creatures at Billingsgate would not be sooner made known
to the lower orders than, by some mysterious process, it is at
present. Mr. Goldham, the clerk of the market, accustomed as
he is to the sudden invasions of the costermongers, informs us
that the scene on board the smacks laden with sprats is really
frightful. The people hang thick as sea-weed from the rigging,
throng the decks, and swarm on every available inch of plank,
until the wonder is that the whole of the puny fleet does not
capsize with the weight. The cause of the scramble is that the
street sellers will not buy until they have seen the sample, and
every one consequently tries to gain the highest point, that he
may look down into the hold, whilst a man tumbles about the
sprats with a shovel, in silver showers. The plaice season suc-
ceeds to that of sprats, with the interval of mackerel, which
continues until the end of May, when Scotland and Ireland
begin to pass down their salmon into the market. But where
do all the lobsters come from ? The lovers of this most deli-
cious of the crustacese tribe will probably be astonished to learn
that they are mainly brought from Norway. France and the
Channel Islands, Orkney, and Shetland, do, it is true, contribute
a few to the metropolitan market, but full two-thirds are
reluctantly, and with much pinching and twisting, dragged out
of the thousand rock-bound inlets which indent the Norwegian
coast. They are conveyed alive in a screw-steamer and by
smacks, in baskets, sometimes to the extent of 20,000 of a night,
p 2
212
THE LOXDOX COMMIS3AKIAT.
to Great Grimsby, and are thence forwarded to town by the
Great Northern Eailway — another 10,000 arriving perhaps
from points on our own and the French coast. The fighting,
twisting, blue-black masses are taken as soon as purchased to
what are termed the " boiling-houses/' of which there are four,
situated in Duck and Love Lanes, close to the market ; and
here, for a trifling sum per score, they change their dark for
scarlet uniforms. They are plunged into the boiling cauldron,
basket and all, and in twenty minutes they are done. Crabs
are cooked in the same establishments, but their nervous
systems are so acute, that they clash off their claws in con-
vulsive agony if placed alive in hot water. To prevent this
mutilation, which w^ould spoil their sale, they are first killed by
the insertion of a needle through the head. The lobster trade
is mostly in the hands of one salesman, Mr. Saunders, of Thames
Street, who often has upwards of 15,000 consigned to him of a
morning, and who causes no less than 15,000?. a year to flow
into the fishy palms of Norwegians for this single article of
commerce. As to the total supply of fish to the London market,
we borrow the following estimate from Mr. Mayhew's very
clever book on " London Labour and the London Poor." The
figures seemed to us at first sight so enormous, that we hesi-
tatingly submitted the table to one of the largest salesmen
who assured us that it was no over-statement : —
Description of Fish.
No. of Fish.
Weight of Fish.
Wet Fish.
lbs.
Salmon andsalmontrout(29,000boxes, )
14 fisb per box) . . . )
406,000
3,480,000
Live cod (averaging 10 lbs. each).
400,000
4,000,000
Soles (averaging £lb. eacb) .
97,520,000
26,8S0,000
Wbiting (averaging 6 oz. each) .
17,920,000
6,720,000
Haddock (averaging 2 lbs. each) .
2,470,000
5,040,000
Plaice (averaging 1 lb. each)
33,600,000
33,600,000
Mackerel (averaging 1 lb. each) .
23,520,000
23,520,000
Fresh herrings (250,000 barrels, 700 )
fish per barrel) j
175,000,000
42,000,000
Ditto in bulk .....
1,050,000,000
252,000,000
Sprats ......
• •
4,000,000
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
213
Description of Fish.
No. of Fish.
Eels from Holland (principally). Eng
land, and Ireland (6 fish per lb.) .
Flounders (7, 2 00 qrtns., 36 fish per qtn.)
Dabs (7,500 qrtns., 36 fish per qrtn.) .
Dry Fish.
Barrelled cod (15,000 barrels, 40 fish
per barrel) ....
Dried salt cod (5 lbs. each) .
Smoked haddock (65,000 barrels, 300 )
fish per barrel) /
Bloaters (265,000 baskets, 150 fish per )
basket) i
Red herrings (100,000 barrels, 500 fish )
per barrel) \
Dried sprats (9.600 large bundles, 30 j
fish per bundle) j
Shell Fish.
Oysters .
Lobsters (averaging 1 lb. each fish)
Crabs (averaging 1 lb. each fish)
Shrimps (324 to a pint)
Whelks (227 to half bushel).
Mussels (1,000 to half bushel)
Cockles (2,000 to half bushel)
Periwinkles (4,000 to half bushel)
9,797,760
259,200
270,000
750,000
1,600,000
19,500,000
147,000,000
50,000,000
288,000
495,896,000
1,200,000
600,000
498,42S,64S
4,943,200
50,400,000
67,392,000
304,000,000
Weight of Fish.
lbs.
1,505,280
127,680
43,200
48,750
4,200,000
8,000,000
10,920,000
10,600,000
14,000,000
96,000
1,200,000
600,000
And now for the piece de resistance.
London has always been celebrated for the excellence of its
meat, and her sons do justice to it ; at least it has become the
universal impression that they consume more, man for man,
than any other town population in the world. It was a sirloin,
fresh and ruddy, hanging at the door of some Giblett or Slater
in a former century, that inspired, we suspect, the song which
ever since has stirred Englishmen in a foreign land, "The Roast
Beef of Old England." The visitor accustomed to the markets
of our large provincial towns would doubtless expect to find the
emporium of the live-stock trade for so vast a population of an
imposing size. The foreigner, after seeing the magnificence of
our docks — the solidity and span of our bridges — might
naturally look for a national exposition of our greatness in the
214 THE LOi^DOK COMMISSARIAT.
chief market dedicated to that British beef which is the boast
of John Bull. What they do see in reality, if they have
courage to wend their way along any of the narrow tumble-
down streets approaching to Smithfield, which the great fire
unfortunately spared, is an irregular space bounded by dirty
houses and the ragged party-walls of demolished habitations,
which give it the appearance of the site of a recent conflagration
— the whole space comprising just six acres, fifteen perches,
roads and public thoroughfares included. Into this narrow
area, surrounded with slaughter-houses, triperies, bone-boiling
houses, gut-scraperies, <fec, the mutton-chops, scrags, saddles,
legs, sirloins, and rounds, which grace the smiling boards of our
noble imperial capital throughout the year, have, for the major
part, been goaded and contused for the benefit of the civic
corporation installed at Guildhall.* The best time is early in
the morning — say one or two o'clock of the " great day," as the
last market before Christmas-day is called. On this occasion,
not only the space — calculated to hold 4,100 oxen and 30,000
sheep, besides calves and pigs — is crammed, but the approaches
around it overflow with live stock for many hundred feet, and
sometimes the cattle are seen blocking up the passage as far as
St. Sepulchre's church. If the stranger can make his way
through the crowd, and by means of some vantage-ground or
door-step can manage to raise himself a few feet above the
general level, he sees before him in one direction, by the dim
red light of hundreds of torches, a writhing party-coloured
mass, surmounted by twisting horns, some in rows, tied to rails
which run along the whole length of the open space, some
gathered together in one struggling knot. In another quarter,
the moving torches reveal to him now and then, through the
misty light, a couple of acres of living wool, or roods of pigs'
skins. If he ventures into this closely wedged and labouring
mass, he is enabled to watch more narrowly the reason of the
universal ferment among the beasts.
The drover with his goad is forcing the cattle into the
* Since this was written, the new market in Copenhagen Fields has
been opened, and a totally different state of things now obtained.
THE LONDON COSDIISSAPJAT. 215
smallest possible compass, and a little further on half a dozen
men are making desperate efforts to drag refractory oxen up to
the rails with ropes. In the scuffle which ensues the slipping
of the ropes often snaps the fingers of the persons who are
conducting the operation, and there is scarce a drover in the
market who has not had some of his digits broken. The sheep,
squeezed into hurdles like figs into a drum, lie down upon each
other, "and make no sign;" the pigs, on the other hand, cry
out before they are hurt. This scene, which has more the
appearance of a hideous nightmare than a weekly exhibition in
a civilised country, is accompanied by the barking of dogs, the
bellowing of cattle, the cursing of men, and the dull blows of
sticks — a charivari of sound that must be heard to be appre-
ciated. The hubbub gradually abates from twelve o'clock at
night, the time of opening, to its close at 3 p.m. next day ;
although during the whole period, as fresh lots are " headed
up," individual acts of cruelty continue. Can it excite surprise
that a state of things, the worst details of which we have
suppressed, because of the pain which such horrors excite,
sometimes so injures the stock that, to quote the words of one
of the witnesses before the Smithfield Commission, " a grazier
will not know his own beast four days after it has left him f
The meat itself suffers in quality ; for anything like fright or
passion is well known to affect the blood, and consequently the
flesh. Beasts subjected to such disturbances will often turn
green within twenty-four hours after death. Mr. Slater, the
well-known butcher of Kensington and Jermyn-street, states
that mutton is often so disfigured by blows and the goad, that
it cannot be sold for the "West-end tables. Many of the drovers
we doubt not are ruffians, but we believe the greater part of
this cruelty is to be ascribed to the market-place itself, which,
considering the immense amount of business to be got through
on Mondays and Fridays, is absurdly and disgracefully confined.
According to the official account, the number of live stock
exhibited in 1853 was —
Oxen.
Sheep.
Calves.
Pigs.
Total.
294,571
1,518,040
36,791
29,593
1,893,838
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
But this is far from giving a true idea of the whole amount
brought into London. Much stock arrives in the capital which
never enters the great mart. For example, Mr. Slater, who
kills per week, on the average, 200 sheep and from 20 to 25
oxen, says, in his evidence before the Smithfield Commission,
that he buys a great deal of his stock from the graziers in
Norfolk and Essex. Again, " town" pigs are slaughtered and
sent direct to the meat market, while many sheep are bought
from the parks, where they have been temporarily placed till
they find a purchaser. A much more correct estimate of the
flocks and herds which are annually consumed in London may
be gathered from a report of the numbers transmitted by the
different lines of railway, compiled from official sources by Mr.
Ormandy, the cattle- traffic manager of the North- Western
Railway. From this able pamphlet we extract the following
table : —
Oxen.
Sheep.
Calves.
Pigs.
Total
fur 1853.
Bv Eastern Counties .
Si. 744
277,735
3,492
23,427
386,398
,, L. & N. Western . .
70.435
248,445
5,113
24,287
348.280
,, Great Northern ....
15 439
120,333
563
8,973
145.30S
,, Great Western ....
6.813
3C4.607
2,320
2,9'-9
116,649
„ L. & S. Western ....
4.SS5
ion 960
1,781
516
108,142
„ South Eastern ....
875
58.320
114
142
59,451
„ L. & B. 8i S. Coast .
863
13,690
117
54
14,724
„ Sea from North of England and "i
Scotland .... J
14,662
11,141
421
3,672
29,896
,, Sea from Ireland
2.311
3.472
21
5.476
11,280
Imported from the Continent .
55,005
229,91S
25,720
10,131
320,834
Driven in by road, and from the"!
neighbourhood of the metropolis 1
(obtained from the toll-gate f
69,096
462,172
62,114
48,295
S4 1,647
lessees) J
Total .
322, 18S
1,630,793
101,776
127=852
2,182,6o'9
These numbers show at a glance what a part the railway
plays in supplyiug animal food to the metropolis, and how
trifling in comparison is the amount that travels up on foot.
The Eastern Counties lines, penetrating and monopolizing the
rich breeding and fattening districts of Norfolk and Essex,
bring up the largest share. Many of the little black cattle,
that tourists see in Scotland climbing the hills like cats, come
directly from these counties, having some months before been
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
217
sent thither from their native north to clothe their bones with
English substance. By the same line we receive a fair portion
of that great foreign contribution to our larders, the mere
shadow of which so frightened our graziers some years ago,
principally Danish stock, which finds its way from Tonning to
Lowestoff, a route newly opened up by the North of Europe
Steam-ship Company. The North-Western is next in rank as
a carrier of live stock. This line takes in the contributions
from the Midland Counties, and, by way of Liverpool, abundance
of Irish and Scotch cattle. The Great Northern is perhaps
destined to surpass both in the quantities of food it will
eventually pour into London, running as it does through the
northern breeding districts, and receiving at its extremity the
herds which come from Aberdeen and its neighbourhood.
The foreign supply last year of cattle, sheep, pigs, and calves,
was more than a seventh of the entire number sent to London.
The daily bills of entries at the Custom House furnishes us
with a valuable indication of the fields from which we have
already received, and may in future expect to receive still
further additions of what Englishmen greatly covet — good beef
and mutton at a moderate price. The arrivals by steam in the
port of London in 1853 were as follows : —
From
Oxen.
Sheep.
Calves.
Pigs.
Total.
Holland
40,538
172,730
24,280
9,370
246,918
Denmark .
9,487
7,515
60
17,062
Hanseatic Towns
4,366
37,443
1
632
42,442
Belgium
449
12,006
1,244
13,699
France
105
224
135
129
593
Portugal .
100
. .
100
Spain
17
. .
17
Russia
Total .
3
••
••
3
55,065
229,918
25,720
10,131
320,834
Holland, Denmark, and the Hanseatic Towns, it will be seen,
were the principal contributors. A more striking example of
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
occupations of the people of another could not be cited, than
the manner in which Sir Robert Peel's tariff revolutionized the
character of Danish aDd Dutch farming. Before 1844 the
pastures of the two countries, more especially the rich marshes
of Holland, were almost exclusively devoted to dairy purposes :
the abolition of the duty on live stock in that year quickly
introduced a new state of things. The farmers began to breed
stock, and consequently turnips and mangel-wurzel have been
creeping over fields, where once the dairy-maid carried the
milking-pail, as gradually as one landscape succeeds another in
the Polytechnic dissolving views. We get now from both
countries excellent beef, especially from Jutland, whose lowing
herds used formerly to go to Hamburg — and who has not heard
of the famous Hambro' beef ? We may expect in time to
receive still finer meat from this quarter, for the Danes have
been sedulously improving their breed, and agriculturists, who
saw the beasts which were sent over to the last Baker-street
show, admitted that they were in every respect equal to our
own short-horns. It is gratifying to note how ready the world
is to follow our lead in the matter of stock-breeding. Bulls
are bought up at fabulous prices by foreigners, and especially
by our cousins on the other side of the Atlantic, for the purpose
of raising the indigenous cattle to the British standard. An
American, for instance, purchased, for 1,000£, a celebrated bull
bred by Earl Ducie, though unfortunately the animal broke his
neck on his passage out. Another noble specimen was secured,
we have heard, for the same quarter, for 6001.
The supply of sheep and lambs has, during the last twenty
years, stood nearly still; for in 1828 there were brought to
market 1,412,032, and in 1849 but 1,417,000, or only an extra
4,000 for the 500,000 mouths which have been added to the
metropolis between these two periods. That London has of
late years abjured mutton, as our immediate ancestors appear
to have done pork, the evidence of our senses denies. How,
then, are we to explain this stagnation in the Smithfield
returns ? By the fact that a new channel has been found in
the rapid rise of Newgate market, the great receptacle of
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 219
country-killed meat brought up to town by the railways. Those
who remember the place forty years ago state that there were
not then twenty salesmen, and now there are two hundred. This
enormous development is due to steam, which bids fair to give
Newgate, in the cold season at least, the lead over Smithfield.
The new agent has more than quadrupled the area from which
London draws its meat. Twenty years ago eighty miles was
the farthest distance from which carcases ever came ; now the
Great Northern and North -Western rail ways, during the winter
months, bring hundreds of tons from as far north as Aberdeen,
whilst some are fetched from Hamburgh and Ostend. Country
slaughtering will in time, we have little doubt, deliver the capital
from the nuisances which grow out of this horrible trade. Aber-
deen is in fact becoming little else than a London abattoir. The
style in which the butchers of that place dress and pack the
carcases leaves nothing to be desired, and in the course of the
year mountains of beef, mutton, pork, and veal arrive the night
after it is slaughtered in perfect condition. According to returns
obligingly forwarded to us by the different railway companies,
we find that the following was the weight of country-killed meat
by the undermentioned lines : —
Tons.
Eastern Counties 10,398
North-Western 4,602
Great Western 5,200
Great Northern 13,152*
South -Eastern 1,035
South- Western 2,000
Brighton and South Coast . . . . 100
36,487
Thus no less than 36,487 tons of meat are annually " pitched "
at Newgate and Leadenhall markets. As the Scotch boats convey
about 700 tons more, we have at least 37,187 tons of country-
killed meat brought into London by steam, and these immense
contributions are totally independent of the amount slaughtered
at Smithfield, which is estimated to average weekly 1,000 oxen,
3,000 sheep and lambs, and 400 calves and pigs. We have
* This return contains some small proportion of game, the quantity o*
which is not stated.
220
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT:
given the average supply ; but on some occasions the quantity
is enormously increased. The Eastern Counties line during one
Christmas week deposited at Newgate about 1,000 tons of meat ;
and the weight sent by other companies on the same day would
be proportionately large. ZSTo less than forty waggons were
waiting on one occasion to discharge their beef and mutton into
the market. And what does our reader imagine may be the
area in which nine-tenths of this mass of meat are sold ? "Just
2 roods 45 perches, having one carriage entrance, which varies
from 14 to IS feet in width, and four foot entrances, the widest
of which is only 16 feet 6 inches, and the narrowest 5 feet
8 inches. No wonder that, as we are informed by more than
one of the witnesses before the Smithneld Inquiry Commission,
there is often not sufficient space to expose the meat for sale,
and it becomes putrid in consequence. Though we have
acquired the fame of being a practical people, it must be con-
fessed that we conduct many of our e very-day transactions in a
blundering manner, when we cannot provide commodious mar-
kets for perishable commodities, or even turn out an omnibus
that can be mounted without an effort of agility and daring.
Mr . Giblett. the noted butcher, late of Bond Street, calculates
that the amount of meat brought by the railways into Newgate
is three times that supplied by the London carcase butchers,
who annually send 52,000 oxen, 156,000 sheep, 10,400 calves,
and 10,400 pigs. Taking this estimate, and applying it also to
the Leadenhall market, we shall have at
Beasts.
Sheep.
Calves.
Pigs.
Xe^ate. meat . . . loo. 1 " 1 00
Leadenhall, ditto . . . 5,200
46S,000
41,600
31,200
31,200
1161,200
Live stock brought to London . 322,1S8
509,600
1,630,793
31,200
101,776
31.200
127,852
Total supply of live stock and i IQ „ « QQ
t i I 4o<5. -jc^
meat to .London . . ;
2,140,393
132,976
159,052
This we are convinced is still below the truth, for we have not
„
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 221
included the country-killed meat sold at Farringdon and "White-
chapel markets.* The total value of this enormous supply of
flesh cannot be much less than fourteen millions annually.
These figures demonstrate that the falling off of sheep sent to
London is solely because they now come to town in the form of
mutton. It is sent to a much greater extent than beef, in con-
sequence of its arriving in finer condition, being more easily car-
ried, and better worth the cost of conveyance on account of the
larger proportion of prime joints. Indeed, the entire carcase of
the oxen never comes, since the coarse boiling-pieces would have
to pay the same carriage as the picked " roastings." Newgate,
be it remembered, is eminently a West End market, and fully
two-thirds of its meat find its way to that quarter of the town.
Accordingly, most of the beef "pitched" here consists of sirloins
and ribs ; and, in addition to whole carcases of sheep, there are
numerous separate legs and saddles of mutton. This accounts
for a fact that has puzzled many, namely, how London manages
to get such myriads of chops. Go into any part of the metro-
polis, and look into the windows of the thousand eating-houses
and coffee-shops in the great thoroughfares, and in every one of
them there is the invariable blue dish with half a dozen juicy,
well-trimmed chops, crowned with a sprig of parsley. To justify
such a number, either fourfold the supply of sheep must come
to London that we have any aceount of, or in lieu of the ordinary
number of vertebra} they must possess as many as the great boa.
"When the prodigious store of saddles which the country spares
the town have once been seen the wonder ceases. " Sometimes
I cut 100 saddles into mutton-chops to supply the eating-
houses," says Mr. Banister, of Threadneedle Street.
The weather preserves a most delicate balance between
* There is, we confess, some little discrepancy between this estimate of
the conn try -killed meat at Newgate, and the known quantity brought in
by railway, as most assuredly 161,200 oxen, 509,600 sheep, and 62,400
calves and pigs, far outweigh the 36,487 tons of meat brought by the
different lines, even "sinking" the offal. But so assured is Mr. Giblett,
and the Smithfield Commissioners with him, that he is under the mark,
that we give credit to his estimate, and take it for granted that much
country-killed meat must come to market by other conveyance than the
railway.
222 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
Newgate and Smithfield. Winter is the busy time at the former
market, when meat can be carried any distance without fear of
taint. As soon as summer sets in, Smithfield takes its turn ;
for butchers then prefer to purchase live stock, in order that
they may kill them the exact moment they are required.
Sometimes as many as 1,200 beasts and from 12,000 to 15,000
sheep are slaughtered in hot weather on a Friday night, in the
neighbourhood of Smithfield, for Saturday's market. Every
precaution is taken on the railways to keep the meat sweet.
The Eastern Counties Company provide " peels," or cloths cut
to the shape of the carcase or joint, for the use of their cus-
tomers, and sometimes it is conveyed from the north in boxes.
When, in spite of care, it turns out to be tainted, the salesman
to whom it is consigned calls the officer of the market, by whom
it is forthwith sent to Cow Cross, and there burnt in the
nacker's yard. According, however, to a competent witness —
Mr. Harper — bad meat in any quantity can be disposed of in
the metropolis to butchers living in low neighbourhoods, who
impose it upon the poor at night. " There is one shop, I
believe," he says, " doing 500?. per week in diseased meat. This
firm has a large foreign trade. The trade in diseased meat is
very alarming, and anything in the shape of flesh can be sold at
about Id. per pound or 8d. per stone."
If the reader is not already surfeited with the mountains of
meat we have piled before his eyes, let us beg his attention for
a few minutes to game and poultry, which we bring on in their
proper course. Leadenhall and Newgate, as all the world
knows, are the great metropolitan depots for this class of food,
especially the former, which receives perhaps two-thirds of the
entire supply. The quantities of game and wild birds consigned
to some of the large salesmen almost exceeds belief. After a
few successful battues in the Highlands, it is not at all unusual
for one firm to receive 5,000 head of game, and as many as
20,000 to 30,000 larks are often sent up to market together.
All other kinds of the feathered tribe which are reputed good
for food are received in proportionate abundance. If it were
not for the great salesmen, many a merry dinner would be
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 223
marred, for the retail poulterers would be totally incapable of
executing the constant and sudden orders for the banquets
which are always proceeding. The good people at the Crystal
Palace have already learned to consume, besides unnumbered
other items, 600 chickens daily \ and from this we may guess
how vast the wants of the entire metropolis. The sources from
which game and poultry are derived are fewer than might be
imagined. The Highlands and Yorkshire send up nearly all
the grouse ; and scores of noblemen, members of Parliament,
and other wealthy or enthusiastic sportsmen, who are at this
present moment beating over the moors, and walking for their
pleasure twenty-five miles a day, assist to furnish this delicacy
to the London public at a moderate rate.
Pheasants and partridges mainly come from Norfolk and
Suffolk ; snipes from the marshy lowlands of Holland, which
also provides our entire supply of teal, widgeon, and other kinds
of wild fowl, with the exception of those caught in the " decoys"
of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. From Ostend there are
annually transmitted to London 600,000 tame rabbits, which
are reared for the purpose on the neighbouring sand dunes. We
are indebted to Ireland for flocks of plovers, and quails are
brought from Egypt and the south of Europe. In most of our
poulterers' windows may be seen the long wooden boxes, with a
narrow slit, in which these latter birds are kept until required
for the spit. Not long since upwards of 17,000 came to London
via Liverpool, whither they had been brought from theCampagna,
near Home. Of the 2,000,000 of fowls that every year find a
resting-place vis-a-vis to boiled tongues on our London tables,
by far the greatest quantity are drawn from the counties of
Surrey and Sussex, where the Dorking breed is in favour.
Ireland also sends much poultry. No less than 1,400 tons of
chickens, geese, and ducks are brought to town annually by the
Great Western Railway, most of which are from the neighbour-
hood of Cork and Waterford, whence they are shipped to Bristol.
Londoners are accustomed to see shops of late years which
profess to sell " West of England produce," such as young pork,
poultry, butter, and clouted cream. All these delicacies are
224 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
brought by the Great Western Kail way, and are principally the
contributions of Somersetshire and Devonshire. The bulk of
the geese, ducks, and turkeys, however, come from Norfolk,
Cambridge, Essex, and Suffolk — four fat counties, which do
much to supply the London commissariat, the Eastern Counties
Railway alone having brought thence last year 22,462 tons of
fish, flesh, fowl, and good red herrings.
Eor pigeons we are indebted to " our fair enemy France," as
Sir Philip Sydney calls her, but now we trust our fast friend.
They proceed principally from the interior, and are shipped for
our market from Boulogne and Calais. How many eggs we
get from across the Channel we scarcely like to say. Mr.
M'Culloch considers that the capital receives from. 70,000,000
to 75,000,000 — a number which we think must be much below
the mark, seeing that the Brighton and South Coast line brings
annually 2,600 tons, the produce of Belgium and France. At
Bastoign, in the latter country, there is a farm of 200 acres
entirely devoted to the rearing of poultry and the production
of eggs for the supply of London.
No perfectly accurate account can be given of the number
per annum of poultry, game, and wild birds which enter
Leadenhall and Newgate markets ; but the following estimate
was handed to us by a dealer w T ho turns over 100,000Z. a year
in this trade. As the list takes no account of the quantity
which goes direct to the retailer, nor of the thousands sent as
presents, it must fall short of the actual consumption : —
Grouse 100,000
Partridges 125,000
Pheasants 70,000 .
Snipes 80,000
Wild Birds (mostly small) .... 150,000
Plovers 150,000
Quails 30,000
Larks 400,000
Widgeon 70,000
Teal 30,000
Wild Ducks 200,000
Pigeons 400,000
Domestic Fowls 2,000,000
Carried forward . . . 3,805,000
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 225
Brought forward . . . 3,805,000
Geese 100,000
Ducks 350,000
Turkeys 104,000
Hares 100,000
Rabbits 1,300,000
Total . . 5,759,000
In addition to its dead game and wild fowl, Leadenhall
market is quite a Noah's ark of live animals. Geese, ducks,
swans, pigeons, and cocks, bewilder you with their noise.
Intermingled with these birds of a feather are hawks, ferrets,
dogs and cats, moving about in their wicker cages, and almost
aggravated to madness by the proximity of their prey. The
major portion of the live stock is designed either for sporting
purposes or for " petting " and breeding, and do not belong to
the commissariat department. Of the dead game and poultry,
the seven railways bring to London about 7,871 tons weight in
the course of the year.
In taking leave of the poultry-yard we are reminded of the
dairy, and of the large establishments required to fill the milk-
jugs of London. There are at the present moment, as near as
we can learn, 20,000 cows in the metropolitan and suburban
dairies, some of which number 500 cows apiece. Even these
gigantic establishments have been occasionally exceeded, and
one individual, several years ago, possessed 1,500 milkers — a
fact fatal to the popular superstition, that notwithstanding
many attempts, no dairyman could ever muster more than 999.
The terrible ravages of pleuro-pneumonia, which many believe
to be a contagious disease, have cured the passion for such
extensive herds. The larger dairies of the metropolis are on
the whole admirably managed, and the cows luxuriate in airy
outhouses, but the smaller owners are often confined for space,
and the animals are sometimes cooped in sheds, placed in tiers
one above another. The country dairymaid laughs at the
ignorance which the Londoner betrays of rural matters when
on a visit to her master, but she would be perplexed in her
turn if told that in the capital they fed the cows chiefly upon
I brewers' grains, and milked them on the second story 2 A few
Q
226 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT."
years since Mr. Rugg appalled the town, which had forgotten
Matthew Bramble, Esq., and the "New Bath Guide," by-
detailing a nauseous process which he affirmed was in use
among cunning milkmen for the adulteration of their milk.
There was, however, a great deal of exaggeration in the account,
and Dr. ITassell, whose analysis of various articles of food in
the Lancet are widely known, states that the " iron-tailed
cow " is the main agent employed in the fraud, and that the
only colouring matter he Las been enabled to discover is
annatto. Nearly all the cream goes to the West-End ; and
one dairyman living at Islington informed us that he made
1,200£ a year by the trade he carried on in that single article
with the fashionable part of the town. It must be evident,
upon the least consideration, that the London and suburban
dairies alone could not supply the metropolis. If each of the
20,000 cows give on the average twelve quarts a day, the sum
total would only be 240,000 quarts. If we suppose this
quantity to be increased by the exhaustless " iron-tailed cow,"
of which Dr. Hassell speaks, to 300,000 quarts, the allowance
to each individual of the two millions and a quarter of popu-
lation would be little more than a quarter of a pint. This is
clearly below the exigencies of the tea-table, the nursery, and
the kitchen, and we do not think we shall make an over-
estimate if we assume that half as much again is daily con-
sumed. Here again the railway, which in some cases brings
milk from as far as eighty miles, makes up the deficiency.
The Eastern Counties line conveyed in 1853 to London,
3,174,179 quarts, the North-Western 144,000 quarts, the
Great "Western 23,400 quarts, the Brighton and South Coast
100 tons, and the Great Northern as much perhaps as the
North- Western. The milk is collected from the farmers by
agents in the country, who sell it to the milkmen, of whom
there are 1,347, to distribute it over the town. In course of
time it is possible that town dairies may entirely disappear.
Cowsheds, often narrow and low, in thickly- populated localities,
cannot be as healthy for the animals as a purer atmosphere ;
and though experiment has shown that they thrive admirably
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT/ 227
when stalled, the food they get in these urban prisons can
hardly be as wholesome as that provided by the verdant
pastures of the farm. The milk which comes by railway has,
however, this disadvantage, that it will not keep nearly so long
as the indigenous produce of the metropolitan dairies. The
different companies have constructed waggons lightly hung on
springs, but the churning effect of sudden joltings cannot be
altogether got rid of.
Of the vegetables and fruit that are brought into the various
markets of the capital, but especially to Covent Garden, a very
large quantity is grown in the immediate neighbourhood.
From whatever quarter the railway traveller approaches
London, he perceives that the cultivation of the land gradually
heightens, until he arrives at those suburban residences which
form the advanced guards of the metropolis. The fields give
place to hedgeless gardens, in which, to use a phrase of
Washington Irving, " the furrows seem finished rather with
the pencil than the plough." Acre after acre flashes with
hand-glasses, streaks of verdure are ruled in close parallel lines
across the soil with mathematical precision, interspersed here
and there with patches as sharp cut at the edges as though
they were pieces of green baize — these are the far-famed
market-gardens. They are principally situated in the long
level tracts of land that must once have been overflowed by
the Thames — such as the flat alluvial soil known as the Jeru-
salem Level, extending between London Bridge and Greenwich
— and the grounds about Fulham, Battersea, Chelsea, Putney,
and Brentford. Mr. Cuthill, who is perhaps the best authority
on this subject, estimates that there are 12,000 acres under
cultivation for the supply of vegetables and 5,000 for fruit-
trees. This seems an insufficient area for the supply of so
many mouths, but manure and active spade husbandry com-
pensate for lack of space. By these agencies four and some-
times five crops are extracted from the land in the course of
the year. The old-fashioned farmer, accustomed to the restric-
tions of old-fashioned leases, would stare at such a statement,
and ask how long it would last. But his surprise would be
Q2
228 THE LONDON COMMISSAEIAT.
still greater at being told that after every clearance the ground
is deeply trenched, and its powers restored with a load of
manure to every thirty square feet of ground. This is the
secret of the splendid return, and it could be effected nowhere
but in the neighbourhood of such cities as London, where the
produce of the fertilizer is sufficiently great to keep down its
price. And here we have a striking example of town and
country reciprocation. The same waggon that in the morning
brings a load of cabbages, is seen returning a few hours later filled
with dung. An exact balance as far as it goes is thus kept up,
and the manure, instead of remaining to fester among human
beings, is carted away to make vegetables. What a pity we
cannot extend the system, and turn the whole sewerage by
drain-pipes entirely into the rural districts, to feed the land,
instead of allowing it, as we do, to run into the Thames and
pollute the water to be used in our dwellings.
The care and attention bestowed by the market-gardeners is
incredible to those who have not witnessed it ; every inch of
ground is taken advantage of — cultivation runs between the
fruit-trees ; storming-parties of cabbages and cauliflowers
swarm up to the very trunks of apple-trees ; raspberry-bushes
are surrounded and cut off by young seedlings. If you see an
acre of celery growing in ridges, be sure that, on a narrow in-
spection, you will find long files of young peas picking their
way along the furrows. Everything flourishes here except
weeds, and you may go over a 150-acre piece of ground without
discovering a single one. Quality, even more than quantity, is
attended to by the best growers ; and they nurse their plants
as they would children. The visitor will sometimes see " the
heads " of an acre of cauliflowers one by one folded up in their
own leaves as carefully as an anxious wife wraps up an asthmatic
husband on a November night ; and if rain should fall,
attendants run to cover them up, as quickly as they cover up
the zoological specimens at the Crystal Palace when the
watering-pots are set to work
Insects and blight are also banished as strictly as from the
court of Oberon. To such a pitch is vigilance carried, that,
THE LONDON COMMISSAEIAT. 229
according to a writer in Household Words, blight and fungi
are searched after with a microscope, woodlice exterminated by
bantems dressed in socks to prevent too much scratching, and
other destructive insects despatched by the aid of batches of
toads, purchased at the rate of six shillings a dozen !
The continual extension of London is, however, rapidly
encroaching upon all the old market-gardens, and they are
obliged to move farther a-field : thus high cultivation, like a
green fairy-ring, is gradually widening and enlarging its circle
round the metropolis. The coarser kinds of vegetables are but
sparingly grown in these valuable grounds, but come up in
large quantities from all parts of the country ; and some of the
choice kinds are now reared far away in Devonshire and Corn-
wall, where they are favoured by the climate. It would be
interesting to get an authentic statement of the acreage dedi-
cated to fruit and vegetables for the London market, but we
find the information unattainable. Mr. Cuthill calculates that
there are 200 acres employed around the metropolis in the
growth of strawberries, and 5 acres planted as mushroom-beds.
Cucumbers were once very largely cultivated. He has seen as
many as 14 acres under hand-glasses in a single domain, and has
known 200,000 gherkins cut in a morning for the pickle-
merchants. Strangely enough, they have refused to grow well
around London ever since the outbreak of the potato disease.
The disastrous epidemic of 1849, we have little doubt, had
much to do with the diminished supply, for the cholera soon
brought about the result desired by Mrs. Gamp, " when cow-
cumbers is three for twopence," prices quite explanatory of the
indisposition of the land to produce them. The very high state
of cultivation in the metropolitan market-gardens necessitates
the employment of a large amount of labour : and it is supposed
that no less than 35,000 persons are engaged in the service
of filling the vegetable and dessert-dishes of the metropolis.
This estimate leaves out those in the provinces and on the
Continent, which would, we doubt not, nearly double the
calculation, and show a troop of men and women as large as
the entire British army. There are five marts in London
230 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
devoted to the sale of fruit — Covent Garden, Spitalfields, the
Borough, Parringdon, and Portman-markets, — besides a vast
number of street offsets, such as Clare-market, in which
hawkers generally stand with their barrows. Covent Garden is
not only their type, but it does nearly as much business as all
of them put together, and for that reason we shall dwell upon
it to the exclusion of the others.
At the first dawn of morning in the midst of squalid London,
sweet country odours greet the early-riser, and cool orchards
and green strawberry slopes seem ever present to the mind.
If those who seek pleasure in gaiety have never visited the
market in its prime, let them journey thither some summer
morning, and note how fresh will seem the air, and how full of
life the people, after the languid waltz in Grosvenor Square.
The central alley of the " Garden/' as it is called by the coster-
mongers, is one of the prettiest lounges in town ; and, whether
by chance or design, it exhibits, in its arrangement from east
to west, a complete march ot the seasons. At the western
entrance the visitor is greeted with the breath of flowers ; and
there they show in smiling banks piled upon the stalls, or sorted
with frilled edges into ladies' bouquets. As he proceeds, he
comes upon the more delicate spring vegetables — pink shafts of
the oriental-looking rhubarb, delicate cos lettuce, &c. ; still
further along the arcade, the plate-glass windows on either side
display delicate fruits, done up in dainty boxes, and set off with
tinted paper shreds. Behind these windows also might be seen
those rarities which it is the pride of London market-gardeners
to provide, and in producing which they all struggle to steal the
longest march upon time — a sieve-full of early potatoes, each as
small and costly as the egg of a Cochin-Cbina fowl — a basin-full
of peas, at a guinea a pint — a cucumber marked 5s. } and straw-
berries 18s. the ounce.
The market-gardeners of Penzance are beginning to send up
many of these early vegetables, the mildness of the south-western
extremity of Cornwall giving them a wonderful advantage over
every other part of the kingdom. Gentlemen's gardeners also
contribute somewhat, by sending to the salesmen such of the
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 231
produce of their glazed houses as is not consumed in the family,
and receive articles in return of which they happen to have an
insufficient quantity themselves. These forced vegetables afive
way, it is true, as the season advances ; but when in, they are
always most to be found at that end of the walk nearest the
rising sun. As the year proceeds, the lustier and more natural
fruits are displayed — peaches that have ripened with blushing
cheek to the wind, gigantic strawberries, raspberries, nectarines,
or blooming plums. Feathery pines add their mellow hue ; and
when these fail, the colour deepens into amber piles of oranges,
umber filberts, and the rich brown of Spanish chestnuts, the
produce of the waning year.
To leave, however, our fancied procession of the seasons, and
to return to the actual business of the market. As early as two
o'clock in the morning, a person looking down the dip of
Piccadilly will perceive the first influx of the daily supply of
vegetables and fruit to Covent Garden market : waggons of
cabbages, built up and regularly faced, with the art rather of
the mason than the market-gardener ; light spring-vans fragrant
with strawberries ; and milk-white loads of turnips which
slowly roll along the great-western road, and bring the produce
of the fertile alluvial shores of the Thames to the great west-
end mart. The pedestrian proceeding along the southern and
eastern roads sees the like stream of vegetable food quietly
converging to the same spot. From this hour, especially upon
a Saturday morning, until nine o'clock, the scene at the market
itself is of the most exciting description.
Without some organization it would be impossible to receive
and display to the advantage of the buyer and seller the varied
products that in the grey of the morning pours into so limited
a space. Accordingly, different portions of it are dedicated to
distinct classes of vegetables and fruits. The finest of the
delicate soft fruit, such as strawberries, peaches, &c, are lodged,
as we have mentioned, in the central alley of the market — the
inmost leaf of the rose. On the large covered space to the
north of this central alley is the wholesale fruit-station, fragrant
with apples, pears, greengages, or whatever is in season. The
232 THE LONDON COMMISSAKIAT.
southern open space is dedicated to cabbages and other vegeta-
bles ; and the extreme south front is wholly occupied by potato-
salesmen. Around the whole quadrangle, during a busy
morning, there is a party-coloured fringe of waggons backed in
towards the central space, in which the light green of cabbages
forms the prevailing colour, interrupted here and there with the
white of turnips, or the deep orange of digit-like carrots ; and
as the spectator watches, the whole mass is gradually absorbed
into the centre of the market. Meanwhile the space dedicated
to wholesale fruit sales is all alive. Columns of empty baskets
twelve feet high seem progressing through the crowd " of their
own motion." The vans have arrived from the railways, and
rural England, side by side with the Continent, pours in its
supplies from many a sheltered mossy nook. It is very easy to
discover by a glance which are the home-grown, which the
foreign contributions. There stand the English baskets and
sieves, solid and stout as Harry the Eighth, amidst little hampers,
as delicate as French ladies, and seemingly as incapable of
withstanding hard usage. Yet some of these have come from
Algiers, others from the south of France with greengages, and
the majority from Normandy. France is beginning to send
large quantities of peaches and nectarines, carefully packed with
paper-shavings in small boxes ; and even strawberries this
summer have found their way here from the same quarter.
The frosts which sometimes occur in the early part of the
year, destroy nearly all the fruit-crops in the neighbourhood of
London ; and were it not for the bountiful stores which are
brought from abroad, Covent Garden would be little better
than a desert.
The repeal of the high duty upon foreign fruit has so far
widened the field of supply that it can no longer be destroyed
by an unusual fall of the mercury. By means of the telegraph,
the steamboat, and the railroad, we annul the effects of frost,
obliterate the sea, and command, at a few hours' notice, the
produee of the Continent. When there is a dearth in this
country the fact is immediately noticed by the great fruit-
dealers in the City : the telegraph forthwith conveys the in-
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 233
formation to Holland, France, and Belgium ; and within forty-
hours steamers from one or other of these countries will be seen
making towards the Downs and adjoining coasts, and in another
six their cargoes, fresh plucked from the neighbourhoods of old
Norman abbeys and quaint Flemish stadthouses, are blooming
in Covent Garden. Fruit that will bear delay comes up the
Thames by boat, and is discharged at the wharfs near London
Bridge, but the major part eventually finds its way to the
" Garden." The South-Western and South-Eastern are the two
principal lines for foreign fruit : the former brings large quan-
tities of Spanish and Portuguese produce — such as oranges,
grapes, melons, nuts, &c. ; the latter conveys apples, pears,
strawberries, peaches, nectarines, &c, from Dover, to which
place they are brought by steamers. To show how enormous
is the supply from abroad, we give, on the authority of the
goods-manager of the South-Eastern line, the amount brought
by them in one night : —
100 tons of green peas from France.
50 „ of fruit from Kent.
10 „ of filberts from Kent.
25 „ of plums from France.
10 „ of black currants from France.
In all 195 tons ; out of which 135 were from across the water.
The Brighton and South Coast transmit the produce of Jersey
and Dieppe — apples, pears, and plums — to the extent last year
of about 300 tons. Of vegetables the Great Northern is the
principal carrier ; last year they brought to town the enormous
quantity of 45,819 tons of potatoes, besides 1,940 tons of other
vegetables. The potatoes mainly proceed from the fen country.
"Walnuts generally come by the Antwerp boats, which some-
times carry cargoes of between 400 and 500 tons. Everybody
who has travelled in the Low Countries remembers the mag-
nificent walnut-trees which grow along the sides of the canals
as commonly as elms in our own country. These eke out our
scantier native stores, and help to make cosier the after-dinner
chat over the glass of port. During two mornings that we
visited Covent Garden we saw 613 bushel-baskets of straw-
2°)4: THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
berries that had just come from Honfleur, and upwards of
1,000 baskets of greengages arrived from the same neighbour-
hood during the week. As we gazed, on one of these occasions,
upon the solid walls of baskets extending down the market,
crowned with parapets of peach and nectarine boxes, we
wondered in our own minds whether it would ever be all
sold, and the wonder increased as waggon after waggon arrived,
piled up as high as the second-floor windows of the piazza.
Venturing to express this doubt to a lazy-looking man who
was plaiting the strands of a whip, " Blessee, sir," he replied
without looking up from his work, " the main part on 'em will
be at Brummagem by dinner-time." True enough, while we
had been guessing and wondering, a nimble fellow had run to
the telegraph and inquired of Birmingham and a few distant
towns whether they were in want of certain fruits that
morning. The answer being in the affirmative, the vans
turned round, rattled off to the North- Western station, and
in another hour the superfluity of Covent Garden was rushing
on its way to fill up the deficiency of the midland counties.
Thus the wire and steam, both at home and abroad, cause the
supply to respond instantly to the demand, however wide apart
the two principles may be working.
The strawberry trade of Covent Garden is not likely, how-
ever, at present to fall into the hands of foreigners. The
London market-gardeners have long looked with justice upon
this fruit as particularly their own. By the skill they have
bestowed upon its culture it has advanced enormously, both in
flavour and size, from the old standard "hautboy" of our
fathers, and which foreigners mainly cultivate to the present
day. Mr. Miatt, of Deptford, is the great grower ; by judicious
grafting he has produced from the old stock half-a-dozen
different kinds, the most celebrated being the " British Queen,"
which attains a prodigious size. Large quantities of straw-
berries are sent to the market in light spring- vans. They are
placed in 1 lb. punnets or round willow baskets, or they are
carefully piled in pottles, and the process of " topping-up," as it
is called, is considered quite an art in the trade. The rarest
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 235
and ripest fruit, which goes direct to the pastrycooks, is still
more deftly treated. Lest it should be injured by jolting, horse
is exchanged for human carriage. A procession of eight or ten
stout women, carrying baskets full of strawberry-pottles upon
their heads, may often be seen streaming in hot haste up
Piccadilly, preceded by a man, like so many sheep by a bell-
wether. It is probable that they have trudged all the way
from Isle worth with the fruit, and, as they frequently make
two journeys in the day, the distance traversed is not less than
twenty-six miles.
After strawberries, perhaps peas are the most important
article produced by the market-gardeners. Dealers, in order
to consult the convenience of hotel-keepers and such as require
suddenly a large supply for the table, keep them ready for the
saucepan ; and not the least curious feature of Covent Garden,
about midday, is to see a dense mass of women — generally old —
seated in rows at the corner of the market, engaged in shelling
them. One salesman often employs as many as 400 persons in
this occupation. The major part of these auxiliaries belong to
the poor-houses around ; they obtain permission to go out for
this purpose, and the shilling or eighteen pence a-day earned by
some of the more expert is gladly exchanged for the monotonous
rations of the parish. In the autumn, again, there will be a row
of poor creatures, extending along the whole north side of the
square, shelling walnuts, each person having two baskets, one
for the nuts, another for the shells, which are bought by the
catsup-makers. The poor, flock from all parts of the town
directly a job of the kind is to be had. If a fog happens in
November, thousands of link-boys and men spring up with
ready-made torches ; if a frost occurs, hundreds of men are to
be found on the Serpentine and other park waters, to sweep
the ice or to put on your skates : there are, in the busy part of
the town half-a-dozen fellows ready of a wet day to rush simul-
taneously to call a cab " for your honour ; " and every crossing
when it grows muddy almost instantly has its man and broom.
A sad comment this upon the large floating population of
starving labour always to be found in the streets of London.
236 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
The busiest time at the market is about six o'clock, when
the costermongers surround Covent Garden with their barrows,
and hundreds of street hawkers, with their hand-baskets and
trays, come for their day's supply. The same system of
purchase is pursued here as at Billingsgate — the rich dealers
buy largely and sell again, and the poorer club their means and
divide the produce. The regular street vender who keeps his
barrow, drawn by a donkey or a pony, looks down with a
certain contempt upon the inferior hawkers, principally Irish.
They only deal in a certain class of vegetables, such as peas,
young potatoes, broccoli, or cauliflowers, and have nothing to
do with mere greens. Another class of purchasers are the little
girls who vend watercresses. Such is the demand for cresses,
that they are now largely cultivated for the market, the spon-
taneous growth proving quite inadequate to the demand. They
are produced principally at " Spring Head," at Walthamstow,
in Essex, and at Cookham, Shrivenham, and Faringdon, on the
line of the Great Western, which brings to town no less than a
ton a week of this wholesome breakfast salad. The best, how-
ever, come from Camden Town. Most people fancy that clear
purling streams are necessary for their production ; but the
Camden Town beds are planted in an old brick-field, watered
by the Fleet Ditch ; and though the stream at this point is
comparatively pure, they owe their unusually luxuriant appear-
ance to a certain admixture of the sewerage. A great many
hundreds of bunches are sold every morning in Covent Garden ;
but the largest share goes to Farringdon Market. The entire
supply to the various metropolitan markets cannot be less than
three tons weekly. Rhubarb is almost wholly furnished by the
London market-gardeners. It was first introduced by Mr. Miatt
forty years ago, who sent his tw T o sons to the Borough Market
with five bunches, of which they only sold three. From this
time he continued its cultivation, notwithstanding the sneers
at what were called his " physic pies." As he predicted, it
soon became a favourite, and now hundreds of tons weight are
sold in Covent Garden in the course of the year. It would be
impossible to give any precise account of the fruit and vegetable
produce that is poured day by day into London ; for the autho-
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 237
rities themselves only know how many baskets arrive, not how
much they contain. The railway returns give us the quantity
brought from a distance, and we find that the seven lines
transmit annually somewhere about 70,000 tons of vegetables
and soft green fruit. This is irrespective of dried fruit, oranges,
&c. — a business of itself, involving great interests, and employ-
ing an immense capital, and of which we will say a few words.
The foreign-fruit trade has its head-quarters in the city. The
pedestrian who walks down Fish Street Hill would assuredly
never surmise that at certain seasons a regular fruit exhibition
is kept up within those dull brick houses, before which the tall
column lifts its head. All the world knows the Messrs. Keeling
and Hunt, whose effigies seem to stand, in the public eye, upon
a vast pyramid of pine-apples. This firm hold sales of various
kinds of fruit in their auction-rooms in Monument Yard. On
these occasions the long apartments make a show, before which,
for quantity at least, that of Chiswick pales. Pine-apples by
thousands, melons, forbidden fruit, and mangoes, fill the room
from end to end ; so famous indeed is the display, that there
are lithographic engravings of it, in which the salesmen are
seen walking about as perplexed, apparently by the luscious
luxuriance around them, as Adam might have been in his own
happy garden. The pine-apple market is of modern date. The
first cargo was brought over about twenty years ago, and since
that time the traffic has rapidly increased, and at the present
moment 300,000 pines come yearly into the port of London, of
which nine-tenths are consigned to Messrs. Keeling and Hunt,
the original importers. They are principally from the Bahamas,
in the West Indies, where they grow almost spontaneously ;
but of late years they have been more carefully cultivated, and
grafts of our best hothouse pines have been taken out to
improve their quality. There is a fleet of clippers appro priated
to the carriage across the sea of this single fruit. The melons
come from Spain, Portugal, and Holland. Spain is known to
abound in melons, for Murillo's beggar-boys are perpetually
eating them ; but we believe it will be news to most English-
men that the land of dykes supplies London with fragrant
cargoes of an almost tropical fruit. The largest foreign-fruit
238
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
trade, however, by far, is that in oranges. We shall perhaps
astonish our readers when w r e tell them that upwards of
60,000,000 are imported for the use of London alone, accom-
panied by not less than 15,000,000 lemons. Any time between
December and May the orange clippers from the Azores and
Lisbon may be seen unloading their cargoes in the neighbour-
hood of the great stores in Pudding and Botolph Lanes. There
are 240 of these fast-sailing vessels engaged in the entire trade,
and of this fleet seventy at least are employed in supplying the
windows of the fruiterers and the apple-stalls of London. All
these fruits, together with nuts and walnuts, apples, plums,
pears, and some peaches, &c, are disposed of weekly at the
auction sales in Monument Yard to the general dealers, the
majority of whom are located in Duke's Place, close at hand,
and are mostly Jews. Indeed we are informed that many of
them are the identical boys grown up to manhood that used
some twenty-five years ago to sell oranges about the streets,
and whose old place has gradually been taken by the Irish.
They act as middlemen between the importers and the tribe of
peripatetics who, at certain times of the day, resort hither to
fill their baskets and barrows. Covent Garden also supplies
retailers with oranges and nuts, especially on Sunday mornings,
when the place is sometimes crowded like a fair. The following
bill of quantities, drawn up by Mr. Keeling, is derived, we
believe, from the Custom House returns : —
Fruit.
Apples . .
.
39,561 bushels.
Pears . . .
. .
19,742
Cherries . .
, .
264,240 lbs.
Grapes . .
.
1,328,190 „
Pine-apples . .
. ,
200,000
Oranges
. .
61,635,146
Lemons
Wut&
15,408,789
Spanish nuts \
Earcolena J
• • i
72,509 bushels
Brazil .
, ,
11,700 „
Chestnuts .
• •
26.250 „
Walnuts
• •
36,088 „
Cocoa-nuts
.
1,255,009
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 239
Of the amount of bread consumed in London we have no
specific information, but there are data which enable us to
approximate to the truth. Porter, in his " Progress of the
Nation," gives us the returns of eight schools, families, and
institutions, containing 1,902 men, women, and children, each of
whom ate on the average 331 T x g- lbs. of bread per annum. Now
if we multiply this quantity by the number of the inhabitants
of the metropolis — 2,500,000, or thereabouts — we have a total
of 413,760,000 half-quartern loaves of 2 lbs. weight each. The
flour used in puddings, pies, &c, we throw in as a kind of
offset against the London babies under one year old. Some of
this bread is a contribution from the country, and one Railway
— the Eastern Counties — brought last year 237 tons 12 cwts.
to town.
Now let us see how much sack goes to all this quantity of
bread — with what rivers of stout, &c, we wash down such
mountains of flesh. According to the excise returns, there
were 747,050 quarters of malt consumed in London in the year
1853 by the seventeen great brewers. As each quarter of
malt, with its proportionate allowance of hops, produces three
and a half barrels of beer, we get at the total brew of last year
1,614,675, or pretty nearly a thousand million tumblers of ale
and porter. On countless sign-boards of the metropolis this
last is advertised by the title of " entire," and it is thus that
the liquid and its name arose. Prior to the year 1730, pub-
licans were in the habit of selling ale, beer, and twopenny, and
the " thirsty souls " of that day were accustomed to combine
either of these in a drink called half-and-half. From this they
proceeded to spin " three threads," as they called it, or to have
their glass filled from each of the three taps. In the year
1730, however, a certain publican, named Horwood, to save
himself the trouble of making the triune mixture, brewed a
liquor intended to imitate tbe taste of the " three threads," and
to this he applied the term " entire." His concoction was
approved, and, being puffed as good porters' drink, it speedily
came to be called porter itself. Of the seventeen great London
breweries, the house of Truman, Hanbury, Buxton, and Co.
240 THE LOXDON COMMISSAKIAT.
stood in 1853 at the top of the list, having consumed 140,000
quarters of malt, and paid to the excise 180,000£, or enough to
build two ninety-gun ships, at the usual cost of a thousand
pounds per gun. The visitor in proceeding through this esta-
blishment realizes, perhaps better than in any other place, the
enormous scale on which certain creature-comforts for the use
of the town are produced. As he walks between the huge
boilers in which 1,600 barrels are brewed nearly every day, or
makes the circuit of the four great vats, each containing
80,000 gallons of liquor, or loses himself amid the labyrinth of
135 enormous reservoirs, which altogether hold 3,500,000 gallons
— he begins to fancy himself an inhabitant of Lilliput, who has
gone astray in a Brobdignagian cellar. There is a popular
notion that the far-famed London stout owes its flavour to the
Thames water : this, however, is a " vulgar error." Not even
the Messrs. Barclay, who are upon the stream, draw any of their
supply from that source, but it is got entirely from wells, and
those sunk so deep, that they and the Messrs. Calvert, whose
brewery is half a mile distant upon the opposite side of the
river, find they are rivals for the same spring. When one
brewery pumps, it drains the wells of the other, and the firms
are obliged to obtain their water on alternate days. Whether
it is owing to the increase of the great breweries and of other
manufactories, which alone consume millions of barrels of water
yearly, we know not, but it is an ascertained fact, that the
depth of water in the London wells has for the last twenty -five
years been diminishing at the rate of a foot a year. " It is
comforting to reflect," said one of the great brewers, " that the
reason simply is, because the water which used to be buried
underground is now brought up to fill the bodies, wash the
faces, and turn the wheels of two millions and a half of
people."
If the underground stock of water is shrinking, it has
increased vastly on the surface. The seven companies which
supply the metropolis bring in between them 44,000,000
gallons daily — a quantity which, large as it is, could be delivered
in twenty-four hours by a brook nine feet wide and three feet
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 241
deep, running at the rate of three feet per second, or a little
more than two miles per hour.
The inability of figures to convey an adequate impression to
the mind of the series of units of which the sums are composed
renders it impossible to give more than a faint idea of the
enormous supplies of food required to victual the capital for a
single year. But the conception may be somewhat assisted by
varying the process. Country papers now and then astonish
.' their readers by calculations to show how many times the steel
pens manufactured in England would form a necklace round
their own little town, or how many thousand miles the matches
of their local factory would extend if laid in a straight line from
the centre of their market-place. Let us try our hand on the
same sort of picture, and endeavour to fill the eye with a
prospect that would satisfy the appetite of the far-famed Dragon
of Wantley himself.
If we fix upon Hyde Park as our exhibition-ground, and pile
together all the barrels of beer consumed in London, they would
form a thousand columns not far short of a mile in perpen-
dicular height.
Let us imagine ourselves on the top of this tower, and
we shall have a look-out worthy of the feast we are about
to summon to our feet. Herefrom we might discover the
Great Northern road stretching far away into the length and
breadth of the land. Lo ! as we look, a mighty herd of oxen,
with loud bellowing, are beheld approaching from the north.
For miles and miles the mass of horns is conspicuous winding
along the road, ten abreast, and even thus the last animal of the
herd would be 72 miles away, and the drover goading his
shrinking flank considerably beyond Peterborough. On the
other side of the park, as the clouds of dust clear away, we see
the great Western road, as far as the eye can reach, thronged
with a bleating mass of wool, and the shepherd at the end of
the flock (ten abreast) and the dog that is worrying the last
sheep are just leaving the environs of Bristol, 121 miles from
our beer-built pillar. Along Piccadily, Begent-street, the
24:2 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
Strand, Fleet-street, Cheapside, and the eastward Mile-end-
road line, for 7 J miles, street and causeway are thronged with
calves, still ten abreast ; and in the great parallel thorough-
fares of Bayswater-road, Oxford-street, and Holborn, we see
nothing for nine long miles but a slowly-pacing, deeply-grunting
herd of swine. As we watch this moving mass approaching
from all points of the horizon, the air suddenly becomes dark—
a black pall seems drawn over the sky — it is the great flock of
birds — game, poultry, and wild-fowl, that, like Mrs. Bond's
ducks, are come up to be killed : as they fly wing to wing and
tail to beak they form a square whose superficies is not much
less than the whole enclosed portion of St. James's Park, or
51 acres. "So sooner does this huge flight clear away than
we behold the park at our feet inundated with hares and
rabbits.
Feeding 2,000 abreast, they extend from the marble arch to
the round pond in Kensington Gardens — at least a mile. Let
us now pile up all the half- quartern loaves consumed in the
metropolis in the year, and we shall find they form a pyramid
which measures 200 square feet at its base, and extends into
the air a height of 1,293 feet, or nearly three times that of St.
Paul's. Turning now towards the sound of rushing waters, we
find that the seven companies are filling the mains for the day.
If they were allowed to flow into the area of the adjacent St.
James's Park, they would in the course of the 24 hours flood its
entire space with a depth of 30 inches of water, and the whole
annual supply would be quite sufficient to submerge the city
(one mile square) ninety feet. Of the fish we confess we are
able to say nothing: when numbers mount to billions, the cal-
culations become too trying to our patience. We have little
doubt, however, that they would be quite sufficient to make the
Serpentine one solid mass. Of ham and bacon again, preserved
meats, and all the countless comestibles we have taken no
account, and in truth they are little more to the great mass
than the ducks and geese were to Sancho Panza's celebrated
mess — " the skimmings of the pot."
Such, then, is a slight sketch of the great London larder.
THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT. 243
It may be imagined that many of these stores come to the
metropolis only as to a centre for redistribution, and are ao-am
scattered over the length and breadth of the land. This, how-
ever, is not the case. The only line that takes food in any
quantities out of London is the North-Western. This railway
speeds into the midland counties, but especially to Birmingham,
350 tons of fish consigned to the country dealers, and to the
nobility and gentry. As we have before seen, van-loads of
fruit are often despatched in the same direction. The South-
Eastern conveys large quantities of grain down the line, and
the London and Brighton and South Coast takes annually to
Brighton twenty-six tons of meat and 1,100 cattle ; and here
all the food carried out of London in bulk ends. A constant
dribble of edibles, it is true, is continually escaping by the
passenger trains, of which the railways take no notice in their
goods-department traffic ; but it must be remembered that a
much larger quantity is perpetually flowing unheeded into
the London commissariat through the same channels. Of the
stout and porter brewed in the metropolis by the great houses,
again, one-seventh perhaps finds its way abroad — a drop in
comparison to that which must be contributed by the 2,482
smaller brewers of the town, and the great contingent sup-
plied by Guinness, Allsopp, and other pale-ale brewers.
This simple statement will suffice to make it evident that in
the foregoing picture we have given anything but " heaped
measure."
The railways having poured this enormous amount of food
into the metropolis, as the main arteries feed the human body,
it is distributed by the various dealers into every quarter of the
town, first into the wholesale markets, or great centres, then into
the sub- centres, or retail tradesmen's shops, and lastly into the
moving centres, or barrows of the hawkers, by which means
nourishment is poured into every corner of the town, and
the community at large is supplied as effectually as are the
countless tissues of the human body by the infinitely divided
network of capillary vessels. According to the census of
E 2
244 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
1851, these food-distributors are classified in the following
manner : —
Males. Females.
Grocers 6,475 Grocers 676
Cowkeepers and milksellers . 3,372 Inkeepers 93
Cheesemongers 2,156 Inkeepers' wives .... 217
Butchers 7,428 Cowkeepers 1,158
Poulterers 551 Butchers ? n 5
Fishmongers 2,238 Butchers' wives 3 086
Other dealers in animal food 1,376 Fishmongers. _ 151
Greengrocers 3,325 Others dealing in animal food 2^3
Bakers 9,841 Greengrocers 94l
Confectioners 1,806 Bakers 480
Other dealers in vegetable food 1,303 Confectioners 542
Brewers 2,499 Other dealers in vegetable food 939
Licensed victuallers and beer- Licensed victuallers and beer-
shop-keepers, &c. . . . 6,843 shop-keepers ... . 970
Wine and spirit merchants 1,915 Wives of ditto 4,440
Other dealers in drinks . . 3,805 Wine and spirit merchants 15
Saltmakers 37 Other dealers in drinks . . 457
Watei'-providers 428 ■
Innkeepers 433 14,653
56,601
If to this total of 71,254 we add the wandering tribe of coster-
mongers, hawkers, and stall-keepers, estimated at 30,000 persons,
we shall have an army exceeding 100,000 persons; and, as
indirectly there nmst be quadruple this number of persons em-
ployed, the merest pauper among the population has hundreds of
invisible hands held out to provide him with the necessaries and
comforts of life. The smooth working of this great distributive
machine is due to the principle of competition — that spring
which so nicely adjusts all the varying conditions of life, and
which, iu serving itself, does the best possible service to the
community at large, and accomplishes more than the cleverest
system of centralization which any individual mind could
devise.
WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
Ik the year 1716 the brass guns which Marlborough had taken
from the French were being recast in the royal gun foundry in
Moorfields, when a young Swiss named Andrew Schalch, who
was accidentally present, remarking the dampness of the moulds
and foreseeing the inevitable result, warned Colonel Armstrong
the then Surveyor-General, against being too close a spectator
of the operation. As Schalch foretold, an explosion took place,
and many workmen were killed. " It's an ill wind that blows
nobody good," says the old proverb, and the bursting of the
gun was the making of the young foreigner's fortune ; for in a
few days an advertisement appeared in one of the public papers
requesting him to call upon Colonel Andrews, " as the interview
maybe for his advantage." Andrew Schalch attended accordingly,
and was at once intrusted with the duty of seeking out a better
locality for the casting of the royal ordnance. He selected a
rabbit-warren at Woolwich, as the best site within twelve miles
of the metropolis, for the threefold reason that it was dry, near
to the river, and in the immediate neighbourhood of loam for
the moulds. Strangely enough, it has since been proved that
the great nation of antiquity with whom the British possess so
many qualities in common, had been here before. The Romans,
whose second station on the Watling Street out of London is
supposed to have been at Hanging Wood, close at hand, seem
to have appropriated the sloping ground on which the original
gun factory stands for the purposes of a cemetery, for on digging
the foundations of some new buildings urns of their manufac-
ture were discovered in large quantities, and a very beautiful
216 WOOLWICH AESENAL.
sepulchral vase, which is now in the museum of the Royal
Artillery Institution. Thus, where the conquerors of the old
world lay down to their last rest, we, the Romans of the present
age, forge the arms which make us masters of an empire beyond
the dreams of the imperial Cassars.
As the visitor enters the great gate of the Arsenal he finds
no difficulty in tracing the whereabouts of the labours of Andrew,
for straight before him, with a stately solemnity which marked
the conceptions of its builder, Vanbrugh, stands the picturesque
gun factory, with its high-pitched roof, red brickwork, and
carved porch, looking like a fine old gentleman amid the factory
ranges which within these few years have sprung up around.
It is impossible to contemplate this building without respect, for
forth from its portals have issued that victorious ordnance which
since the days of George II. has swept the battle-grounds of the
old and the new world. Up to as late a date as the year 1842
the machinery within these stately old edifices was almost as
antiquated in character as themselves. The three great boring-
mills, moved by horses, which had been imported in 1780 as
astonishing wonders from the Hague, were the only engines used
in England in making her Majesty's ordnance till eighteen years
ago. Such was the state of efficiency of the oldest of the three
great manufacturing departments of the Arsenal ! The more
modern departments, known as the Royal Carriage Factory and
the Laboratory, have flourished during the present century in an
unequal degree. For fifty years the former of these branches
of the Arsenal has been more or less in a high state of efficiency,
through the introduction of machinery from the workshops of
Messrs. Bramah and Maudslay, and of the contrivances of Ben-
tham and Sir I. Brunei. The improvements which were due to
their inventive genius rendered this department highly efficient
during the French war, on the conclusion of which a long period
of inactivity followed ; and it was not until 1847 that symptoms
were manifested of renewed life under the able superintendence
of General Gordon, and still later of Colonel Colquhoun. The
Laboratory during the same period a]3pears to have remained
entirely stationary, and up to the year 1853 was far inferior to
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 247
that of any third-rate power. The backward condition of the sole
arsenal of England during the long interval of peace seems at first
sight remarkable, when we consider the amount of mechanical
ingenuity which had penetrated into every factory in the king-;
dom ; but when we remember that the instruments and muni-
tions of war are special articles, wanted only for special periods,
occurring at uncertain intervals of time, the wonder ceases.
Private manufacturers had no interest in forging instruments of
destruction, and the State having conquered " a lasting peace,"
Vulcan was allowed to fall into a profound sleep — a sleep so
unbroken, that the nation listened for a moment to the voice of
those Manchester charmers who would fain have persuaded us
the time was come when our swords could with safety be turned
into pruning- hooks. In the midst of this amiable delusion the
Northern Eagle attempted to seize upon the sick man, and
Britain instinctively flew to arms. This sudden spasm of war
following upon a forty years' peace at once disclosed the fact
that we were totally unprepared to wage it. There were not
shells enough in the Arsenal to furnish forth the first battering-
train that went to the East, and the fuses in store were of the
date of Waterloo. A fourth part of the money which we joy-
fully expended when the wolf was at the door would have been
thought the demand of a madman, when Europe was supposed
to be one big sheepfold. Economy prevented efficient progress ;
and though the authorities had latterly originated reforms,
their exertions were limited by their scanty resources. As the
war proceeded, the Ordnance were at their wits' end for coarse-
grained gunpowder, which, as it was not an article of commerce,
had to be specially made for them. Small arms were wanted in
haste, and could only be constructed at leisure. In these straits
the private maufacturers of the country were applied to ; but
in many cases they had to learn a new art. Do what they
would, with the power of charging fabulous prices for shot and
shell, ammunition, and small arms, their powers of production
were totally inadequate to meet the strain of the great siege,
the proportions of which grew larger day by day. All the
mills in England could not make powder at the rate at which
248 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
it was shot away — a rate which consumed 100,000 barrels before
Sevastopol was taken ; nor could all the armouries of London
and Birmingham make rifled muskets and sabres fast enough
for our men ; consequently we were obliged to go to Liege for
44.000 Minie" guns, 3,000 cavalry swords, and 12,000 barrels of
powder, and to the United States for 20,000 barrels more.
It may seem passing strange that England, whose manufac-
turing power is so enormous, should have to resort to foreign
manufacturers for the arms wherewith to fight. Money in such
a country, it is often said, can procure anything, and money in
this case was no object. The want of suitable machinery was
the cause of the difficulty. The manufacturers could only make
the articles demanded of them by skilled labour, which is a thing
that must be acquired before it can be hired. Old machines can
be put to extra duty ; fresh machines can be readily supplied ;
but skilled labour is a fixed capital which cannot be suddenly
increased. The result was a lamentable slowness of production
and an extraordinary dearness of price — the munitions of war
in some cases more than doubled in value. It is calculated
that the shells for the Baltic fleet alone, which were fabricated
entirely by private manufacturers, cost upwards of £100,000
more than they would have done had they been made by the new
machinery lately introduced into the Arsenal. A still stronger
case, to show the extraordinary prices which the Government
had to pay contractors when the demand was imperative and
supply confined to two or three houses, was that of the six-
pounder diaphragm shells. They were charged by the con-
tractors at 73£ per ton, whilst the very same article is now
made in the Koj^al Laboratory at 14£ 19s. 2d. per ton. These
exorbitant demands and the rapid drain of the stores led the
W&v Department to consider whether it would not be better to
organize a government establishment on the most extensive
scale, and on the most improved system ; and it was ultimately
determined to adopt a plan by which it would be possible to
expand or contract the productive power, according to the
exigencies of the service, by means of machines which could be
tended by untutored labourers and boys. Accordingly, a very
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 249
large number of the most ingenious machines were procured
from the United States, where the Springfield and Harper
Ferry Arsenals have long been famous for their admirable con-
trivances to save human skill ; while others were procured
from the Continent and at home by Mr. Anderson, the super-
intendent of machinery. In a very short time a powerful
factory of the munitions of war sprung into life, verifying, for
the ten-thousandth time, the truth of the proverb that ne-
cessity w the mother of invention, or at least, as in this case, of
iinprov/ ment.
Th - introduction of machinery on a large scale put to flight
the old traditions of the Arsenal, and the manufacturing spirit
had to be substituted for the military organization under which
the establishment had been conducted before. Such was the
energy and rapidity with which the old Arsenal reformed itself,
that we question if any private factory in the kingdom is con-
ducted upon a better system than is already at work there.
Within these three years factories have sprung up on every side,
and the whir of wheels, and the measured stroke of the steam-
engine, can now be heard over the whole of its immense area.
The three manufacturing departments into which the Wool-
wich Arsenal is divided are as follows : — The Royal Gun
Factory, the Royal Carriage Department, and the Eoyal
Laboratory Department. Through these factories we will
conduct our readers, and endeavour to give them an idea how
human ingenuity has perfected the means to destroy human
life. The gun factories, by right of age, take precedence,
although in point of interest they present the least attractive
features to the spectator. The fact which most strikes him as
he threads his way amid the Cyclopean machinery is the slow,
inevitable manner in which the different processes are carried
on. Here you see a large lathe turning the outside of an
eighteen-pounder, revolving as noiselessly and as readily as
though it were only turning a brass candlestick — a fixed tool
cutting off its thin shavings of metal with as much ease as if it
were box-wood. In the next machine a gun is being bored, the
drill twisting its way down the fixed mass, and a dropping
'250 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
shower of bright chips proving how resistlessly its tooth moves
on towards its appointed goal. A third machine cuts off the
" dead head " of a cannon. All guns are cast in the pits in a
perpendicular position, breech downwards, and are made at
least one-third longer than they are intended to be when
finished. The reason for this is, that the superincumbent
metal forming the " dead head " of the piece may by its weight
condense the portion below it w T hich is to form the true gun —
the extraordinary pressure of the powder requiring the metal
to be extremely close in order to withstand the strain. Besides
these lathes, which do the more ordinary work of the factory,
there are what are termed exceptional machines, to finish those
parts of the gun which the lathe cannot touch, such as the pro-
jecting sight, the trunnions, and that portion of the barrel
which lies between them. No increase has taken place in the
size of the Brass Gun Factory, although, through the energetic
action of Colonel Wilmot, its produce has been doubled since
the breaking out of the war : fourteen pieces of brass ordnance
— six, nine, and eighteen pounders — can be turned out weekly.
Brass is used for field-pieces on account of its resisting power
being greater than that of iron. Experiments which have
lately been made, however, tend to show that steel is a far
lighter and better material even than brass for this purpose. A
German, named Krupp, has produced some steel pieces whieh
bear an enormous charge ; in fact, when well made, it is almost
impossible to burst them. The Emperor of the French has
already ordered 350 of these guns to be introduced into the
service, and probably we shall have to follow suit.
The fine building* recently erected in connection with this
department is intended for the manufacture of iron ordnance,
which has hitherto been produced exclusively by private
manufacturers. The experience of the late war, however,
determined the Government to furnish at least a portion of
* Since the above was written, these fine buildings have been taken
possession of by Sir "William Armstrong, where, under the veil of secrecy,
his extraordinary ordnance is now constructed to the entire exclusion of
the old style of cannon.
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 251
these stores themselves. A thoroughly reliable gun must be
worth auy price that its efficient manufacture demands ; for the
failing of a single piece may lose a battle, and bring with it
consequences which would be cheaply averted by a park of
artillery cast in gold. In the late campaign we were prevented
from striking a great blow through this very cause alone. At
the bombardment of Sweaborg no less than seventeen of the
thirteen-inch mortars were destroyed through a want of tenacity
in the iron of which they were composed. Many of these
ponderous engines split after a few rounds, and may now be
seen on the wharf of the Arsenal cleft in twain as clean as Tell's
apple. Yet these mortars were made by the Carron and Low
Moor Companies, the most celebrated private manufacturers of
such articles in England. Had they stood the strain, we should
have utterly destroyed the fortifications of this stronghold,
instead of burning a few sheds, which made a great blaze with-
out doing much mischief; and had we possessed a sufficient
number of these formidable engines, the destruction of Cronstadt
and Sevastopol would only have formed the work of a few days.
Though ours is a land both of iron and manufactures, our guns
are of inferior quality to those of other nations. The cannon
captured at Sevastopol are of better iron than the cannon we
brought against them. Several thousand tons weight of the
guns dismounted from Cronstadt, in order to make way for
pieces of heavier calibre, were bought, we understand, the other
day by an English firm with the intention of converting them
into cranks and boilers, which require the very best material.
The Americans insist upon a tenacity of cast-iron for their
ordnance equal to a pressure of 34,000 lbs. on the square inch,
and sometimes obtain it equal to 45,000 lbs., whilst we, the
greatest manufacturers of iron in the world, have hitherto
seldom obtained it of a strength equal to 20,000 lbs. This
great difficiency Government hope to remedy by the institution
of a series of experiments on all classes of iron both foreign and
indigenous. There is a curious machine in the Gun Factory
specially invented for the purpose of testing the tenacity of
each sample, its capacity of withstanding compression, its
252 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
transverse strength, and its power of resisting torsion. It is
curious to see this iron-limbed Samson wrestling with mighty
bars of metal, and twisting and tearing them across the grain
like bits of stick. The fractured remnants of the specimens and
of the guns rent in the testing process in the Marshes and at
Shoeburyness are collected in a museum, the history of each
specimen being minutely given. Thus a curious and instructive
record is gradually being acquired, which will prove of infinite
use in the manufacture of heavy ordnance. It has been already
ascertained that guns are universally strengthened by having
wrought iron rings put round them — a fact which was dis-
covered during the course of experiments with the heavy
cannon bored with an oval rifle to receive the Lancaster shell.
Several of them having burst at the muzzle, this simple expe-
dient was tried, and the guns so girded now bear the most
extraordinary charges without flinching.
The new building for casting, boring, and finishing iron guns,
is both externally and internally the most imposing-looking of
all the structures erected to meet the exigencies of the Crimean
war. These spacious factories present more the appearance of
first-class railway termini than of ordinary workshops. They
are lighted with what are termed saw-roof lights, having a
northern aspect ; for the Yulcans who can work all day in the
burning blaze of furnaces do not, it appears, like to be distracted
with the confusing rays of the sun ! The number of turning,
boring, finishing, planing, shaping, drilling, slotting, and punch-
ing machines that revolve, thump, and slide here in ponderous
grandeur is prodigious, and there can be very little doubt that
it will be the most perfect and powerful factory in the world of
its kind. Travelling-cranes, which run upon railways poised in
air overhead, command every inch of the factories, so that
cannon of the heaviest calibre for both land and sea service —
98-pounders weighing many tons can be slung from machine to
machine with the greatest ease. When the machinery is
completed, the foundry will be capable of turning out ten guns
of the largest size per week.
The most interesting portion of the gun department is the
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 253
factory devoted to the construction of Lancaster shells. This
odd-looking missile has a form very similar to a champagne
bottle, and, unlike the ordinary shell, is made out of a single
sheet of wrought iron. The slab of metal having been welded
into a cylindrical form, is submitted to an ingenious lathe,
which, acting upon it simultaneously with a dozen different tools
inside and out, speedily reduces it to a given weight and a
perfectly uniform thickness. The cylinder, about eighteen
inches in length and ten in diameter, is then made red hot, and
whilst in this state is placed in the grip of a powerful machine,
which by a series of blows, equally distributed over every part,
converts it into the likeness of a French bottle in less than five
minutes, without the slightest sign of crumpling in any portion
of the surface. The operation can only be compared to the
manner in which a potter shapes a vessel upon the wheel. No
less than forty machines are employed on this special manu-
facture, and upwards of a hundred shells can be turned out
daily. The expense incurred in producing with extreme
accuracy and speed these curious missiles for the first rifled gun
adopted by the service, is an earnest of the determination of
the authorities to carry the manufacture of artillery to the same
perfection of finish as their small arms. Lancaster guns will in
all probability play a very important part in the next war, if war
there should ever unhappily be, as those in use in the Crimea
made most splendid practice, firing with nearly the accuracy
of a rifle, and attaining a range of 5,000 yards, or very nearly
three miles. As these shells cost about 25s. each, the expense
of " passing the bottle " to the enemy is rather a serious affair.
By far the largest department of the Royal Arsenal is devoted
to the construction of carriages and packing-cases for moving
artillery, baggage, and the various munitions of war. At the
present moment the carriage department employs no less than
three thousand hands, together with three hundred machines,
moved by twenty-three steam-engines, which do the work of an
additional twelve thousand men ! The bulky nature of the
material dealt with, and the store-houses required for stowing
it away, together with the numerous workshops called into
254: WOOLWICH AESENAL.
existence by the Crimean war, have caused this department to
burst its old bounds and to invade 250 acres of the adjoining
marsh — the area of the workshops alone covering 255,152
superficial feet, and the entire ground occupied being no less
than 1,445,440 feet. This immense amount of elbow room has
enabled Colonel Tulloch, the superintendent of the department,
to systematize the manufacture, and cause the timber to pass
along in one unbroken progress from the time when it is landed
upon the wharf to the time when the finished articles are
delivered over to the storekeeper. If we follow this stream
from stage to stage, we shall catch a flying view of the opera-
tions of this department, whose province it is to provide package
and carriage for the British army at home and abroad.
The timber which forms the principal raw material employed
is brought by ships to the mouth of the canal which runs along
the eastern side of the Arsenal ; here it is transferred to lighters
which convey it some distance inland to the quay in the
immediate neighbourhood of the timber field. By means of
powerful derrick cranes, which can make a long or a short arm
at pleasure, it is next unloaded and swung upon the trucks of
the railway which ramifies through every portion of the
premises, and forms the means of communication between its
different points. The trucks, when full, immediately start with
their burthen for the contiguous timber field, a square space
covering 20 acres. Here the huge logs are deposited in long
lines, which extend from one end of the field to the other,
having roadways between them laid with rails. Over each line
or row of timber strides a powerful travelling crane which, with
a slight impulse given by one man, is made to traverse from
end to end of the row, depositing or taking up in its way logs of
oak or teak of many tons weight as easily as Gulliver could have
picked up the Lilliputians he bestrode. Before the introduction
of this powerful machinery, from fifty to one hundred pairs of
horses were employed in this department alone, all of which
are now dispensed with, and a saving effected of 6,0001. a-year.
The usual store in the timber-field amounts to 60,000 loads in
various stages of seasoning. The varieties of climate in which the
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 255
British army has to serve are so many, that foreign woods have
been introduced to supply the place of oak, which cannot be
found in quantities equal to the demand. Thus we find in the
timber- field sabicu, a dense East-Indian wood which is used
for the heavy blocks of gun carriages ; pedouk, from the same
country, which is employed for a similar purpose ; and iron
bark, an Australian wood. Of English timber, such as ash,
elm, and beech, there is a very large store. What is called
wheel timber, on the soundness and proper adaptation of which
depends the safety of the artillery and transport service, is
entirely composed of the most graceful trees of our woodlands ;
the spokes being made of oak, the naves of elm, the felloes or
rims of ash. Beech is also largely used for the fuses of shells
and the woodwork of saddles. When any particular logs are
required, they are selected by the timber-master, picked up by
the travelling crane, hoisted into the railway truck, and con-
veyed at once to the saw-mills close at hand. On the threshold
of the largest mill the logs meet with a grim reception from an
immense circular saw 66 inches in diameter, which at once
attacks the huge log and separates it as expeditiously as your
Eastern soldier divides with his scimitar a floating handker-
chief. This formidable instrument traverses a space of 30 feet,
and is thus enabled to fix its teeth upon the log at whatever
part of the entrance it may chance to lie. This transverse
section performed, the divided portions are drawn up by
machinery into the saw-frames, the largest of which is capable
of receiving a log 4 feet square. Once within the mill's maw,
as many saws are put in as are necessary to divide the wood
into slabs of the required thickness, and a few minutes suffice
to reduce it to planks. From the mills the timber is removed
again upon the railroad to the seasoning shed, which covers
4 acres of ground. Here it is allowed to remain for years, so
stacked that the air fairly circulates through every portion of
the immense mass. The seasoning shed is to the timber master
what his wine-cellar is to a bon vivant. Here he treasures his
bins of nine years old oak as though it were wine of a famous
vintage. This he keeps as carefully as a young whist-player
256 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
keeps his best trumps to the end of the game, but with far
more judgment, for old oak is precious beyond price, and cannot
be got for love or money at a moment's notice. In the dim
shadow of this monster store are also piled the completed
articles of land-transport that improve by age. That perpen-
dicular wall of finished woodwork contains the bodies of a
thousand carriages which were prepared to remove the British
army from the pleateau of Sevastopol in anticipation of an
inland campaign ; the round towers at the corners are their
wheels built up and left to season. Upon the thorough pre-
paration of this part of the carriage its safety depends. The
wheels of omnibuses are always allowed to remain two years
before they are used, and by permitting them this grace they
behave well when at work, generally running over 43,000 miles
of ground before they are worn out. The wheels of gun-
carriages require to be even better prepared and seasoned, as
they have to bear the weight of enormous guns, and have often
to run over the roughest ground, without being in any way
relieved from sudden shocks by springs.
Upon this store of mellow wood the different factories draw ;
and the railway which traverses every portion of it speedily
conveys the raw material to the benches of the workmen. As
the visitor passes up the main avenues of these splendid shops
he is bewildered with the activity of the swarms of artizans,
the whirling of shafting, and the grating sounds of circular
saws. Clouds of sawdust are flying about, and in a moment
cover the intruder from head to foot. The immense amount of
work sometimes required to be performed at a brief notice has
necessitated the introduction of machinery into this branch of
handicraft, which heretofore was entirely carried on by manual
labour. Let us take the ammunition and powder cases for
instance ; these have to be provided by the hundred thousand
in time of war, and accordingly we find machinery employed in
every direction to shorten the work. Circular saws cut the planks
into the required size to form the sides and tops and bottoms
of the cases ; as these issue from the different machines, they
are conveyed away upon a circular band of canvas, placed at
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 257
right angles, to a broader band which runs from one end of the
factory to the other : down this band, as on a broad stream,
the various pieces sail until they reach the receptacle, from
which they are again conveyed to the machinery which is to
put them together. Here the drilling, mortising, and dowelling
processes are carried on by wholesale with an exactitude and
speed which would astonish the joiner of the old school.
Upwards of a thousand ammunition boxes formed of cedar, for
repelling the wood- eating white ants of the East, are now being
prepared daily for the use of the Indian army. The powder-
boxes for the navy are made of a hexagonal form, to enable
them to fit into the ship's hold like cells of honeycomb. They
are carefully lined either with pewter or copper, and when
filled are hermetically sealed with wax. The limber-boxes for
the field artillery are also made here in large quantities. These
receptacles are of a far more elaborate character than the
powder-cases, as they are fitted to take all the stores requisite
for immediate action, which are stowed away in their different
compartments, as neatly as the articles in a gentleman's dressing-
case. The common cartridge barrels are shaped out of the
solid wood almost as fast as you can look. One machine cuts
the oak into staves, curved to the right form ; another cuts the
edges, so that they may fit in a circle ; a fourth turns the head ;
a fifth receives the staves, which are placed by the attendant
on end in the form of a barrel, within the grip of a hydraulic
press, claps a hoop on the top and bottom, and with one squeeze
completes the operation. By such appliances a piece of solid
oak plank is converted within five minutes into a finished
barrel. The total produce of carefully-prepared powder-cases
during the financial year 1856 was 25,331, and of boxes for
ammunition, shell, &c, no less than 287,171. How many
barrels can be made at a pinch we do not know, for the
machinery is only just put up, but the number must be
enormous, and when the visitor witnesses the nimble fingers of
machinery galloping over the work, he wonders how the
business was ever got through in the old time of the chisel,
gouge, hammer, and plane.
S
258 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
In the shops devoted to the manufacture of the gun-carriages
and trucks for the land and sea service, skilled artisans are
employed, except in the wheel department. The vast strength
requisite to support and withstand the recoil of 5Q, 64, and
98-pounders, necessitates the most solid construction and the
best workmanship. Some of these platforms for traversing
cannon, made of teak, and bolted and finished at the ends with
bright copper bands, look like handsome pieces of furniture
rather than ship's gun-carriages. Compared with these pon-
derous articles, the light constructions fitted for the field-
artillery seem like children's playthings. Here they may be
met with in every variety and in every stage of progress, so
substantially put together that the marvel is that they ever
wear out. The sort of succession of earthquakes, however, to
which they are subjected in a campaign tells even upon those
solid joints, and but few of the gun-carriages employed in the
Crimea, although new when they went out, returned fit for
further service.
The wheel department is one of the most interesting sights
in the Arsenal. Here the most ingenious machinery has been
brought together to insure sound and speedy production.
Formerly the wheels were made entirely by hand ; now they
are turned out without the aid of a single skilled wheelwright.
"What is called the copying process, produces the nave and
spokes of the wheel, three or four of which are seen working
side by side, and the whole batch under the care of only one
man. The circular rim of the wheel, or felloe, is cut out of the
solid block by an ingenious ribbon-saw, imported from France.
This saw is merely a narrow band of steel, toothed on one edge
and running over a wheel like an ordinary leathern band
attached to shafting. The exquisite manner in which it fashions
the most intricate patterns from thick slabs of wood is really
surprising. The felloes, after being thus roughly formed, are
stacked to season in a shed by themselves, where they are piled
one upon the other in vast pillars, down vistas of which the
visitor passes, full of amazement at their number. There are
at present in store some sixty thousand of these felloes and
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 259
an equal number of naves, "with their due complement of
spokes.
As wheels are required, their component parts are brought
to the shop, finished and mortised by machinery, and then
lightly adjusted to each other. They are immediately placed
within the grip of six hydraulic presses, which are so arranged
as to thrust towards a common centre. Directly the w r heel is
adjusted within them, you hear the hiss of the resistless engines,
whose motive power is only a few pints of water ; the solid ;
timbers groan, the joints painfully accommodate themselves to
each other, and in less time than the process takes to describe,
the wheel is lifted out solidly jointed, and only awaiting the
tire to travel at once under its superincumbent gun. The
wheels of gun, limber, and ammunition carriages are all made
of exactly the same size, in order that they may be inter-
changeable in case of accident.
The effect of the sudden outbreak of the late war was, per-
haps, more beneficially felt upon the laboratory department of
the Arsenal than any other. Shells, of all the stores of war,
were most deficient when the army left for "Varna, and the
want increased as soon as actual campaigning commenced. The
authorities accordingly permitted Captain Boxer to erect a
model manufactory of shells in the autumn of 1855. This he
did with surprising rapidity, and proved to their satisfaction
that these formidable missiles could be manufactured five
pounds a ton cheaper than they could be procured from the
contractors — an important saving on an article of which several
hundred tons had to be supplied per day. The success of this
experiment led to the erection of the splendid shell-foundry
which is now attached to the Arsenal, and which is capable of
turning out sufficient shells for all the armies of the world.
Here may be seen the process by which the old scrap iron of
the establishment is transformed into the finished shot and
shell, and transferred by its own weight to the transport ready
to convey it to the seat of war. The smelting process is carried
on in a dozen enormous cupola furnaces, into which the iron
and coal are heaped indiscriminately. The fierce heat generated
s 2
260 WOOLWICH AESENAL.
by the blast rapidly melts the iron, which is then allowed to
flow into the shell-moulds. From the moment the metal enters
these moulds, the shell, in war time, never touches the ground
till it is landed at its port of debarkation ! The rough shells,
after they have cooled a little, are forwarded by railway to the
cleaning-room, where they are placed in a revolving iron barrel,
seven feet long and seven feet in diameter. This machine
circulates with rapidity, and the friction of the contained shells
speedily cleanses them of all sand and dirt. From this point
they roll through all the succeeding stages of their manufacture.
A slightly -inclined plane receives them at the cleaning-drum,
and conducts them one by one to the machinery fixed in the
great room of the laboratory department. Upwards of ten
thousand shells per day passed through this apartment during
the late war, and were, on their passage, drilled and " bushed," or
fitted with the socket made to receive the fuse. This simple
fact will alone serve to show how energetically the work was
carried on to meet the wants of the great siege. The shells,
having rolled through the labyrinth of successive machines
which operate upon them, now move onward to the painting
department, where they receive a coating of black varnish,
which prevents oxidation. Hence they continue their journey
right across the open ground of the Arsenal to the pier, under
the platform of which they keep their course inside an iron
tube which leads immediately into the barge alongside the
transport in the river. From this barge, into which they some-
times shoot with a considerable impulse, they roll again, through
the open port of the ship, to their appointed place in the hold.
The chief factory of the laboratory department is the grea
sight of the Arsenal, as here the visitor witnesses twenty o:
thirty most curious operations, the more important only of
which he can stop to examine amid the whirlwind of machinery
that everywhere meets his sight and vibrates on his ear. The
manufacture of elongated bullets for the rifles affords perhaps
the most startling novelty of all. The rifle itself is not a
greater advance upon old Brown Bess than is the Minie bullet
upon the old one-ounce ball. The apparatus now employed to
:
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 261
produce it contrasts as forcibly with the simple bullet-mould
formerly in use. Instead of heating the lead to a fluid state, it
is simply warmed, in which condition it is subjected to hydraulic
pressure in a large iron vessel, which has but one small aperture
at the top, of the size of the intended elongated bullet. Out of
this hole the metal is driven in the form of a continuous rod of
lead, which, as it issues forth, rolls itself upon iron reels as
though it were so much cotton ! The reels are then attached
to a machine which draws the metal between its teeth, bites it
off to the required size, moulds the cone, depresses the cup, and
condenses the mass at the same moment. These wonderful
bullet-makers, when in full work, turn out five hundred
elongated bullets a minute, or upwards of a quarter of a million
daily. To complete the missile, the cup has to be filled with a
boxwood plug to ensure its proper expansion whilst in the act
of leaving the gun. Here again a partially self-acting apparatus
is called into play, one lad being sufficient to feed several
machines with square rods of wood, the ends of which are
embraced by a circular hollow cutter, which instantly reduces
them to the right conical form, and then cuts them off. These
little plugs are produced at the same rate as the bullets.
An equally interesting operation is the manufacture of per-
cussion caps. The first process in this light and delicate work
is the stamping of sheet-copper into pieces of the required
form to make the caps. For this purpose the copper is placed
beneath the punch of the machine, and immediately it is put
in action, small crosses of metal are seen to fall from it into a
box in a continual stream, whilst the sheet itself is transposed
by the punching process into a kind of trellis-work. These
crosses of equilateral arms are now transferred to another
machine, which instantly doubles up the four arms, and at the
same time so rounds them, that they form a tube just the
size of the gun-nipple, and by a third operation of the same
machine a kind of rim is given to the free end, which makes
the cap take the form of a hat. This rim marks the difference
between the military and the ordinary percussion-cap — the
soldier, in the hurry and confusion of battle, requiring this guide
262 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
to enable him to apply the proper end to the nipple. The
metal portion of the cap completed, it is transferred to a man
who tills it with detonating powder. As this is a very dan-
gerous process, the artisan upon whom the duty devolves sits
apart from the boys, who perform all the other work, for fear
of an accidental explosion. To fix the fine dust in the cap, a
very pretty machine is employed, which gets through its work
with extreme rapidity. The caps are placed in regular rows in
a frame-work, to which is attached a lever, armed with as many
fine points as there are caps in a single row. The motion given
by the hand alternately dips these fine points into a tray of
varnish, and then into each succeeding line of caps. When the
varnish is dry, the powder is fixed and effectually protected from
the effects of damp. The caps are now finished, and are ready
for the boy who counts and packs them. Machinery is even
employed to perform the part of cocker, and with one gentle
shake does the brain-work of many minutes. A frame is con-
structed, into which fit a number of small trays, each tray being
pierced with seventy-five holes. Upon this frame the boy heaps
up a few handfuls of caps, and then gives the whole machine a
few jerks, and when he sees that every hole is filled with a cap,
he lifts out each separate tray and empties it into appropriate
boxes. In this manner he is enabled, with extreme rapidity,
to count out his parcels of seventy-five caps, the regulation
number served to each soldier with sixty rounds of ball-cartridge
— the excess of fifteen being allowed for loss in the flurry of
action. The British soldier's clumsy fingers are by no means
well calculated for handling and adjusting such light articles.
Equally curious with the production of caps is the manu-
facture of cartridge- bags. The visitor, as he mounts the stairs
to the upper floor of a large building close at hand, is made
aware by the hum and collision of shrill young voices that he
is approaching a hive of children, and as he rears his head
above the banisters, he finds that he is in the midst of a little
army of urchins, varying from eight to fourteen years of age,
seated at long benches rolling up paper cartridge-bags. This
process requires some little nicety, as each bag is made up of
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 263
three distinct papers of different sizes and shapes, which have
to be neatly adjusted round a roller one upon another. By
long practice some of these little fellows complete the operation
in a surprisingly short space of time — rolling, twisting in the
end, tying, and drawing it from the rod almost as quickly as
you can look at them, the swaying of the body during the
operation giving to the entire mass of eight hundred children
a most extraordinary aggregate movement as the room is
surveyed from one end to the other. Some boys are infinitely
more nimble-fingered than others, and the sharpest earn eight
or nine shillings a-week at the work.
Nimble as their little fingers ply, however, the hands of
machinery laugh them to scorn. In the room below we note
as we descend strange wheel-like frames revolving horizontally,
and others working up and down into tanks of paper pulp.
These are the new machines destined to supplant the little
children over-head, and to hush the ceaseless hum of their
human labour. Throughout the entire range of the Arsenal
there is no sight more interesting than is exhibited by these
machines, the modus operandi of which is extremely simple.
Circles of brass tubing have short upright tubes inserted into
them at regular distances. These upright tubes, or fingers,
are pierced with fine holes, and the whole apparatus is attached
to an exhausting-pump. Worsted mittens are fitted to the
fingers, and when all is ready, the Briarean hand is dipped into
the bath of pulp, the air in the tubes is withdrawn, the liquid
necessarily rushes towards the fingers, and the water passing
through, leaves the pulp adherent to the mitten. The process
is instantaneous, hand after hand drops into the trough, gloves
its fingers with pulp, and rises with a thousand cartridges in its
grasp, quicker than one of the boys up stairs has finished a
single bag. The process is not complete, however, until they
are dry. Each mitten is removed from its metal finger, and
placed on a similar one heated with steam. In ten minutes the
desiccating process is finished, and the cartridge-bag is removed,
a far more perfect instrument for its deadly purpose than that
which is made up stairs by hand. The hint for this beautiful
264 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
machine was taken from the apparatus employed for making
conical seamless sugar-bags without the intervention of the
paper maker — so diverse are the developments which may
spring from the same idea. Of these small-arm cartridge-bags,
400,000 can be manufactured in a day of ten hours ; but as each
cartridge is composed of a double envelope, one fitting within the
other, in order to separate the conical ball from the powder, the
product furnishes 200,000 cartridges — an enormous quantity, but
scarcely equal to the demand of such campaigners as Havelock,
whose men, day by day, consumed their sixty rounds per head.
At first sight it seems strange to find the Government turned
paper makers, and the visitor may think that these bags could
be obtained, as the sugar-bags are by the grocers, from the
private manufacturer, but it is absolutely necessary that they
should be produced side by side with their deadly contents.
They are far more delicate things to maintain in their integrity
than even wafer-biscuits, which they very much resemble, and
they are required in such enormous numbers, that any mecha-
nical impediment, such as crushing, interposed to the filling of
them with powder and ball, would add immensely to the
expense. The pressure in packing necessary to convey them to
the Arsenal would flatten, and hence destroy them.
But where, asks the visitor, is the small-arms factory for the
construction of those far-famed rifles which prevented a disaster
at Inkermann, and at once doubled the effective power of the
steadiest infantry of Europe? And well may he ask the
question, for what more natural place for this important
manufacture than in connexion with kindred Government
establishments ? "When the War Ofiice decided upon erecting
a factory to meet the sudden demands of the war, it was pro-
posed by the Inspector of Machinery to plant it within the
walls of the Arsenal ; but the authorities, for some reason best
known to themselves, decided otherwise, and it was accordingly
taken to Enfield Lock, which is twelve miles from London on
the Eastern Counties Railway, and where they had before a
small establishment for the repair and manufacture of a limited
number of muskets. The traveller who gets out at the factory
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 265
station finds himself at once in a road which leads him into a
flat country laced with streams, where Paul Potter might have
found a study at every turn. Here, amid flocks and herds
peacefully grazing, or standing in the shadows of the pollard
willows, he espies the tall chimneys of the Enfield factory, look-
ing like a stray fragment of Manchester that had wandered out
of its way. In all England a more absurd spot for it could not
have been chosen.
The establishment, however, is so worthy of a minute inspec-
tion, that we will proceed to give a general view of the whole.
The threshold of the manufacturing process is the smithery,
where the foreman presides to deliver out the raw material and
receive in return the work done. To each smith is issued the
particular size of bar iron or steel required for the article he
works upon. Opening out of this shop is the smithery itself,
with its fifty- five forges, together with steam hammers, hop-
pers, rider hammers, and other contrivances by which our
modern Vulcan economises labour. In this department all the
iron and steel work of the lock and stock are moulded, for the
ordinary method of forging conveys a very inadequate idea of
the manner in which the material is here manipulated. Every
sportsman knows that the lock of a gun is made up of many
small pieces of irregular form. To forge these with the hammer
alone would be far too expensive a process, as it would require
highly-skilled labour, nor even then would it be possible to
produce the different pieces of exactly the same size, so that any
one may fit into any other with perfect accuracy when the gun
is ultimately put together. To accomplish this end, the essen-
tial principle of the manufacture, each smith with his helper
takes in hand a particular piece of work. One man, for instance,
makes hammers, or cocks, as sportsmen call them. The irre-
gular form of this part of the lock would seem to preclude the
possibility of its being made by the hundred-thousand, each one
being the counterpart of its brother to the thousandth of an
inch. Yet this is done, and with an ease that appears astonish-
ing to the beholder. Let us watch the brawny smith before
us. He draws a rod from the fire at white heat, lays it upon
266 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
an indented part of his anvil, and, together with his mate, deals
alternate blows in half a dozen different directions, and pro-
duces in a few seconds an irregular mass, which we see bears a
resemblance to the indentation in the anvil, which, on closer
inspection, we find to be a rude matrix of a guncock. This is
the first process, called^ swaging. These two men go on from
one year's end to another, giving alternate light and heavy
blows and taps on all sides of the metal. These blows, though
sometimes delivered through a swinging circle of eight or ten
feet, fall upon exactly the same spot, for practice so nicely
co-ordinates the muscles as to produce a motion as exact as that
which draws from the bow of a Paganini the same delicate note
for any number of times in succession. The cock thus swaged,
the smith stamps his initials upon it, and transfers it to
another smith, who works with a steam-hammer, on which is a
steel die of the exact form it is required to take. A single
blow of this instrument gives it its final form, leaving the
superfluous metal in the shape of a thin film, where it has
been squeezed into the opening between the dies, which is cut
off by a subsequent stamping process. By this method of
swaging and stamping, the lock-plate, bridle, cock, sear, trigger,
sightleaf, breech-screw, and swivel are formed so perfectly,
that the tool is scarcely required to touch them afterwards.
Those parts of the lock made of steel, such as the main-
spring, searspring and tumbler, are simply swaged, the stamping
process being omitted on account of the sudden blow tending
to break the grain and thus destroy the elasticity of the metal.
A curious operation of the smithery is the bayonet forging.
The bars for bayonet- work are never forged of such uniform
'width as to allow the smith to cut off to a nicety the length he
requires. In order to rectify this difficulty, and enable him to
tell how much will serve his purpose, he is provided with a
water-gauge, or tube filled with a given quantity of water ; into,
this the rod is plunged, and withdrawn when the fluid reaches
the top of the gauge. By this expedient the iron, however
irregular in form, is measured accurately by the displacement of
the water. When the bar is withdrawn, the smith cuts it off at
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 267
the watermark, and his mate thrusts it into the forge fire.
Whilst this is going on, the visitor becomes conscious of a
strange machine close at hand, which perpetually gnashes
together a mouthful of hardened steel teeth ; this is that useful
instrument called the rider hammer. These teeth bear upon
their upper and under surfaces grooves of the form the iron bar
is required to take. The short white-heated bit of bar is thrust
in, and by a series of nabs is instantly lengthened a couple of
inches ; the next tooth still further attenuates it, the third
forces it into the triangular form, and a fourth and fifth reduce
it to the graduated length required : thus the blade of this
terrible weapon is rough-drawn. The ring by which it is
attached to the barrel of the musket is forged separately, and
welded to the shank at right angles. These are the first of at
least seventy-six distinct operations before the weapon is fitted
to fulfil its appointed design, that of making the ugliest and
most irreparable wound possible in the human corpus. The
work done, it is returned to the foreman, whose first duty is to
see that the material with which the man has been debited has
wrought into the requisite number of pieces ; if it falls short
the waste is charged to him. The next scrutiny is into the
quality of the work, and the last and not the least important
inquiry is, does it gauge ? Unless the work passes all these
ordeals it is rejected, and the person in fault is known by the
distinguishing mark of the smith who prepared it. In some
cases, as in the making of the bands which bind the barrel
to the stock, this mark is ground off in passing through one
of the presses ; but is immediately restored, that the work
may be traced to the artisan who constructed it. The effect of
thus fixing the responsibility of every single thing manufac-
tured upon the maker is immense, and induces habits of care-
fulness such as are seldom seen in ordinary workmen. The
foreman now issues the different pieces to the /finishers, who
convey them to the annealing room, where they are rendered
soft for working by heat, and cleaned of their scale or oxide,
which would otherwise injure the tool, by means of dilute
sulphuric acid.
268 , WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
The barrel is welded and finished in a separate factory. The
piece of metal out of which the gradually tapering tube is ulti-
mately fashioned seems to bear no relation to such a form.
You see the smith take a small plate of quarter-inch iron,
about a foot long by a few inches wide, heat it to a welding
heat, and then place it between the lips of a rolling mill, with
grooved instead of flat rollers, and in an instant it comes out a
tube. It has next to be drawn out to the requisite length and
tapered, which is done by passing it through a series of mills,
each succeeding one being grooved smaller than the preceding.
The bore is kept hollow during the operation by a central iron
rod. The breech piece is welded on by a single blow of a
steam-hammer, and the process of turning the bore begins.
Four barrels are acted upon by one lathe, and the first operation
is performed in fifteen minutes. Only a slight cutting is made
each time, and the barrel has to be submitted to the action of
many different boring instruments until the exact size, *o77 of
an inch, is attained. The outside is now turned, the tool
taking off the superfluous metal in one continuous ringlet of
iron.
It now undergoes the most delicate process of all, that ot
being "viewed." The viewer, who is a highly- skilled work-
man, with an exceedingly accurate eye, puts himself opposite a
gas-lamp, about thirty feet distance, and which has a dark
shade on its upper side. Towards this object he directs the
barrel so as to bring the dark edge half-way across his sight as
he looks through the bore. By this device he is enabled to
direct a ray of light with a defined edge down the tube, and
by turning the barrel round, instantly detects the slightest
deviation from the straight line. As the smoothest-looking sea
is discovered to be a mass of dimpling ripples — (the Greek
poet's " infinite laughings of the sea ") — when the setting sun
throws a golden shaft across its bosom, so the mathematically
straight lines of light gauge the inequalities of the rifle bore in
a more exact manner than any instrument that has yet been
invented. When any irregularities are discovered, the viewer
taps the barrel with a fine hammer on a small anvil, and
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 269
repeats the operation until the tube is perfectly true. Upon
this depends the correct shooting of the gun, inasmuch as the
least crook near the end of the bore would send a bullet far on
one side of the mark long before it had attained the full range
of 800 yards, to which the Enfield rifle is sighted. The rifling
of the barrel in three groves is performed by fixing it in a
lathe, and driving the cutter through it in a spiral direction.
In entering the finishing room, a noble apartment, 200 feet
square, the visitor cannot fail to be struck with astonishment
at the scene this vast workshop presents. He looks through a
mass of wheels, levers, cranks, and shafts, which fill the space
from wall to wall, every foot alive with iron and human limbs,
and the whole superficies seeming to writhe and wrestle like a
cluster of worms. Although confusion looks triumphant to the
casual eye, the utmost order prevails. On one side of the
room, at regular intervals, small inclosed offices, with glazed
fronts, are placed against the wall, a little above the level of
the floor. These are devoted to the foremen of the different
divisions into which the work is separated. Each of these
functionaries from his eyrie rakes the long avenues or streets of
machines, with their attendant workmen, which run in parallel
lines across the room. The first avenue is devoted to bayonets;
then come in the following order the divisions allocated to
furniture, screw, sight, lock, and stock. The work is so
managed that all the different parts keep pace together, and
are finished in the required proportions ■ or in other words,
those pieces which are but slowly produced have allotted to
them a greater number of machines. By this arrangement all
the requisite items are brought at the same moment to the
workmen who put them together in the finished article. The
fifty-six pieces of which the rifle is composed work their way up
one street of machinery and down another, constantly following
on from right to left on their way towards the top of the room.
Many of these pieces are passed through upwards of twenty
different machines, each one performing some simple and defi-
nite action, by which means an accuracy is obtained that the
most skilful gunmaker could never equal by hand.
270 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
The diversity of cutting-tools in these different machines
strikes the observer with astonishment ; the oddest shapes, the
most unlikely-looking forms, proving admirably adapted for the
purposes they are intended to accomplish. Many of these work
automatically — that is, they engage and disengage themselves ;
setting to work only when they are fed with material, and,
when their rodent-like teeth have gnawed away as much metal
as is requisite, they stop of their own accord. The effect of
this is so extraordinary, that it almost seems as if those bright
limbs of iron, which stop and move on without human agency,
must be directed by some sort of metallic brain. The most
common form of tool employed is what is termed the circular
cutter or milling-tool, which is constructed to fit every class of
work. These cutters will continue serviceable for months with-
out requiring to be sharpened, in consequence of each being
restricted to its own limited sphere. The amount of thought
employed in the construction of many of these machines must
have been immense, and when they were completed, two-thirds
of the manufacturing difficulty was overcome, and the musket
more than half made. A most ingenious machine, the parent
of a numerous progeny, was, many years ago, invented by an
Englishman, and applied to copying the fine lines of statuary,
and transferring them to ivory and other materials. The
applicability of this instrument to the production of the irregular
forms in the gun trade was first perceived by our cousins
across the Atlantic, and for many years they have employed it
for the rapid and true production of many parts of the musket,
whilst our own manufacturers in London and Birmingham have
been content to execute the same work, laboriously and expen-
sively, by hand labour. The copying machines now at Enfield
have been imported direct from America. They are principally
employed in fashioning gun-stocks. They convert the rough
slabs of walnut-wood, just outlined in the proper form, which
come from France, Belgium and Italy, into the finished article,
with all its grooves, holes, and beddings for lock and barrel.
This extraordinary apparatus may be said to work with two
hands : the one feeling the outline of the pattern to be copied.
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 271
the other directing a tool uniformly with it and cutting the
object to the required form. Let us, for example, take the
machine that hollows out the lock-bedding in the stock. Not
only are the outlines of the most irregular form, but they are
sunk to three different levels, and it would almost seem impos-
sible that a machine should excavate so complex a bedding with
minute accuracy. Nevertheless, it is done in a few minutes by
an apparatus, which revolves and brings, one after the other,
some new tool into play according to the work to be done.
Whilst the operation is going on, a little blower clears out the
chips as cleverly as though the machine had human breath.
The different portions of the gun completed, they are, for the
last time, gauged, and passed on to the extreme end bench of
the factory, near the west door, where the " assembler," as he
is termed, receives them in different bins, from which he takes
the part he requires and sets up the gun. As there is no
necessity for special fitting, this process is performed with
remarkable rapidity, seven minutes being sufficient to combine
all the different parts, which have never been near each other
before — lock, stock, ramrod, and bayonet — into the complete
weapon. They now pass out of the western door, packed in
cases, and are taken to the proving-ground, where they are
tested with high charges and their range and accuracy duly
examined j and so perfect is the finish, that not one in a thousand
fails to stand the trying ordeal. They are now transferred by
water to the Armoury at the Tower, ready for service in the
field.
The Enfield rifle was adopted for the public service in the
year 1853, and is at the present moment the best infantry
musket in Europe. There is still room, however, as Mr. Whit-
worth has shown, for improvement in the barrel. His rifle
propels a bullet both farther and with greater accuracy, in
consequence of the greater care he bestows upon the barrel,
which, instead of being welded, is bored, at a great cost, out of
the solid metal. Its diameter also being smaller, the bullet
encounters a less resistance in the air during its flight. There
is no reason why the smaller bore should not be substituted for
272 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
that of the Enfield rifle, when this arm would be perfect. The
difficulty the ablest minds experience in getting out of an old
groove was exemplified by the late Duke of Wellington with
respect to this question of the size of bore. His Grace was
obstinately wedded to Brown Bess, whose crushing fire, so
superior to that of the enemy, he had witnessed in his Penin-
sular campaigns, and which he erroneously ascribed to the
excellent quality of the arm instead of to the steadiness of the
men — mistaking, in fact, a moral for a physical excellence. The
longer the Commander-in-Chief lived, the firmer his faith in
the large smooth bore, and the necessity for making a big hole
in the enemy. When the rifle-musket of 1851 replaced this
old arm, the large bore was still retained, and the consequence
was, that the bullet, being elongated, was heavier than when
round, and the soldier had to carry a missile of 696 grains
weight, instead of 490 grains. The bore of the Enfield rifle
pattern of 1853 was very properly reduced, and the Prichett
expanding bullet, of 530 grains, now carries its deadly weight
in its length. Though the wound it gives is not so large as
that inflicted by the old ball, it makes up for deficiency by its
power of penetration. An officer who was at the taking of the
rifle-pits in the quarry before Sevastopol informs us that a
brother-officer was shot through the side by a Russian Minie
bullet, which afterwards passed through an ass, and his two
panniers of water, and did not stop in its career till it had
broken a man's arm at some distance off ! Its deadly aim at
vast distances, which made it the dread of the sepoys, who
termed it " the gun that kills without making any sound," con-
trasts strangely with the performances of Brown Bess of old,
which at any range beyond a hundred yards was so uncertain
in its aim that it has been calculated that the soldier shot
away the weight in lead of every man that he hit.
Before the breaking out of the war, our stores were ham-
pered with small-arms of all sizes and patterns. There were,
at home and abroad, no less than 109,725 flint-lock muskets, of
fifteen different patterns, and 107,000 smooth-bore, joercussion-
lock muskets, of eight different patterns. Very many of these
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 273
were in service a few years ago ; and as their bores were all
dissimilar, it often happened that the soldiers were provided
with cartridges that would not fit their guns. In peace little
difficulties of this kind are of no moment, but they are of the
utmost importance in the time of war. At the battle of
"Waterloo, the Brunswickers, who held Hongoumont, were, for
a short time, rendered helpless, in consequence of cartridges
having been sent to them that did not fit their muskets. A
battle, which, according to Professor Creasey, ranks among the
six decisive combats of the world, might thus have been lost on
account of the misfit of a cartridge. The necessity of prevent-
ing the possible recurrence of such mischances induced the
authorities, at the breaking out of the Russian war, to make
the bore of all muskets used by the different branches of the
service uniform with, that of the Enfield rifle. A thousand of
these weapons can at present be completed in a week — a
number which appears large, but which is in reality far beneath
the real wants of the army. The private manufacturers of
small-arms in Birmingham denounced the establishment of this
factory, on the plea that Government were not warranted in
fabricating goods which the private trade of the country were
capable of producing — an assertion which the Crimean war
totally disproved, as the authorities were so pressed for rifles
that they had to go to France,* Belgium, and the United States
for supplies, and at one time contemplated giving an order for
* The French manufacturer who executed the order addressed a letter
to one of the Emperor's chamberlains, from which we take the following
extract : — " It is, I believe, the first time that England, who was hitherto
regarded as able to supply the most unforeseen wants of her army, should
find herself obliged to have recourse to French industry. I had it too much
at heart to sustain the reputation of my country in the eyes of our rivals to
leave anything undone towards the execution of an order which was in-
trusted to me, and I have had the satisfaction of receiving from the English
Government the most flattering compliments. With a view to perpetuate
the memory of that operation, which is almost an event in industry, I have
ordered a medal to be engraved by M. Louis Merley, who gained the great
prize at Rome, and who is one of the artists of whom France is proud. I
desire earnestly to obtain the favour of presenting this medal to his Majesty
the Emperor, as also the model of the rifles fabricated for England ; and I
pray your Excellency to be good enough to solicit for me an audience of
his Majesty." The audience was granted, and the medal and the model of
the fire-arm presented in due form.
274 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
350,000 rifles at Liege. The military rifle, like the shell, being
a special article required only by the arniy, the demand for it
in large numbers is not constant, and hence the low condition
of the mechanical power brought to bear upon it by the trade.
The gunmakers of Birmingham have depended upon skilled
labour for the production of the different parts of a musket, and
thus labour, in times of pressure, becomes exorbitantly costly,
to the embarrassment and loss of the public service. It was
this which led the Government to introduce machinery into the
manufacture — a thing the trade declared impossible, but which
they now see is not only possible but profitable, since the same
musket for which they charged Al. 10s. is now made of a
superior quality by the Government for 31. 15s. The experi-
ment must be of the greatest importance to the Birmingham
gun trade, which, through its own inherent vices, was fast
yielding to the superior ingenuity of America and Belgium, and
which can only regain its old position by taking a lesson from
the organized mechanical resources of the Enfield Lock manu-
factory. The private manufacturers need not fear that Enfield
will monopolize even Government work, the demands of the
service being far beyond its productive powers. As the
Ordnance supplies rifles to our army in India, as well as to the
home and colonial force, no less than 400,000 are required for
the infantry and marines alone : a number which has to be
replaced every twelve years, even in times of peace. In active
service the destruction is immense ; and now the cycle of war
has returned, the annual 50,000 rifles turned out by the royal
factory will prove but a small instalment of the vast store of
arms that England will require.
At Waltham Abbey, not half an hour's walk from Enfield
Lock, is situated the only establishment for the manufacture of
powder which the Government possesses. Here dispersion,
instead of concentration, is the order of the day. The necessity
for complete isolation causes the factories to be distributed over
a very large space of ground, and the visitor has to walk from
workshop to workshop through groves and avenues of willow
and alder, as though he were visiting dispersed farm-buildings
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 275
rather than the different departments of the same manufacturing
process. There are not perhaps more than a dozen detached
buildings in the whole establishment, yet these are scattered
over upwards of fifty acres of ground. To such an extent do
meadows and woods and meandering canals predominate, that
the i4ea of being in a powder-mill is entirely lost in the im-
pression that you are walking in a Dutch landscape. The visitor
who enters the great gates of the mill, impressed with a belief
in the dangerous nature of the ground he is treading, is some-
what startled on finding a steam-engine at work on the very
threshold of the factory, and a tall chimney smoking its pipe
in what he supposed to be the vicinity of hundreds of barrels of
gunpowder ; but in reality these boilers and furnaces are placed
many hundred feet from the mixing-houses. The English
Government powder is composed of seventy-five parts of salt-
petre, fifteen parts of charcoal, and ten of sulphur. The ingre-
dients, being thoroughly powdered, prepared, and purified, are
submitted to the action of a machine, which completely mixes
them. The product is then conveyed by a covered boat, very
much like an aldermanic gondola in mourning, some hundred
yards along the canal to the incorporating houses, where the
most important process of the manufacture is carried on, and
where the danger of an explosion first commences. The incor-
porating machine is nothing more than a couple of runners or
huge wheels, weighing four and a half tons each, which revolve
one after another on their edges in a bed of metal supplied
with a deep wooden rim, which gives it much the appearance of
a huge kitchen candlestick. Into this dish the black powder
is placed, together with a little water, which varies in quantity,
from four pints in winter, when the atmosphere is charged with
moisture, to ten in the summer, when the desiccating quality of
the air is very great. For four hours this pasty mass is crushed,
ground, and mixed by the action of the runners. The precau-
tions taken against explosion teach the visitor the dangerous
nature of the ground he is treading. Before he puts his feet
across the threshold he must encase them in leathern boots
huge enough to fit Polyphemus, and guiltless of iron in any form
T 2
276 WOOLWICH AKSENAL.
whatever ; even his umbrella or stick is snatched from him, lest
the ferrule should strike fire, or accidentally drop among any
part of the machinery whilst at work. The machinery is even
protected against itself. In order to avoid the possibility of the
linch-pins which confine the cylinders to their axles falling
down, and by the action of " skidding" the runner, producing so
much friction as to cause an explosion, receptacles are formed
to catch them in their fall. As small pieces of grit, the natural
enemy of the powder-maker, might prove dangerous if mixed
with any of the " charges," the axle sockets of nearly all the
wheels are constructed to expand, so as to allow any hard foreign
body to pass through just in the same manner in which the fine
jaws of the larger serpents are loosely hinged, to enable them
to get over at one gulp such a bulky morsel as a full-grown
rabbit.
Accidents will happen, however, in the best- regulated mills,
and provision is made for rendering an explosion when it occurs
as innocuous as possible. The new incorporating mills are con-
structed w T ith three sides of solid brickwork three feet thick,
and the fourth side and roof of corrugated iron and glass lightly
adjusted. As they are placed in a row contiguous to each other,
the alternate ones only face the same way, so that the line of
fire, or the direction the explosion would take through the
weakest end, would not be likely to involve in destruction the
neighbouring mill. It does occasionally happen, however, that
the precautions are not sufficient to prevent danger spreading.
In the great explosion which took place in 1842 a second house
was fired at a couple of hundred yards distance from the spot
where the original explosion took place. There is now a
further security against the houses going one after another, like
houses of cards. Over each mill a copper tank, containing
about forty gallons of water, is so suspended that on the lifting of
a lever it instantly discharges its contents and floods the mill.
This shower or douche bath is made self-acting, inasmuch as the
explosion itself pulls the string, the force of the expanding gas
lifting up a hinged shutter which acts like a trigger to let down
the water. " But," it may be said, " as the water does not fall
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 277
until the explosion has taken place, this contrivance is very
like locking the stable door when the steed is stolen ! " And
this is the case with respect to the mill where the original
mischief took place ; but the lever first acted upon discharges,
the shower-bath over the heads of all the others also, and by
this means the evil is limited to the place where it originated.
From the incorporating mills the kneading powder, or " mill
cake," as it is termed, is taken by another funeral-looking
gondola to small expense-magazines, where it is allowed to
remain for twelve hours before being taken to the breaking-
down house. Here the hard lumps of mill cake are ground
into fine powder by the action of fine-toothed rollers made of
gun-metal, which revolve towards each other and crush the
cake which falls between them to dust. The broken-down mill
cake once more travels between pleasant meadows fringed with
willow until it reaches the press house, where the meal is
subjected to hydraulic pressure between plates of gun-metal
and is thereby reduced to dense plates about half an inch thick.
These plates are allowed to remain intact for a couple of days,
by which time they become as hard as a piece of fine pottery.
Yery many advantages are gained by this pressure. The
density of the powder is increased, which enables it to be con-
veyed without working into fine dust ; its keeping qualities
are improved, as it absorbs less moisture than if it were more
porous ; and lastly, a greater volume of inflammable gas is
produced from a given bulk.
The pressed cake is now transferred to the maw of one of the
most extraordinary machines we have yet witnessed. The
granulating house, where the important process of dividing the
powder into fine grains takes place, is removed very far away
from the other buildings. The danger of the operation carried
on within is implied by the strong traverse fifteen feet thick at
the bottom, which is intended to act as a shield to the workmen
in case of an accident. It was here an explosion took place in
1843, by which eight workmen lost their lives — in what manner
no one knows, as all the evidence was swept away. To render
the recurrence of such lamentable accidents as rare as possible,
278 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
the machine is made self-acting. At certain times of the day
it is supplied with food in the shape of fifteen hundredweight
of "pressed cake." This is stuffed into a large hopper or
pouch, and the moment the monster is ready, the men retire
beyond the strong traverse and allow it slowly to masticate its
meal, which it does with a deliberation worthy of its ponderosity
and strength, emptying its pouch by degrees, and by a tritu-
rating process performed by two or three sets of fine rollers,
dividing it into different-sized grains. These grains it passes
through a series of wire sieves, separating the larger ones fitted
for cannon powder from the finer kind required for rifles, and
depositing them in their appropriate boxes, which, when full, it
removes from its own dangerous proximity, and takes up empty
ones in their place. All the larger undigested pieces it returns
again, like a ruminating animal, to its masticating process until
its supply is exhausted. Then, and not till then, like Made-
moiselle Jack, the famous elephant, it rings a bell for some
fresh " cake." The workmen allow it about five minutes' grace
to thoroughly assimilate the supply already in its maw, when
the machine stops, and they enter with another meal. The floors
of all the different houses are covered with leather neatly
fastened down with copper nails, and the brush is never out of
the hands of the workman : even while you are talking to him,
he sweeps away in the gravest manner in order to remove any
particles of powder or grit that may be on the floor ; this he
does mechanically, when not a particle of anything is to be
seen, just as a sailor in a crack ship always holystones the
deck, clean or dirty, the moment he has any spare time.
The powder thus separated into grains is still damp and
full of dust. To get rid of this it is taken by water to the
dusting-house, where it is bolted in a reel like so much flour.
It has now to be glazed, a very important operation, performed
by placing it in large barrels, which revolve with their load
thirty-two times a minute for three hours together. By the
mere friction of the grains against each other and the sides of
the barrel, a fine polish is imparted to the surface of the grain,
which enables it to withstand the action of the atmosphere
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 279
nracli better than when it is lefi un glazed. It is now stoved
for sixteen hours in a drying-room heated by steam pipes to a
heat of 130° Fahrenheit, and is then finally dusted and proved.
There are many methods of proving, but the simplest and most
efficacious is to fire the powder from the weapon it is intended
to serve. Thus cannon powder is proved by firing a 68-pound
solid shot with a charge of two ounces of powder — a charge
which should give a range of from 270 to 300 feet. If the
powder passes the test, which it generally does, it is packed in
barrels holding 100 lbs. each, marked L. G. (Large Grain), and
F. G. (Fine Grain), as the case may be, and carried to the pro-
visional magazine. When 500 barrels have accumulated they
are despatched in a barge to the Government magazine at Pur-
fleet, near the mouth of the Thames, the Lea forming the con-
necting link of water between the canals of the works and that
river.
The produce of this establishment, which had fallen so low
as 4,500 barrels per annum in 1843, is now so increased by
improved machinery that 20,000 barrels a year can be manu-
factured, and of the very best quality. Even this supply is far
below the consumption during a time of war, and contractors
have, and always will have, to furnish a portion of the required
supplies ; but it seems that a model mill is useful for the
double purpose of keeping up a due standard of quality,*
and of keeping down price. On the uniform strength of
the powder depends the accuracy of artillery fire : hence the
necessity of having some known standard of quality from which
contractors should not be allowed to depart. The improvements
which have taken place in the manufacture are very marked.
About the year 1790, when powder was supplied to Govern-
ment wholly by contract, the regulation weight of charge for a
cannon was half the weight of the ball ; it is now less than
one-third : therefore two barrels are now used instead of three,
a reduction of bulk which economizes stowage on board ship as
well as in the field. Formerly powder had a range of 190 feet
* The merchants are provided annually with a sample of Waltham Abbey
powder to guide them in their manufacture.
2S0 WOOLWICH ARSENAL
only ; the range is now increased to 268 feet ! This vast
improvement is simply the consequence of the care with which
the powder is worked, and the attention bestowed on every
detail of the mills since their direction fell into the hands of
Colonel Tulloh, Colonel Dickson, and Colonel Askwith, the
present Superintendent.
There is a department at the "Woolwich Arsenal to which
we must now return, of which the establishments at Enfield
and Waltham Abbey may be considered but outlying offshoots.
Beyond the canal, at the extreme end of the ground, lie the
establishments devoted to the more dangerous portions of pyro-
technic manufacture, such as the filling of rockets, of friction-
tubes, the driving of fuses, <fec. These ticklish operations used
to be conducted in ill-built sheds in the laboratory square,
where a sad explosion took place during the war, and Captain
Boxer, determining to reduce the risk of accidents, transferred
the whole of them in 1854 to this open space, far away from the
neighbourhood of fire. The sixteen houses used for fuse-driving
and friction-tube-making are isolated from each other much in
the same manner as the incorporating mills at Waltharn Abbey :
we need not therefore describe them. The rocket manufactory
is also so carefully arranged that accidents can rarely happen.
The method of driving the composition into these frightfully
destructive implements of war was, until lately, not only bar
barous but dangerous in the extreme, being forced in by a
K monkey," or small pile-driver, worked by eight men. The
pressure of water now does the work silently, effectually, and
safely. The rocket is so fixed while it is being filled, that in
case of an accident the discharge will fly through the roof ; grit
and iron are as carefully excluded as in the powder mills ; open
spaces around the buildings are covered with turf and planted
with shrubs, and a raised causeway of wood keejDS the communi-
cations between the different magazines free from all substances
likely to produce friction. The visitor may no more enter one
of these carefuilv-guarded buildings with his shoes on than he
could walk into the mosque of St. Sophia, at Constantinople,
similarly shod. With equal care the process of greasing the
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 2 SI
bullet end of the small-arm cartridges is carried on in this por-
tion of the Arsenal. For a long time no lubricating material
could be found that remained unaffected in all climates — a very-
important desideratum, considering the manner in which our
stores of war are moved about from the depths of arctic waters
to the burning summers of the torrid zone. Captain Boxer,
however, in a happy moment, thought of the little busy insect
that builds a store-house warranted to keep in all temperatures,
and adopted bees' wax, which, added to a little fat, makes a
compound which answers the purpose perfectly. The cartridges
are dipped about an inch deep into a receptacle of this liquid kept
fluid by the heat of gas. As we watched the process going on,
we could not avoid reflecting from what insignificant causes
great events arise, and that a rebellion which well-nigh snatched
India from our grasp sprung from this very cauldron seething
with " hell-broth thick and slab."
The different departments of the Koyal Arsenal are separated
by large open spaces, in which the rougher materials of war
are deposited. The roadways, laid with iron trams, which
greatly facilitate the transfer of heavy guns, are lined here and
there with pyramids of shot and shell, lackered and shining in
the sun. These missiles are continually circulating along the
shoots from one spot in the Arsenal to another, passing at one
time underfoot, at another overhead, the action of gravity being
pressed into the service with other labour-saving contrivances,
to remove 13-inch shells and 98-pounder solid shot, sometimes
to very considerable distances. Vast as are the stores of these
warlike implements, and far as the vistas of pyramids stretch
(and there are no less than 688,000 in the Arsenal at present),
they would speedily be drained by a short return of war, in
which artillery now plays so prominent a part. At the siege
of Sebastopol alone, which scarcely occupied eighteen months,
no less than 253,042 shot and shell of all sizes were fired from
our batteries, a number which the enemy surpassed, in one
attack alone, if we are to believe the evidence afforded by some
of the ravines, in which this iron rain descended so thickly that
it paved the ground and prevented the grass from springing
282 WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
up. The French were even more prodigal of these projectiles ;
for, according to the report made to the Emperor, 1,100,000 of
them were sent by our allies into the doomed city.
The neighbourhood of each department is generally indicated
by the class of war stores to' be seen at hand. We may be sure
we are near the great-gun foundry, for instance, when we see the
long files of iron guns of all sizes and patterns, from the light
32-pounders to the truly formidable 98-pounders of the naval
service, flanking the road, compared with which the light brass
field-pieces that fringe the wall of the building itself seem the
merest toy-guns. Here and there trim grass-plots are seen with
a neat edging of three hundred 13-inch mortars, and at the
grand entrance of the foundry itself enormous shells, a yard in
diameter, prepared for Mallett's mammoth mortar, are planted,
as if to show how daring are the ideas of modern war, which
proposes to throw such Titanic missiles at the enemy. Here
too may be seen veterans which have seen service — avenues of
wounded guns from the Crimea. These are the picked speci-
mens of the eighty-eight pieces of ordnance either disabled by
the enemy or worn out by their own fire in that ever-memorable
siege. One, a 68-pounder, was shattered by a singular accident;
just as it was being discharged a shell fired by the enemy
exploded in its mouth, and destroyed it after it had fired no
less than 2,000 rounds. Another gun, which is split in the
muzzle, was hit thirteen times. There appears to have been
luck in this mystic number, however, for by the aid of an iron
band the mishap was repaired, and it went on doing duty until
one of its trunnions was knocked off, and even then, like the
gallant Widderington, at Chevy Chase, it fought upon its
stumps ; for, on being sunk into the ground, and fired at a high
elevation, it was kept at work up to the end of the siege.
Some of these guns are pitted with cannon-shot even as far
back as the breech, and one or two are hit in their very stern-
most parts. These wounds are the result of ricochet firing, a
kind of practice which enables a shot to drop in the most unex-
pected places.
In the mounting yard, as it is termed, which lies between
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 283
the gun and carriage factories, the field-pieces are mounted
upon their carriages and fitted up for service previous to their
removal to the dep6t of artillery near the Common. Since the
war the captured cannon from Sebastopol have been stored here
preparatory to their being either broken up or distributed as
trophies to the various towns of the United Kingdom. Of
these guns 1079 are of iron and 94 of brass. They are of
admirable metal, and would have proved very serviceable, except
that unfortunately their bore does not suit any of our shot.
Gun-carriages rent by the bursting of guns, or so unscientifically
constructed as inevitably to destroy themselves, like the iron
carriages taken from the enemy at Kertch, are kept as lessons
for the Captain Instructor to dwell upon, when he takes round
his bevy of young artillery cadets. This official performs the
essential duty of giving the future artillery officer a clear insight
into the method of constructing and repairing all the more
essential engines and tools he will have to work with — such as
guns, gun-carriages, &c, and of obtaining a general notion of
the relative strength of metals, and of the value of the various
materials out of which the munitions of war are formed. The
vast workshops of Woolwich afford an admirable field for the
acquisition of this kind of knowledge.
The neighbourhood of the Arsenal to the chief Military
Academy in the kingdom gives these embryo artillery officers an
opportunity of witnessing the experiments which are constantly
going on in the Marshes, either for the purpose of testing new
guns, or of practically examining the capabilities of new
inventions. The extraordinary energy with which projectors
of all kinds (clergymen among the number) devoted themselves
to the task of inventing new implements of destruction during
the Russian war entirely belied that lamb- like spirit attributed
by Mr. Cobclen to his fellow-countrymen. No less than 1976
new projects were submitted to the Select Committee of
Ordnance with respect to artillery alone. Of this number a
large proportion were of the most imbecile kind — such as
proposals to fill shells with Cayenne pepper, chloroform, and
cacodyle, the latter a most virulent material which has the
2S4 WOOLWICH AKSEXAL.
property of poisoning the air around it. The asphyxiating ball
of the French was the true parent of the whole brood. Only
forty-three of the propositions were favourably reported on, and
of this number only thirty have been adopted into the service.
First and foremost among these is the plan of filling shells with
liquid iron. It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the destructive
effect of this new application of an old material. At the second
shot fired in the Marshes against a perfectly new butt which
cost 2Q0L, it set it on fire and entirely destroyed it. The
engines of the Arsenal and the old expedient of heaping earth
against the burning wood were of no avail, the molten iron
having penetrated in all directions deep into the timber. It is
hard to believe that any ship will be able to resist the de-
structive effect of these shells, or that masses of men will be
found courageous enough to withstand their devastating effects ;
for immediately the percussion shell comes in contact with any
object, it explodes and throws the molten metal in all
directions — splashing and striking objects that are completely
out of the way of the contents of ordinary shells, and proving
far more deadly both to animate and inanimate substances than
the famous Greek fire of old. This very invention was brought
to the notice of the authorities as early as 1803 by a workman
in a London iron-foundry ; but the suggestion was so contrary
to all the current notions of the time, that it was rejected, and
not heard of again until a new war brought into play more
advanced ideas.
The new guns that were brought forward were innumerable,
and many of them, such as the Mersey steel gun, and the great
mortar, are still under trial. If this mortar, which is built up
of a series of rings 9 inches broad and 3^ inches thick, laid over
one another, and fitting tightly, so as to form a barrel, should
ultimately prove capable of resisting the full charge of 70 lbs.
weight of powder, it will be the most destructive implement yet
invented for the purpose of crushing fortified places. In some
of the trials which have taken place in the Marshes, it threw
its 36-inch shell, weighing 26 cwt., upwards of two miles; and
when the missile fell, it buried itself in the ground to so
WOOLWICH AESENAL. 285
considerable a depth, that after digging down 12 feet, and
probing for 15 feet more, it still remained undiscovered. The
artillerymen say jestingly that it has dropped down to A ustralia.
No casemate at present in existence could withstand the
crushing weight of its fall, and its bursting charge of 200 lbs. of
powder.
After contemplating this vast establishment for the manu-
facture of arms, with its sixty steam-engines, which through the
agency of upwards of three miles of running shafting, give
motion to upwards of a thousand machines, we must not omit
to mention the human labour which directs this enormous
manufacturing power. During the height of the Crimean war,
upwards of 10,000 men and boys were employed in the Arsenal,
an army of workers engaged upon the production of the
materials of destruction equal to the entire force encamped at
Aldershot, and double the number of men that besieged and
took Delhi. When such masses of men as this have to be dealt
with daily, it is obvious how necessary it must be to possess an
organized system by which the loss of what might otherwise be
considered mere fractions of time is noted. Let us suppose, for
instance, that every man and boy in the Arsenal lost only five
minutes per day, and it would amount in the aggregate to the
loss of the labour of one man for twelve weeks to the Government.
The next problem to be solved is how to pay 10,000 men in
any reasonable time. It would be clearly impossible to calculate
each man's wages at the time of payment, even if a little army
of clerks were employed. It is therefore done beforehand by a
staff of men employed for this purpose. The amount due to
each person having been ascertained, the money is laid out on
boards divided into partitions numbered consecutively. A
corresponding number for each man, with the amount to be
given to him, is distributed previously to the payment taking
place, on what is termed a " pay ticket." On pay-day the
artisans take their places in single file, arranging themselves
according to their numbers, and, passing in front of the pay-
boards, receive their wages, and surrender their tickets, which
are receipts for the money. No money is exchanged if not
28Q WOOLWICH AKSENAL.
brought back before the man reaches a certain point, and in
this space there are persons stationed to watch that no exchange
is made of bad money for good. To search every man as he
left would be impossible, yet it is highly necessary to have some
means of checking petty depredations of metal, &c. Formerly
peculations of this kind were constant, and the aggregate loss
must have been immense. When it was first determined to put
a stop to it, the men were told only a few minutes before leaving
work that they would be searched as they went out. The
effect of this announcement was that the whole Arsenal was
strewed with small pilfered articles thrown hastily away. Now
a couple of policemen at the gate touch indiscriminately a certain
per-centage of the men as they are going, and these have to pass
through a side lodge to be searched. As no man can tell
whether or no he will be touched, the whole mass is kept
honest. The mere lodging of such a body of men was at first a
difficulty, even in so large a town as Yv T oolwich : the demand,
however, soon produced supply, and the means taken to insure
the fall of Sebastopol caused the rise of a new town of at least
two thousand houses in the immediate neighbourhood of the
Arsenal.
Complete as we have shown the organization of the Arsenal
to be, both as regards its mechanical resources and its staflj it
is generally understood, that the Government do not intend to
depend upon it wholly for the supply of the munitions of war.
In the case of small-arms, its powers, as we have seen, are
wholly inadequate to the task. In those branches, however,
where the manufacturing power is ample, they will not attempt
to push it to the point of excluding the private manufacturer
from a share in the business. This is, we think, a wise decision ;
for, however excellent may be the present arrangements now
everything is new and the broom is fresh, it cannot be denied
that the tendency of this and all other Government establish-
ments is to go to sleep, since they neither possess the stimulus
of private gain to teach them economy, nor that unity of
direction which gives such vigour to private enterprises. The
principle of competition ought therefore to be kept up, and we
WOOLWICH ARSENAL. 287
should run the private manufacturer against the public one in
order to keep down price, and pit the Royal Factory against the
trade in order to keep up quality. Another great gain will accrue
from the determination of the Government, which is, that the
private manufacturers will not lose the art of making certain stores
of war — an art which can not be learned in a day. It would be
unwise for the authorities to put all their eggs into one basket,
and this they would most assuredly do by entirely depending
upon their own powers of production, and in disassociating them-
selves from the great and fertile manufacturing power of England,
which generally knows so well how to economize and progress.
If the Government have shown judgment and foresight upon
this point, we cannot say as much for their inexcusable neglect
to provide for the security of this enormous establishment,
which contains within its walls not only the principal depot of
warlike stores in the island, but also the means of producing
them. We do not believe that our neighbours are going to sail
up the Thames quite as easily as the Dutch did, or that any
foreign army marching from Dover could destroy the Arsenal
on its way to the capital without our having ample notice of
their approach. Nevertheless we cannot think that the sole
Arsenal of England, placed as it is in a very accessible part of
the island, should be left entirely without the means of defence.
The place itself could not be fortified, as it is commanded by the
heights of Shooter's Hill ; but the neighbourhood is admirably
adapted for the purpose. In the opinion of military engineers,
it would not be necessary even to erect the requisite works until
the moment their services were required. Half a dozen earth
batteries, mounted with heavy guns, would command all the
land approaches ; and a few flats, posted so as to sweep the
reaches of the river, would effectually prevent the approach of
any hostile force by water. The scheme of these batteries
should, however, be settled beforehand in all their details, so
that in the moment of danger they could be completed almost
in the presence of the enemy, in case an invader should give
the Channel Fleet the slip some misty morning, and succeed in
making good his footing upon our shores.
SHIPWRECKS.
There is no nobler or more national sight in our island tha
to behold the procession of stately vessels as they pass ii
panoramic pride along our shores, or navigate the great arterii
streams of commerce, — to witness the deeply-laden Indiaman
warped out of the docks, or to see the emigrant ship speeding
with bellying sails down Blackwall Reach, watched by many
weejring eyes, and the depository of many aching hearts. It
would, however, spoil the enjoyment of the least-interested
spectator if the veil could be lifted from the dark future ; if
that gallant Indiaman could be shown him broadside on among
the breakers ; or that stately vessel, with bulwarks fringed with
tearful groups looking so sadly to the receding shore, were
pictured by him foundering in mid ocean — gone to swell the
numbers of the dismal fleet that yearly sails and is never
heard of more. Sadder still would be his reflections if another
passing ship could be shown him, destined j>erhaps to circle the
globe in safety, and when within sight of the white cliffs of
Albion, full of joyful hearts, suddenly, in the dark and stormy
night, fated to be dashed to atoms, like the Reliance and Con-
queror, on a foreign strand. If such dramatic contrasts as
these could be witnessed, we should without doubt strain every
nerve to prevent their recurrence. As it is, the sad tale of
disasters at sea comes to us weakened by the lapse of time and
the distance of the scene of the catastrophe : instead of having
the harrowing sight before our eyes, we have only statistics
which raise no emotion, and even rarely arrest attention. In
connection with these annual returns there is published a
fearful-looking map termed a wreck chart, in which the shores
of Great Britain and Ireland are shown fringed with dots, —
the sites of wrecks, collisions, and other disasters. From this
SHIPWRECKS. 289
we perceive how all the dangerous headlands and sandbanks of
the coast are strewn with —
" A thousand fearful wrecks,
A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon ;
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels —
All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea."
Strange to say, these dismal finger-posts to marine disasters are
generally found grouped around the sites of lighthouses. If we
analyze the chart for the year 1857, we perceive at a glance
the relative dangers of the three seaboards of triangular England,
and that a fatal pre-eminence is given to the East coast. Out
of a total of 1,143 wrecks and casualties which took place in
this year, no less than 600, or more than one-half, occurred
between Dungeness and Pentland Frith. Along this perilous
sea, beset with sands, shoals, and rocky headlands, no less than
150,000 vessels pass annually, the greater part ill-constructed,
deeply-laden colliers, such as we see in the Pool, and wonder
how they manage to survive a gale of wind. The South coast,
extending from Dungeness to the Land's End, is comparatively
safe, only 84 wrecks having taken place in 1847 ; whilst from
the Land's End to Greenock, where the influence of the Atlantic
gales is most sensibly felt, the numbers rise again to 286, and
the Irish coast contributes a total of 173.
If we take a more extended view of these disastrous occur-
rences by opening the wreck chart attached to the evidence of
the select committee on harbours of refuge, given in 1857, con-
taining the casualties of five years from 1852 to 1856, both
inclusive, we shall be better able to analyze their causes.
"Within this period no less than 5,128 wrecks and collisions
took place, being an average of 1,025 a year. According to
the evidence of Captain Washington, K.N., the scientific and
indefatigable hydrographer of the Admiralty, these casualties
consisted of
Vessels.
Total losses by stranding or otherwise «, • 1,940
,, ,, collisions 244
Serious damage having to discharge . . . 2,401
Collisions with serious damage . . , 543
5,128
290 SHIPWRECKS.
The total losses from all causes, therefore, amounted to 2,184
vessels, or to an average of nearly 437 in each year. The
destruction of life consequent upon these casualties. was 4,148
persons, or, upon the average of five years, nearly 830 in each
year. In 1854 no fewer than 1,549 persons were drowned.
How such a calamity should have been so long tolerated in a
civilized country, without any proper attempt at a remedy, it
is not easy to comprehend. Still more incomprehensible, in a
trading country, is the apparent disregard of the pecuniary
sacrifice. It appears in evidence that the loss by total wrecks
is estimated at 1.000,000?. a year at least, and by other casual-
ties at 500 ; 000?., making together 1,500,000?. as the annual
loss to the country from the accidents on our own coasts — a
sum which in two years would be ample to build all the
harbours of refuge that are needed around our shores.
The first step towards a remedy for this state of things is to
inquire into the causes of shipwreck. There can be little hesi-
tation in naming Marine Insurance as the chief destroyer.
Unseaworthiness and overloading of vessels ; their being ill
found in anchors, cables, sails, and rigging ; defects of compasses,
want of good charts, incompetency of masters, may all be
attributed to this source. If the shipowners were not guaranteed
from loss, they would take care that their vessels were sea-
worthy, commanded by qualified persons, and furnished with
every necessary store. The terms of the insurance, moreover,
offer a direct premium to create in all cases of casualty a " total
loss." For instance, a ship strikes the ground and becomes
damaged, but, under able management, might be got off and
repaired. In this case, however, the assured has to betir one third
part of the loss ; whereas, if the loss is total, he gets the whole
of his insurance. Under these circumstances, even when there
is no deliberate desire to perpetrate a wrong, the captain will
leave the ship to her fate instead of using his energies to pre-
serve her to the detriment of his employer. It is the opinion
of many that if the insurers were to agree to pay the whole
insurance, whether the damaged vessel were got off or not, that
we should see a marked diminution in the list of total losses at
SHIPWRECKS. 291
sea, for the natural inclination of the captain to save his ship
would then no longer be counterbalanced by his desire to save
the pocket of the owner.
There is a class of casualties, however, which are the product
of villany, against which we see no protection excepting in the
vigilance of the insurers : we refer to those cases of wilful
casting away, which are not unknown even in this country, as
the late trial of a captain, at the Old Bailey, will testify ; but
which are most frequent on the Florida Reef. It is notorious
that our American friends are in the habit of sailing ships into
these waters, with the deliberate intention of steering them to
destruction. So well is this known, that those on shore can
predict, with tolerable accuracy, from the handling of the vessel,
whether she is about to be sunk or not. When it is not the
skipper's interest to lose his craft, he will allow the wreckers,
who swarm as plentifully as sharks in those waters, to act as
pilots, and to put the ship in dangerous positions for the purpose
of making a claim for salvage, which the swindling captain
shares with them. In the years 1854, 1855, and 1856, 189
ships were either lost or put into Key West. The salvage
upon the latter class amounted to 298.400-05 dollars, a large
portion of which was, without doubt, obtained by fraud. It is
far from our purpose to insinuate that the Americans are worse
than their neighbours in this particular • had the English the
same opportunity, there would always be found persons to
enter upon similar practices. The memory of wrecking is not
yet extinct in Cornwall, and only a few years since it was
notorious that the pilots of the Downs were in the habit of
recommending the cables of the vessels in their charge to be
slipped in very moderate gales of wind, because these worthies
had a good understanding with the chain and anchor makers of
the neighbouring ports who would have to supply fresh tackle.
It must be admitted, that the same cause which prompts
these villanies, operates in some measure as an antidote. The
underwriters at Lloyd's and the different marine insurance
offices, act in a certain degree as the police force of the seas.
Their agents are as plentiful and ubiquitous as flies, and there
u 2
292 SHIPWRECKS.
is no port of the old or new world without one or more of them.
Through the medium of these marine sentries, whose eyes are
always upon the ocean, disasters at sea are speedily made
known to the underwriters, and in those cases where the
telegraph is at hand, a ship has scarcely broken up or come
ashore, before hundreds are reading the account of the disaster
upon the " Board " at Lloyd's. With this spider-like web of
intelligence spreading from port to port and from ocean to
ocean, the chances of wreckers either on shipboard or on land
must certainly diminish. The acuteness of the underwriters,
sharpened by self-interest, is brought to bear upon the distant
point, and all the resources of a powerful corporation are put in
force to detect fraud when suspected, and to punish it when
confirmed. A singular instance of the vigour and ingenuity
displayed by their agents in pursuing the marine robber was
afforded by the case of the American ship W. T. Sayward.
This vessel was reported by her skipper to have been lost off
Loo Choo, on her voyage from San Francisco to Shanghai, and
the sum claimed of the insurers in this country was £50,000,
the value of the cargo, which was reported to have comprised,
among other things, 50,000 Carolus dollars. It struck the
gentleman engaged to settle the claim that it was very unusual
to ship such a quantity of this " Pillar" dollar, and on inquiring
of the money-changers, he learnt that there was not a tithe of
that number at present in existence out of China. This dis-
covery at once aroused suspicion, and agents were sent to the
spot where the ship had been lost, when it was found that the
sailors, suspecting some roguery, returned to the wreck after the
captain had departed, dived into her hold and discovered that
she had been wilfully scuttled. They lighted, by happy chance,
upon some of the boxes in which the " dollars" were shipped,
and they were found to contain only iron nails and leaden
bullets. The nails were selected for the sake of the chink.
The assured, having heard of what had occurred, never ventured
to repeat their claim.
In a more recent case, that of the brig Cornelia, a regular
trader between the coast of Mexico and San Francisco, which
SHIPWRECKS. 293
was wilfully scuttled off San Quentin on the 27th of March last,
it was reported that she had 48,000 Mexican dollars on board,
19,000 shipped at Mazatlan by an English house, and 29,000
by other persons. On the captain's own confession the 19,000
dollars were removed by him just before he scuttled the vessel,
and hidden in the sand at Cape San Lucas, on the coast of
Lower California ; the remaining sum of 29,000 dollars he
admitted had never been shipped at all, bills of lading having
been fabricated, and a mythical consignee improvised for the
occasion. Had not the agent been on the alert, this knave
would have robbed the underwriters at one swoop of 48,000
dollars.
From the chief moral, or rather immoral, cause of shipwreck
and loss at sea, we pass to a consideration of the physical agents
which act directly in producing these disasters. Of these there
are so many, and of such various natures, that it is difficult to
group them. Currents of the ocean, fog, lightning, icebergs,
sandbanks, water-logged ships, defective compasses, and imper-
fect charts, are all dangers which beset the path of navigators,
and especially of such as have to run the gauntlet in ill-found
ships. The effect of currents in taking the sailor out of his
reckoning is an old, and formerly perhaps a frequent, cause of
shipwreck. This source of danger is now much obviated by the
more intimate knowledge we are acquiring every day of the
general laws which produce the currents. One of the most
effectual as well as simple methods of detecting surface currents
is that known to seamen as the bottle experiment. This has
been practised since 1808, but more especially of late years, and
has been deemed of sufficient importance by the Admiralty to
justify an order by which a]l Her Majesty's ships are enjoined
to throw bottles overboard containing a paper, on which is noted
the position of the ship and the time the frail messenger was
sent forth on its voyage. The bottle, carefully sealed up,
traverses the ocean wherever the winds and surface-drift may
carry it, and, after a passage of longer or shorter duration, is
perhaps safely washed by the tide upon some beach. Without
doubt many are smashed upon the rocks, others again are sunk
294 SHIPWRECKS.
by weeds growing to them, some are destroyed by the attacks
of birds or the jaws of hungry sharks, or if by chance they
avoid all these dangers, they may be consigned to oblivion upon
an uninhabited shore. It is estimated, however, that at least
one-tenth are recovered. A collection of upwards of 200 has
been made at the Admiralty, and are laid down in a chart
called the Current Bottle Chart.
A single glance at this chart displays the principal well-
known currents of the Atlantic ocean. The general tendency
of the bottles to go to the eastward in the northern parts of
this sea, and to the westward in lower latitudes, is at once
apparent. It is equally evident that to the southward of the
parallel of 40° N. on the eastern side of the Atlantic the bottles
drift to the southward, while those again in the vicinity of the
Canaries and Cape Yerd Islands take a westerly direction.
Those further south, lose themselves among the West-India
Islands, and some penetrating farther are found on the coast of
Mexico, between Galveston and Tanessied. A few manifest the
effects of the counter-current of the celebrated Gulf-stream,
while others again, on the western side of the Atlantic, from
about 40° N., are set to the eastward. Indeed, there seems to
be a determination of all to the northward of the parallel of 40°,
or that of Philadelphia on the American seaboard, to make
their way to the eastward — some to the coast of France, in the
Bay of Biscay, others to the western shores of Great Britain and
Ireland, and others again to the shores of Norway.
We thus recognize distinctly, first the Portugal current,
setting southward ; then the equatorial current, influenced by
the trade winds ; then the extraordinary effects of the waters
of the Gulf-stream flowing northward along the American
coast, over the banks of Newfoundland — one portion following
its north-east course and penetrating to Norway, and another
continuing easterly into the Bay of Biscay. But let us parti-
cularize a few of the remarkable journeys made by these glass
voyagers over the deep. The Prima Donna was thrown over
off Cape Coast Castle, on the west coast of Africa, and after a
voyage of somewhere w T ithin two years was found on the coast
SHIPWRECKS. 295
of Cornwall. Now, to have arrived there, it must have been
carried eastward by the well-know Guinea current, and reaching
the Bights of Biafra and Benin it would meet the African
current then coming from the southward, with which it would
recross the equator and travel with the equatorial current
through the West-India Islands, and getting into the Gulf-
stream, would be carried by this to the north-east, and thus
would be landed on the Cornish coast, after making a detour of
many thousand miles. But curious as this is, it is not the only
instance, for we find that the Lady Montagu, setting out in
nearly 8° S. lat., about midway between Brazil and Africa, a
position which would fairly place it in the equatorial current,
made the same voyage, but landed at Guernsey, having accom-
plished the course in 295 days, or between the 15th October,
1820, and the 6th of August, 1821. Confining ourselves now
to the area included between 30° N. lat. and the equator, the
general effect of the heat of the Gulf of Mexico in forcing the
waters thither is plainly indicated by the direction which the
bottles have followed that are included within those limits.
Those thrown overboard in the Mexican Gulf, to the north of
Cape Catoche of Yucatan, are hurried away with it and cast on
the American shore, near St. Augustine and Charleston. Other
instances show the effects of the counter-current of the Gulf-
stream on its eastern or ocean side, in driving bottles to the
south-east, a current that must have affected the ships of
Columbus in his first discovery, and which, upon his return
northward among the islands, without doubt met and opposed
his progress.
A curious example of the effects of the wind on the surface-
waters is shown by a bottle thrown over from H. M. S. Vulcan
in the midst of the Gulf-stream, about 130 miles southward of
Cape Hatteras. The ship was on her way to Bermuda, where
she arrived, and the bottle, instead of being carried by the
current to the north-east like others, actually went after her
and arrived at Bermuda also. But we find noted on the paper
that a strong northerly wind was blowing when the bottle
started. This must have been sufficient to have checked its
29(5 SHIPWRECKS.
progress to the north-east, but allowed it to approach the eastern
border of the Gulf-stream, whence it would drift into the eddy
or counter-current, and thus become thrown on Bermuda.
Again, between the Gulf-stream and the American coast bottles
have found their way to that shore, while those to the north-
ward of the parallel of 40° have invariably gone eastward ; and
many thrown over near the meridian of 20° have drifted into
the Bay of Biscay, and been cast on the French coast.
Among the numbers of bottles which have travelled west-
ward with the equatorial and tropical current two are remark-
able, as being thrown overboard about 700 miles from each
other and yet arriving at nearly the same destination. They
were thrown from sister-ships when on their errand of carrying
relief, by way of Behring Strait, to Franklin and his devoted
crew. The first was dropped from the Investigator, Sir R.
Maclure, in lat. 12°, long. 26°, the 27th of February, 1850, and
was found on the 27th August following on Ambergris Cay, on
the Yucatan coast ; the second was sent afloat on the 3rd March,
1850, by Captain Collinson, in the Enterprise, in lat. 1° N., long.
26° W., and drifted to the coast inside of that cay, about 30
miles to the northward of it. That the two bottles should take
their western course was to be expected ; but that they should
have gone to resting-places so near each other is singular,
considering that their points of starting were so far asunder.
The Gulf-stream, the limits of which are so clearly inti-
mated by these little messengers, is but a sample of a grand
system of currents which are produced by the unequal tempera-
ture of the different zones. These currents of hot and cold
water are accompanied by atmospheric changes equally extra-
ordinary ; and, taken together, they largely affect the course of
the navigator from the old to the new world, and, not unfre-
quently, are the cause of the most fearful shipwrecks.
Lieutenant Maury, in his Physical Geography of the Sea, has
boldly likened the causes at work to produce the celebrated
Gulf-stream to the mechanical arrangements by which apart-
ments are heated. The furnace is the torrid zone, the Mexican
Gulf and the Caribbean Sea are the caldrons, and the Gulf-
SHIPWRECKS. 297
stream is the conducting-pipe by which the warm water and
the air above it, are dispersed to the banks of Newfoundland
and to the north-western shores of the old world.* By this
beneficent process the cold of our northern latitudes is greatly
ameliorated. The waters sent north and north-east are edged
by return currents, the one finding its way close to the banks of
Newfoundland and along the seaboard of the States, and the
other returning by the North Sea, the Bay of Biscay, and the
west coast of Africa, until about the latitude of the Cape de
Verdes it crosses westward again to .fill up the void caused by
the waters issuing from the Gulf of Florida. Thus the grand
circuit is for ever maintained, not always, however, exactly in
the same form, but varying according to the season. In the
winter, the cold current coming S.S.W. along the Atlantic
coast of North America is greatly augmented, and pushes the
Gulf-stream further to the south-east. With the return of
summer this stream, in its turn, thrusts aside the waters coming
from the Polar Ocean. Between these two periods the trough
of the Gulf-stream, to use Lieutenant Maury's forcible expres-
sion, " wavers about in the ocean like a pennon in the breeze."
The temperature of the Gulf-stream, even in the winter, is at
the summer level as it runs between two walls of nearly ice-
cold water. Sir Philip Brooke found the air on either side of
it at the freezing point, at the same time that that of the stream
was at 80°. This difference in the temperature of air and
water is probably the cause of those terrible hurricanes that
occur in the Atlantic and among the West- Indian Islands, and
which make it the most dangerous navigation, during the
winter, in the world. The average of wrecks on the Atlantic
seaboard of the United States during these rigorous months is
not less than three a day. Sailors term the Gulf-stream " The
weather-breeder •". and well they may, considering its frightful
effect in producing commotion in sea and air. In Pranklin's
time it was no uncommon thing for vessels bound in winter
* We may more truly liken the system to the warming apparatus of a
hot-house. The hot waters of the Gulf, conducted across the Atlantic, are
the forcing power which stimulates the vegetation of Cornwall, whence the
London market is supplied with its early vegetables.
298 SHIPWRECKS.
for the Capes of Delaware to be blown off land, and forced to
go to the West Indies, and there wait for the return of spriDg
before they could attempt to make for this point. The snow-
storms and the furious gales which greet the ship as she leaves
the warm waters of the Gulf and nears the shores of North
America, are quite dramatic in their effect. One day she is
sailing through tepid water, and enjoying a summer atmo-
sphere, the next, perhaps, driving before a snow-storm, her
rigging a mass of icicles, and her crew frozen by the piercing
blast. The Gulf-stream is answerable for another phenomenon
— the fogs which invariably shroud the Banks of Newfound-
land, and which render the approach to the North-American
coast in w T inter so particularly dangerous. The hot water of
the Gulf-stream gives up its vapour to the cold air, and hangs
about the coasts an impenetrable curtain, which baffles the
navigator's skill, renders useless his chronometer, and but too
often sends his bark to destruction upon the hidden shore.
Another danger of the stormy Atlantic arises from the
flow southward, in the spring and summer months, of icebergs.
These stupendous masses have their breeding-place in Davis's
Strait, from which they issue in magnificent procession directly
the current increases in a southerly direction. Polar navi-
gators have been surprised to find these huge monsters moving
against the wind, apparently by some inherent force, and crash-
ing through vast fields of ice, as if impatient to escape from the
silence and desolation of the Polar seas. The explanation of
this singular occurrence is, that powerful under-currents are
acting upon the submerged portions, which, in all cases, vastly
preponderate over the glittering precipices of crystal that
appear above the water-line. As the icebergs advance into
the open waters of the Atlantic, they at last come to the edge
of the Gulf-stream, where, in " the great bend," about latitude
43°, they harbour in dangerous numbers, and without doubt
send many a noble ship headlong to the bottom. In all pro-
bability the ill-fated President was thus destroyed, and some
towering iceberg, that has long since bowed its glittering peaks
to the solvent action of the warm water of the Gulf-stream,
SHIPWRECKS. 293
was, perhaps, the only witness of the calamity which placed the
noble Pacific among the list of ships that have sailed forth into
eternity.
If the northern latitudes of the Atlantic have their dangers
of ice, the southern latitude, especially the Caribbean Sea, in
common with all intertropical oceans, have their dangers of fire.
The hurricanes of those latitudes are generally accompanied by
visitations of fearful thunder-storms, in which many a good ship
is enveloped and destroyed. In the midst of a summer sea a
clipper ship may be suddenly assailed by one of those tremendous
conflicts of the elements, of the approach of which the silver
finger of the barometer, unless carefully watched, has scarcely
had time to give warning. However prepared by good seaman-
ship and an active crew, there she must lie on the vexed ocean,
her tall masts so many suction-tubes to draw down upon her
the destructive fire from heaven. In his Report to the Admi-
ralty, laid before Parliament in 1854, entitled "Shipwrecks by
Lightning," Sir "William Snow Harris — whose exertions to find
a remedy for this evil are above all praise — states that in six
years, between 1809 and 1815, forty sail of the line, twenty
frigates, and ten sloops were so crippled by being struck as in
many cases to be placed for a time hors de combat. In fifty
years there were 280 instances of serious damage to ships in
the British navy. Of these the Thisbey frigate, off Scilly, in
January, 1786, affords a melancholy example. The log repre-
sents her " decks swept by lightning, people struck down in all
directions, the sails and gear aloft in one great blaze, and the
ship left a complete wreck." In the merchant service the list
of disasters is fearful. Since the year 1820 thirty-three ships,
varying from 300 to 1,000 tons, have been totally destroyed by
lightning, and forty-five greatly damaged.
" A great peculiarity," says Sir William Snow Harris, " may
be observed in cases of ships set on tfire by lightning, viz. a
rapid spreading of the fire in every part of the vessel, as if the
electric agency had so permeated the mass as to render the
extinction of the fire by artificial means impossible." Take,
for instance, the burning of the Sir Walter Scott in June,
300 SHIPWRECK3.
1855. This fine passenger ship, of 650 tons, was struck in the
Bay of Biscay : the lightning shivered the foremast, completely
raked the vessel, and instantly set fire to the cargo. The
passengers and crew had scarcely time to jump from their beds
and put on their clothes, and leap into the boats, when the
masts went over the sides, the flames shot up into the air,
and the ship went down like a stone. Such extraordinary
catastrophes as these seem to set forth in unmistakable terms
the feebleness of man in the presence of the tremendous powers
of nature. In reality, they are only forcible instances to call
upon him to use the means for dominating the peril. Of all
the dangers that beset the mariner at sea, danger by lightning
is the only one that he can thoroughly guard against. To Sir
"William Snow Harris we owe the perfecting of the lightning-
conductor for marine purposes, and the power of braving un-
scathed the direst electric storms. The permanent conductor
adopted in the navy in 1842 is arranged so as to extend
along the masts, from the truck to the keelson, and so out to
sea. In the hull various branches ramify, and admit of a free
dispersion of the electric fluid in all directions. Thus armed,
the ship is impregnable to all the forked lightnings that may
dart about her. Since the system of fitting men of war with
this apparatus has been adopted, no vessel of the Royal Navy
has been injured. The log of the frigate Shannon, commanded
by the late gallant Sir W. Peel on his voyage out to China,
affords a striking example of the manner in which the fury of
such electric storms as are only to be met with in the Indian
Ocean, was baffled by a contrivance which may truly be called,
in the words of Dibdin —
" The sweet little cherub that sits up aloft,
And takes care of the life of poor Jack."
"When the ship was about 90 miles south of Java she became enveloped,
in a terrific thunderstorm, and at 5 p.m. an immense ball of fire covered
the maintopgallant-mast : at 5*15 the ship was struck a second time on the
mainmast by apparently an immense mass of lightning ; at half-past 5
another very heavy discharge fell upon the mainmast, and from this time
until 6 p.m. the ship was completely enveloped in sharp forked lightning.
On the next day her masts and rigging were carefully overhauled, but,
thanks to Sir Snow Harris's system of permanent lightning-conductors, no
injury whatever to ship or rigging was discovered."
SHIPWRECKS. 301
If we compare tins remarkable case with that of His Majesty's
frigate Lowestoffe, when near the island of Minorco in 1796,
we perceive how great is the protection science affords to the
seaman. The frigate was struck, it appears, at 12-25 p.m. by a
heavy flash, which knocked three men out of the tops, one of
whom was killed on the spot. Within five minutes the ship
was again struck, and her topmast was shivered to atoms. In
another minute a third shock shivered the foremast and
mainmast, and set fire to the vessel in many places, raked the
deck from end to end, killed one man, paralyzed and burnt
others, and knocked several persons out of the tops. In
two parallel cases, the addition of a rod of copper made all
the difference between safety and havoc. The example of the
Royal Navy is being followed by the merchant-service, but not
so speedily as it should be. When it is remembered that the
treasure-clippers trading between Australia and this country
often bring home nearly a million sterling in addition to a large
complement of passengers, it does seem remarkable that the
lightning apparatus is not considered as essential to their
equipment as the boats, especially as they have to traverse an
ocean where thunder-storms are of common occurrence. The
cost of the whole apparatus is not above .£100, and if the
cupidity of the merchant is not sufficient to induce him to
supply it, we think that Government should compel him, in
order to insure the safety of the stream of passengers who
annually leave our shores.
In the whole catalogue of disasters at sea, those which
present the most terrible features are water-logged timber ships.
The timber trade between Great Britain and her American
colonies employs a very considerable fleet of large vessels. As
wood is a " floating cargo," old worn-out West-Indiamen,
which would not be used for any other purpose, are freely
employed. A few years since, in addition to a full cargo, they
carried heavy deck-loads, which so strained their shattered
fabrics, that they often became water-logged, and were some-
times abandoned in the middle of the Atlantic. The sufferings of
the crews on these occasions in their open boats were appalling.
302 SHIPWRECKS.
i food
Beating about for weeks on the waste of waters without
or drink beyond the rain that fell from heaven, they were
obliged to sustain existence by preying on the bodies of their
dead companions, and not rarely they cast lots for the living.
Since the passing of the Act prohibiting deck-loading, these
disasters are far less frequent ; but they have by no means
ceased.* At the time we write there are several timber-ships
drifting about the ocean, floating heaps of desolation, at the
mercy of the Gulf-stream, which will ultimately cast them
on some European shore, or drift them into the North Sea,
to serve as fuel for the Esquimaux. In turning over the
leaves of Lloyd's List, we find indications of these dreary
wrecks, which, clothed in seaweed, are driven over the face of
the waters, and sighted by passing ships, of which they often
cause the sudden destruction, whilst careering along in seeming
security. When these waifs and strays of the deep drift into
much-frequented ocean paths, they are doubtless the cause of
many of those dreadful catastrophes witnessed only by the
eye of God, and our only knowledge of which is a curt notice
on the "Loss-book" at Lloyd's, " Foundered at Sea, date un-
known." A recent instance, in which possibly no damage was
done, will yet suffice to show the risk. The Virago, loaded
with teak from Moulmein, in the Indian Ocean, to Queenstown,
Ireland, became water-logged, and was abandoned on the 5th
of March last, 155 miles south-west of Cape Clear. The next
day she was passed by the American liner Eagle; on the
17th of the same month a steamer, on her way from Rotterdam
to Gibraltar, reports having seen her ; on the 5th of April
she was passed by the Naiad on her passage from Palermo to
Milford ; and on the 15th the Samarang, on her way to Tenby,
met with her; on the 18th she was seen 160 miles off the
Lizard, " in a very dangerous position," by the Champion of the
Seas ; again, on the 3rd of May, the Alhambra steamer, on her
* The effect of this Act, which passed in 1839, was most marked. In
the three years previous, the average annual loss of timber ships was 56%,
and the loss of life 300. In the three years subsequent to its coming into
operation the loss of ships fell to 234, aQ d tne l° ss °f l^ e to 106.
SHIPWRECKS. 303
voyage to Southampton, met her in latitude 47°; about the same
time and place she was seen by the Peru steamer, " and
appeared as if run into ;" and, finally, on the 20th of May,
the telegraph sends word that she was stranded near Brest,
and her cargo was being discharged. It is curious to note how,
amid the tossing of the ocean, her name became gradually obli-
terated, till it was totally effaced, a type of the progressive
decay and final destruction of the vessel herself. At first she is
properly reported to Lloyd's as the Virago; the next ship
makes her out to be the Argo ; still later her cognomen is cut
down to the — go; and then the name disappears until the
French find her upon their strand. Here we suppose her half-
obliterated papers were found, and our neighbours, according to
their usual wont, transmute the Virago into the Neroggogi.
From these reports it is evident that a number of large vessels
passed quite close to the wreck, and it is even probable that a
collision may actually have occurred, and no one have been left
to tell the tale. In some cases, where the circumstances of
wind and current are favourable, water-logged ships are taken
in tow by other vessels and become valuable prizes. When,
however, these wrecks are in such a condition that it is clear
they cannot be brought in, we thiuk it would be well if they
could be destroyed. A few pounds of powder, judiciously
placed, or a beam or two sawn across by the ship's carpenter,
would break the bond that binds these logs together, and, once
separated, they would not be likely to do much damage.
Many disastrous wrecks can be distinctly traced either to a
defective compass, or to an ignorance of the effects upon it of
the magnetism of the ship's iron. There is a melancholy
example in the loss of H.M.S. Apollo, of thirty-six guns, in 1803,
with forty sail of merchant ships, out of a convoy of sixty-nine
vessels, bound for the West Indies. The Apollo was leading the
way, with her train of outward-bound sugar ships following in
her wake, little suspecting the catastrophe which was to follow.
At the very moment her defective compasses drove her ashore,
she imagined she was some forty miles off the coast at Portugal,
and so close was the merchant fleet upon her, that upwards of
304 SHIPWRECKS.
half of them took the ground and were dashed to pieces. More
recently we have had the instances of the Reliance and Con-
queror, wrecked near Ambleteuse, on the French coast, in sight
of the cliffs of Albion, after voyaging from India. The former
is known to have had an immense iron tank on board, the
influence of which upon her compasses must have been very
great. The Birkenhead, wrecked near the Cape of Good Hope,
and the ship Tayleur, in the Irish Channel are additional
instances of the destruction to which the trembling finder of
the magnetic needle points the way, where ignorance or wilful-
ness have placed impediments to its truthful action.
Of the numerous errors that may be classed under the
general term of compass defaults, we may mention defective
compasses arising from imperfect workmanship, or from an
ignorance of the principles of mechanical and magnetical science,
compasses perfectly adjusted but placed injudiciously either
with reference to the magnetism of the ship, or in immediate
proximity to concealed and unsuspected portions of iron.
Ignorance of the degree of compass error arising from the
ship's magnetism, and of its varying amount in changes of
geographic position, and a consequent belief, that in all places
and under all circumstances the needle is true to the north, are
frequent causes of shipwreck.
With regard to the defective mechanical construction of
compasses, it must be admitted that great improvements have
taken place of late years, and the chief credit, we believe, is due
to the British Admiralty. Nearly twenty years ago they in-
stituted a Committee of Inquiry, and the silent working of the
measures then advocated, and the adoption of the improvements
suggested first under the direction of the late Captain John-
ston, and more recently under that of Mr. Frederick Evans,
R.N., have infused into the manufacturers, and a large portion
of the mercantile marine and shipowners, a degree of caution,
skill, and attention to details, which has brought forth good
fruit. A large portion of the superior compasses of the United
States navy are manufactured in this country, entirely on the
Admiralty pattern, and several foreign governments have
SHIPWRECKS. 305
recently obtained the same instruments as models. It must not
however be supposed that defective compasses have ceased to
exist. Our coasting vessels and many of our noble sailing
ships are miserably equipped, and there are many captains who
still look on the compass as a cheap and common article, fit to
be classed with hooks and thimbles and other articles of the
boatswain's storeroom.
There can be no doubt that great errors in navigation are
induced by inattention to placing the compasses. It is common
to see the binnacle within two feet, and even less, of the massive
iron-work of the rudder wheel, which again is in immediate
contiguity with an iron sternpost. The local deviation is con-
sequently great, magnet adjustment is had recourse to, and a
temporary alleviation of the evil follows, which is only magnified
on the ship approaching some distant port. Numerous exam-
ples are on record of iron being introduced by some addition to
the equipment of the ship, which has perhaps been lost in
consequence within a few hours after quitting port.
Among the causes which thus operate, we may name the
fancy rails leading to state- cabins and saloons. These, beneath a
highly-polished covering of brass, often conceal many hundred-
weights of iron. Cabin stoves and funnels, immediately under
and alongside the compass, are frequently unsuspected. A
noble transport, during the late war, carrying troops and stores,
pursued her course by day with unswerving fidelity, but at
night the compass was as wild as the waves themselves. After
diligent search it was found that the brazier, in preparing the
binnacle lamps, had introduced a concealed iron-wire hoop to
strengthen their frame-work. The stowage of iron in cargo
does not receive the attention it deserves, and we consider it
should be imperative for every vessel which carries it to be
swung for the local deviation before quitting port, and a cer-
tificate duly lodged before clearing the Customs. When the
Agamemnon adjusted compasses preparatory to sailing upon
the last unsuccessful expedition to lay the Atlantic cable, it
was discovered that the presence of the enormous coil in her
\o\c] c \>used a deviation of no less than seventeen degrees ! Had
306 SHIPWRECKS.
she been a merchant ship, no similar verification would have
been made, and the sign-post which showed the path upon the
trackless waters would only have pointed to mislead.
It is remarkable how much misapprehension on the nature
of magnetic action exists even among men of high intelligence.
A competent witness, in a recent law-trial, in a case of wreck,
arising chiefly from a want of knowledge of the laws of mag-
netism in the navigation of the ship, stated that seamen in
general believed, that if a cargo of iron was covered over, its
effects were cut off from the compass. A leading counsel in
the case sympathized with the general ignorance, because he
confessed that he shared it. The adjustment of compasses by
magnets is a most delicate operation, and has received much
attention from some of our leading men in science. An able
committee, under the auspices of the Board of Trade, are now
engaged, in the midst of an iron navy, in the port of Liverpool,
in elucidating the whole of the subject. We feel bound, how-
ever, to record our opinion against the indiscriminate employ-
ment of all the nostrums prescribed by the compass-doctors or
quacks at many of our seaports. Let the shipowner consult
such reports of the Liverpool Committee as have been already
published, or follow the Admiralty plan of having at least one
good compass in a position free from all magnetic influences.
In some of the large ocean steamers a standard compass is
fitted high up in the mizen mast, and we hear that it is pro-
posed to build a special stage on board the Great Eastern, in
order to keep the compass from being affected by the immense
body of iron in her fabric.
A perusal of the evidence given in those inquiries which
take place relative to the loss of ships, under the Mercantile
Marine Act, would lead to the supposition that defective charts
were even a greater cause of wrecks than compass defaults;
but this is not the case. The fact is, incorrect charts afford an
excuse for a master who may have lost his ship, which is but
too readily accepted by the members of courts of inquiry and
of courts martial. The defence set up for the wreck of the
Great Britain steamer, in Dundrum Bay, on the east coast of
shipwrecks. 307
Ireland, was, that St. John's Light, placed two or three
years previously, was not inserted in the most recent charts of
the Irish Channel procurable at Liverpool, and that conse-
quently it was mistaken for the light at the Calf of Man. But
these two lights are at least thirty miles apart, and it is
monstrous to suppose that a steamer should be so much out of
her reckoning within a few hours' of leaving port. Again, in
the more recent case of the wreck of the Madrid steamer, off
Point Hombre, at the entrance of Vigo Bay, several masters
were examined, who stated that they had invariably passed
equally close to the same headland, in reliance on the correct-
ness of the chart. " Under these circumstances," said the
Court, " the loss of the Madrid cannot be attributed to the
wrongful act or default of the captain." His certificate was
therefore returned ; and, at the same time, he was informed
that, as a general rule, " 150 yards is not 'a sufficiently wide
berth to allow in passing headlands." "We should think not ;
and furthermore we imagine that, if the omission of every
insignificant rock close to shore, in government charts, is to be
taken as an excuse for shaving a dangerous headland, we may
expect to hear of many repetitions of the disaster. The Orion,
wrecked on the west coast of Scotland, and the much- abused
Transit, in the Banca Strait, owed their fate to the unseaman-
like love of hugging the shore.
It must be admitted, however, that the charts in common
use on board merchant ships are very faulty, both with respect
to the position and character of lights, buoys, and beacons, and
to the variation of the compass, which is not unfrequently half
a point wrong, — an error which may be fatal in shaping a
course up Channel or in a narrow sea. From this great evil
the seaman has, at present, no protection. The remedy lies in
the hands of the legislature, who have only to compel all chart-
sellers to warrant their charts corrected up to the latest date,
at least with respect to lights and buoys. There are but three
or four publishers of private charts, as far as we are aware, in
the United Kingdom ; their stock of plates cannot be very
large, and, once examined and set right, the corrections and
x 2
308 SHIPWRECKS.
additions could be easily inserted. Either the Board of Trade
or the Admiralty should he entrusted with this duty. The
latter are obliged to correct their own charts, and we under-
stand it is the practice of the hyduographer to cause every
new light, or change of light, or buoy, or beacon, to be inserted
in the plate within twenty-four hours of the time of the intel-
ligence reaching the Admiralty. A large number of notices
to mariners — upwards, we believe, of a thousand a-week — are
printed and published, both by the Trinity House and the
Admiralty, and distributed among those connected with ship-
ping j and every chart-seller should be bound under a penalty
to give proof to the Board of Trade or to the Admiralty that
he had inserted the corrections in his copper-plate within forty-
eight hours of the appearance of the notice.
It is a startling fact that the materials for constructing
charts, even of parts of the waters which wash the shores of
Europe, are not yet in existence. Of the coast of Europe
generally we are tolerably well informed, although there are
many portions that require closer examination ; but on the
African and Asiatic portions of the Mediterranean, the early
seat of civilization and the best known sea in the world, there
is still much to be done. When M. de Lesseps brought forward
his romantic proposal for a Suez Canal, no survey existed of the
coast of Egypt from Alexandria to El Arish. Of Syria we
know nothing accurately ; Cyprus, Rhodes, and the western
half of Crete, are still almost blanks. But it is in the eastern
seas and in the Asiatic Archipelago that we are most at fault.
The Persian Gulf, portions of the coast of India, Ceylon, Bur-
mah, Malacca, Cochin China, the Yellow Sea, Corea, Japan, the
southern and eastern parts of Borneo, Celebes, &c, are hardly
so correctly mapped as the mountains in the moon. The north
and east coasts of New Guinea, again, are unsurveyed. As long
as the Spice Islands, and the unknown lands washed by the
Indian seas, were given up to pirates, and to the imagination of
poets, this want was not felt ; but now that our clippers swarm
in these seas, and that Australia herself is beginning to trade
there extensively, we shall assuredly hear of fearful shipwrecks
SHIPWRECKS. 309
from want of surveys. Then, indeed, it "will be truly said, that-
imperfect charts are the cause of shipwrecks, unless, when India
passes under the Imperial Government, vigorous steps are taken
to remedy this grievous defect.
Closely connected with the question of imperfect charts, is
the state of the lights, buoys, and beacons around the coast —
those fixed and floating sentinels set around the island to guide
and direct the weather-beaten mariner. A few years ago we
should have had to bewail our shortcomings in the number of
these aids to navigation, and have had to point to them as pro-
minent causes of shipwreck. The report of the Select Com-
mittee of the House of Commons on Lighthouses, in 1845, shows
the want that then existed, not only on the coasts of Scotland
and Ireland, but even at the entrance of the Biver Thames.
Much, however, has recently been done. It appears, from the
address of the Prince Consort, at the annual Trinity House
dinner, that 77 lighthouses, 32 floating light -vessels, and
420 buoys and beacons, under charge of the corporation, are
now distributed around the coasts of England alone. Great
praise is due to the elder brethren of the Trinity House for
their care in lighting the Prince's Channel, and especially for
their admirable works now in course of construction under
Mr. James Walker, C.E. ; among which we may instance the
new lighthouses at the Needles, at Whitby, and at St. Ives,
the light-tower on the Bishop Pock, off Scilly, and on the Smalls
off Pembroke. In Scotland, also, several new lights have been
established ; and some of the buoys have been coloured on a
systematic plan — red buoys being placed on the starboard hand,
and black buoys on the port hand, on entering a harbour from
seaward, according to the mode adopted in France, Belgium,
and Holland. This system, however, presents difficulties where
there are several channels, as at the mouth of the Thames ; but
there are many places in which it might be applied with advan-
tage. At present, we believe, the river Tees is buoyed on
exactly the reverse plan ; and in some of the large ports of the
kingdom a local scheme is adopted, which completely closes the
navigation to all but the local pilots, for whose special advantage
310 SHIPWRECKS.
this secret system appears to be maintained. The adversaries
of a simple and uniform method of buoying the coast do, indeed,
urge that it would put the key of our harbours into the hands
of our enemies; but this argument is so puerile that it is
hardly worth notice. If we cannot maintain the integrity of
our waters by force, we certainly shall never maintain it by
cunning.
The want of lights on the shores of Ireland has long been a
cause of complaint. Till within a few years, on a coast which
is the land-fall of nearly all vessels that cross the Atlantic from
Canada, Nova Scotia, Boston, and New York, there were spaces
of sixty, seventy, and eighty miles without a light ! Yet during
all this time light dues were levied on the Americans, and other
nations, who were thus treated to a sample of Irish reciprocity.
On the coasts of the United States there were ample lights and
no light dues, while on the coast of Ireland the lights were few
and the dues heavy. We trust that the royal commission which,
on the motion of Lord Clarence Paget, has lately made its report
respecting the state of the lights and buoys of the country,
will give a stimulus to the improvement which has already
begun, and either get rid of these light dues or recommend a
more equitable method of levying them. One penny a ton on
the actual tonnage of the country, paid once a year, would be
sufficient to maintain all the lights in the kingdom, and would
be more simple than the present complicated system of paying
every fresh voyage, which bears so unjustly on the coasting
trade. The time, we believe, is close at hand when the lights
themselves will be revolutionized. It is of the last importance
to the mariner that the brightest and best light that science
can furnish shall be held out upon the sunken rock, or perpe-
tually maintained upon the dangerous headland. Yet it cannot
be denied that we have nothing better than oil lamps for the
purpose j and though the most profound science and the most
delicate art have been employed to make the most of this
feeble power, the fact remains, that we have not advanced
beyond the oil- wick of the last century in our attempts to pro-
vide a light which will throw its beams far and wide over the
SHIPWRECKS. 311
sea, and pierce through the fogs and drifting snow-storms of
the dark winter nights. It is not less strange that we are
behind the French, and even the Spaniards, with respect to the
mechanism necessary to concentrate the little light we have. In
the two former countries the vast majority of the lighthouses are
upon the dioptric principle, the whole light of the lamps being
concentrated in occasional flashes, by means of a powerful
system of lenses, forming a complete cage of glass. England,
on the contrary, employs in most of her lighthouses the old
metal reflectors; and, as Lord Clarence Paget justly observes,
the voyager leaving Folkstone will clearly appreciate the
difference between the two systems, by comparing the dioptric
light flashing from the far distant Cape Griz Nez with the
feeble spark of the English reflector light close to him at
Dungeness. It has been the great aim of the constructors of
these powerful lenses to throw all the light of the lamps into
parallel rays, so that only a thin disc of light is cast upon the
sea ; but, as Mr. Findlay truly remarked in his paper read at
the Society of Arts, we have at last over-refined, and a fearful
shipwreck has already been the result. The Dunbar, after
making a prosperous voyage to our antipodes, was wrecked at
the Sydney headland, within sight of her port. This dangerous
cliff was surmounted by a reflector light which sent a thin disc
of rays, under which the ship passed in a fog. Had a few
divergent rays been allowed to light the danger at her feet, she
would have escaped her fate.
Another great and increasing difficulty arising from the
limited capabilities of the present burners, is the fact that
steamers are beginning to show lights as powerful as those
exhibited in lighthouses of the inferior order and in the light
ships. Hence a confusion is growing up between the fixed and
the moving lights, which threatens to produce most disastrous
consequences. As recently as February last, the Leander, an
American barque, proceeding down St. George's Channel, saw
a light which she mistook for that on the Tuskar Rock, and,
when too late, discovered that it belonged to the screw steamer
North America, which was coming right ahead. A fearful
312 SHIPWRECKS.
collision was the consequence, and the unfortunate ship with
nearly all her crew was sent to the bottom. It has been found
absolutely necessary to change the light in the Nore light-ship
from a fixed to a revolving one, to distinguish it from the
numerous powerful lights carried by steamers at anchor or
when passing along the Thames.
"Various attempts have been made to increase the illumi-
nating power of the burners. In 1832 Lieutenant Drummond
proposed the use of the oxy-hydrous light, and as far as the
intensity of light was concerned the new agent was perfectly
successful, the Drummond light at seventy miles' distance
appearing nearer to the spectator than the ordinary reflector
light at twelve miles. But it was found impossible to maintain
a steady light by this system, and it was therefore abandoned.
Since then Professor Holmes has been making experiments
with the magnetic electric light. The apparatus is said to
consist of a series of very powerful magnets, around the poles
of which the helices are made to revolve by means of a steam-
engine. A powerful magnetic current is thus produced, which
passing through carbon pencils shows a splendid light. The
great difficulty of this and of other similar propositions to
obtain the light by passing the current through two points, is
to so regulate them that the} 7 " shall always remain at the same
distance apart, for any variation would immediately affect the
intensity of the light. This desideratum has not yet been accom-
plished, neither do we think it possible of accomplishment.
Professor Way has, however, we imagine, solved the problem
by substituting a running stream of mercury in place of these
points.
A moment's inspection of the grim wreck chart leads us to
reflect whether the care taken to warn mariners of their
danger is not in many cases the immediate cause of their
seeking it. If we note, for instance, the lighthouses fringing
St. George's and the English Channel, we are struck with the
extraordinary fact that there we find the greatest congregation
of those dismal dots which indicate loss of life and property,
and it would seem as though ships like moths were attracted
SHIPWRECKS. 313
and destroyed by the light. Such, no doubt, is often the case.
Ships bound up Channel make for the nearest light, and from
that shape their course until they meet with the next light.
They feel their way, as it were, in the dark night by the hand-
rail of these guides, and sometimes stumble on the very rocks
that support the beacons themselves — the fog, as in the case of
the Dunbar, allowing them to get within and under the danger
flash. The disasters produced by this system of groping about
sunken rocks and bluff headlands has led Mr. Thomas Herbert
of the Trinity House to propose the lighting of the Mid
Channel. His system is to moor floating lighthouses, of a
form which secures a steadiness sufficient for the purpose, and
he is thus enabled to place a row of most powerful lights at
little comparative expense up the very centres of the two
great channels of English commerce, and indeed of the com-
merce of the world. A ship on entering the Channel would
immediately make for the westernmost of this line of " Fair-
way lights," instead of looking out for the Lizard, and once
having made it, the course would be free of all possible danger.
Eight floating light towers extending from the westernmost
one, forty miles south-west of Scilly, to Dungeness, would add
enormously to the security of this wreck-strewn sea. The
outermost of these lights Mr. Herbert proposes should be put
in telegraphic communication with the shore, by which means
merchants and consignees would be made acquainted with the
arrival of vessels fall a day earlier than at present. By this
means also Greenwich time could be laid on to the station,
and enable the anxious captain to verify the correctness of his
chronometer up to the latest possible moment. Such a station
might further serve as a depot for water and fresh provisions,
so much required by vessels detained by contrary winds in the
Chops of the Channel, and to provide which ships are now
annually sent out by the Admiralty. Without expressing any
decided opinion upon this scheme, it seems to us to possess
sufficient plausibility to warrant inquiry. If there should be
no insurmountable practical objection, — and we have heard
practical men speak well of it, — there can be little doubt that
314 SHIPWRECKS.
— ^
it would dissipate in no small degree the dangers of the Channel
without interfering with the present lights, which would always
be useful for the coasting trade.
Perhaps the most frequent cause of wreck, especially on our
own coast, is negligence on the part of the master. If we ana-
lyze the cases of collision that occurred in the year 1857, we are
surprised to find that by far the larger portion of them occur
in the open sea, and in clear bright weather. Out of 277
collisions, involving total and partial loss, bad look-out was the
cause of 88, and neglect of the rule of the road of 33 col-
lisions. It is a saying among sailors that if the three L's are
attended to — Lead, Latitude, and Look-out, — a ship is safe ; and
no more apt saying could have been uttered. Simple as the
casting of the lead is, it is almost invariably found, when the
causes of wreck are inquired into, that this precaution has been
neglected. The Ava mail-steamer was undoubtedly lost off
Trincomalee, in February last, owing to this omission. The
lead is not only capable of telling the soundings, which alone
would warn the mariner of the approach of shoal water ; but,
when armed, it is capable of bringing a voice from the deep to
say on what coast the ship may be. Had the masters of either
the Reliance or Conqueror cast the lead, they would not only
have known that their vessel were getting into shallow water,
but that they were upon the French coast ; for the lead brings
up a coarser sand from the shores of our neighbours than from
the opposite coast on the English side. The question of
latitude is a question which tests the nautical knowledge
of the captain. A man who can take celestial observations
correctly is not very likely to be deficient in a knowledge of
navigation. The differences between masters of ships in this
respect are very marked. Captain Basil Hall tells us, in his
" Fragments of Voyages and Travels," that on a voyage from
California to Eio, the first land he saw was on either side of
him, upon the clearing off of a fog at the entrance of Rio de
Janeiro. With no other guide than science he had hit his port
without sighting land, after a voyage of many thousand miles.
With this we may contrast a case given in the Report on
SHIPWXIECK3. 315
Shipwrecks for 1836, in which the brig Henry, of Cork, bound
to St. John's, New Brunswick, with seventy passengers on
board, was fallen in with by the Andromeda, of New York, in
a starving condition ; her master, by his own reckoning, being
800 miles to the westward of his true position. This man
must have been one of those who, as the sailors say, " come in
at the cabin windows, instead of working his way up through
the hawse-holes." Errors of this kind are not likely to occur so
often as formerly, thanks to the working of the Mercantile
Marine Act, which will, we think, prevent the recurrence of
the grosser mistakes in navigation. No greater blessing was
ever conferred on the merchant shipping of this country than a
law which compels the holding an inquiry by competent persons
in all cases of casualty. It is abused, as any measure is sure to
be that rigidly sets its face against misconduct ; but it has
already done infinite good, and would do still more if its
provisions were strictly enforced.
It is often supposed that the shifting of sandbanks is a cause
of wreck, but there does not seem sufficient ground for this
opinion. We have heard many marvellous stories relative to
the shifting of the Goodwin, and of the sudden exposure in full
preservation of the hulls of long lost ships. These tales are all
poetical, though the edge of the bank may here and there give
way and expose the ribs of some vessel long since sucked in.
What change there is in the Goodwin, and it is of a very
gradual nature, takes place on the western or inshore side : its
eastern side is as steep as a wall, and retains the position it
had when the first exact survey of it was made. The Brake
Sand in the Downs off Bamsgate seems to have moved bodily
inshore or to the westward, and there is a slight disposition to
change in sands known by the names of the Leigh Middle and
Yantlet Ground in Sea Beach, at the entrance of the river
Thames. The Yarmouth and Lowestoff sands shift slightly.
A channel, or gat as it is called, opens now in one place and
now at another ; but these variations are soon known and
buoyed by the Trinity House. Changes take place at the
entrance of the Mersey, but the surveyor of the river quickly
316 SHIPWEECKS.
marks the deviations and makes them known to the pilots. On
the north-east coast of England more extensive alterations have
taken place ; a large portion of Holderness, in Yorkshire, has
been washed away, and the sea has broken through Spurn
Point, threatening to make it once more an island. At Land-
guard Point, at the entrance of Harwich harbour, the in-
judicious removal of a barrier of cement stone, by which the
heavy stroke of the sea has been allowed free action on the
shore, has caused the sand to be heaped up within the last half-
century, until a shingle beach now rears its head seven feet
above the level of high water ; where, not many years since, a
line-of-battle ship could have sailed into the harbour. Another
remarkable increase of land is at Dungeness, where the shingle
has extended at the average rate of three yards a year, since
the beginning of the Christian era. But although of vast
importance to the engineer in dealing with harbours, these
changes are not productive of shipwreck.
The principal cause of shipwreck on the shores of the United
Kingdom is undoubtedly the want of harbours of refuge.
From the parliamentary returns it appears that the tonnage of
vessels which entered and cleared from the ports of this country
in 1857 amounted to 23,178,782 tons, or in round numbers
232,000 vessels. Even this falls short of the number of vessels
that are constantly passing and repassing along our coasts, and
which, on the springing up of a sudden gale, are liable to wreck,
inasmuch as it only gives those which are carrying cargo. It
does not include colliers and other vessels in ballast, nor ships
of war, nor small coasters laden with stone, lime, &c, all of
which would swell the amount to full 300,000 vessels.
We have already stated that the number of casualties to
shipping on the coasts and within the seas of the United
Kingdom has averaged 1,025 a year ; that the loss of life has
amounted to 830 a year, and that the destruction of property
reaches a million and a half. It is not an uncommon occurrence
for a single gale to strew the coasts with wrecks. In the three
separate gales which occurred in the years 1821, 182-1, and
1829, there were lost on the east coast of England, in the short
SHIPWRECKS. 317
space between the Hnmber and the Tees, 169 vessels. In the
single gale of the 31st of August, 1833, 61 vessels were lost on
the sands in the North Sea and on the east coast of England.
In the tremendous gale of the 13th of January, 1843, as many
as 103 vessels were wrecked off the coasts of the British Isles,
and among them 1 3 large ships off the port of Liverpool alone.
In the gale of 1846, 39 vessels got ashore in Hartlepool;
and in the month of March, 1850, 134 vessels were stranded or
came into collision. In the gale of the 25th of September,
1851, as many as 117 vessels were wrecked; and for each of
the four first months of the year 1858 the Board of Trade
returns show that there has been from 140 to 150 casualties,
or from four to five a day. These facts are sufficient to prove
the appalling loss of life and of property, and the absolute
necessity which exists for establishing on the most exposed and
frequented positions of our coasts that shelter which the sailor
has a right to expect in the time of need.
Formerly in the reports of the shipwreck committees so many
vague generalities were dwelt upon, that the House of Commons
had no definite conclusions upon which to proceed. This is no
longer the case. In the evidence laid before the select com-
mittee of the House, when inquiring into refuge harbours, in
the year 1858, it is shown that there are certain districts
in which wreck is the normal state. Nearly one-third of all
the casualties take place on the east coast of Great Britain, and
in 1857 it was more than one-half! Nay, it is all but demon-
strated that the larger part of these occur within some seventy
miles of coast, or between Flamborough Head and the Tyne.
Here, then, the subject is narrowed to a point. The immediate
vicinity of the coal ports must be the site of a harbour of
refuge — some spot which all colliers, light and loaded, pass,
whether it be in the bight of the bay (or the bag of the net),
as Tees Bay, or whether it be farther to the southward, near
Filey Bay. The exact locality may require careful considera-
tion ; but the question of situation on the east coast of England
is now narrowed to a distance of fifty miles. One unexpected
fact has come to light in the course of this investigation, namely,
313 SHIPWRECKS.
that of the colliers lost on this part of the coast, the proportion
of loaded vessels to light is as 5 to 1.
On the coast of Scotland there is a sad want of deep-water
harbours of refuge. .From the Pentland Frith southward to
Cromarty, a distance of 100 miles, there are none but tidal
harbours, all inaccessible for twelve hours out of the twenty-
four. It is the same from the Moray Frith round by Peter-
head to the Frith of Forth, with the exception of the Tay.
Yet it is along this coast that a great part of our Baltic trade,
and all the Greenland, Archangel, Davis Strait, and much of
the Canadian and United States trade must pass. In addition
to this traffic, both of these coast districts are remarkable as
the great scene of the herring fishery. Peterhead has its
250 fishing-boats, Fraserburgh and Buckie more than 400 sail ;
while farther north, off the coast of Caithness, more than 1,200
fishing boats, manned by 6,000 men, nightly pursue their
calling, exposed to the proverbial suddenness of a North -sea
gale. Here then, in some portion of this district, either at
Peterhead, Frazerburgh, or Wick, a refuge harbour is impera-
tively required.
On the west coast of England, between the Land's End and
the south coast of Wales, including the Bristol Channel, shelter
is absolutely needed. The, trade of the Irish Sea, including
Liverpool, Glasgow, and Belfast, and the great and increasing
traffic of the coal ports of Newport, Cardiff, and Swansea, in
addition to the trade of Bristol and Gloucester, urgently call
for some refuge. For the former probably a harbour near the
entrance of the Channel, as at St. Ives, would be the most
useful ; for the trade of the upper portion of the Bristol Channel,
Clovelly on the south coast, Lundy Island in the centre, and
Swansea Bay on the north, have been the sites particularly
recommended in the evidence. On the coasts of Ireland, the
rocks named the Skerries, near Portrush, on the north coast,
Lough Carlingford on the east, and Waterford on the south,
have been mentioned as places where good harbours may be
obtained at but a trifling outlay.
It appears from good evidence that the existing tidal har-
SHIPWEECKS. 319
bours around our coasts are susceptible of great improvements
for the purposes of joining harbours of refuge in case of need.
We think this supplementary view of the question one of
much importance. It is shown that the small sum of 2,5001.
a year, which the Scottish Fishery Board is empowered to grant
annually, to meet double the amount raised from private
sources, has been of much value, and has given rise to many
piers and fishery harbours on the coasts of Scotland. A some
what similar measure applied to harbours generally would be of
the utmost value. There are many in which the loan of a
small sum of money, at a low rate of interest, would confer a
great benefit. The enormous parliamentary and other fees
attendant on getting a Harbour Act are so ruinous, that many
of the lesser harbours are kept in a state of decay from the
impossibility of raising funds to restore them. "We are glad to
see that Mr. Henry Paull, M.P. for St. Ives, has given notice
in the House of a bill to remedy this evil, and to enable some
public department, such as the Admiralty and Board of Trade,
to grant the necessary powers for raising funds to execute bond
fide improvements. We cordially wish him success, and trust
that he will persevere until his proposal has become the law of
the land.
It would naturally be imagined that the wrecks and collisions
that occur on our own coasts formed only an insignificant
portion of the casualties that take place throughout the world.
But this is not so. The trade of the world is drawn towards
our shores, and these shores are washed by narrow and there-
fore dangerous seas. Hence we can account for a fact which
would otherwise appear astounding, that the losses on our own
coasts form nearly a third of the losses throughout the world.
According to the returns of Lloyd's agents, the average annual
number of casualties and of vessels that have touched the
ground within the last four years in all seas is 3,254 ; whilst,
as we have already stated, those that occur upon our coast
average 1,025. Long as the list of home disasters is, it is at
least satisfactory to find that the more severe cases are not
The official record of these casualties does not
320
SHIPWRECKS.
extend back farther than the year 1852, but the annual
returns since that date, which we append, are on the whole
1852.
1853.
1854.
1855.
1856.
1857.
Wrecks . .
Collisions
Total .
958
57
759
73
893
94
894
247
837
316
....
866
277
1143
1015
832
987
1141
1153
From this Table it will be seen that while there is an
absolute decrease with respect to wrecks, which is due, no
doubt, to the greater intelligence of the masters and the
working of the Mercantile Marine Act, a large and increasing
number of collisions has happened. The latter circumstance
is important, and in all probability is attributable to two causes,
the vast addition that has taken place of late years to the trade
of the country, and the manner in which steam is supplanting
the use of sails. If we cast back our glance only fifteen years,
and compare the trade of that period with what it is at present,
we are astonished at the rate at which our commerce has
advanced. "We find it stated in the statistical abstract of
the year 1858, that the amount of British shipping which
entered and cleared from the ports of the United Kingdom in
1843 was 7,181,179 tons, and of foreign 2,6-13,383 tons, making
together an aggregate tonnage of 9,824,562 tons. In 1857,
however, the tonnage of British shipping entered and cleared
had increased to 13,694,107, and the foreign shipping to
9,484,685 tons, making an aggregate quantity of no less than
23,178.792 tons ; thus showing an increase of 13,354,230 tons,
or 136 per cent., in fourteen years! With this prodigious
addition to the ships passing our shores, we have reason to be
thankful that wrecks are not of far more frequent occurrence,
and it will account for the otherwise alarming multiplication of
the number of collisions. And not only are there more ships,
but a greater proportion of them are propelled by steam. A
..
SHIPWRECKS. 321
parliamentary paper, not long since published, shows that the
number of steamers employed in the Home and Foreign trade
has increased from 414 in 1849 to 899 in 1857 ; that is, the
number of vessels most prone to come into collision has more
than doubled within the last eight years, and while the sailing
vessels have increased during this period only 3*49 per cent.,
the latter have increased 11715 per cent., the proportion of
steamers to sailing vessels having advanced from 2 -22 per cent.
in 1849 to 4*87 per cent, in 1857. Bearing in mind the speed
at which steamers go, and the manner in which their powerful
lights, just introduced, simulate those of lighthouses and light-
ships, the increase of collisions is not surprising. There can be
no doubt that the introduction of coloured side-lights, which all
vessels, both sailing and steamers, must henceforward exhibit,
will enable the direction in which another ship is standing to
be distinguished, which was not the case heretofore.
The most important object after the prevention of ship-
wreck is that of rescuing the crew when the catastrophe takes
place. All along the coast — grouped thicker together where
the fatal black dots indicate dangerous spots — we find rude
marks indicative of the presence of life-boats. Thus, whenever
the dangerous headland or the hidden shoal threatens de-
struction to the mariner, the means of preservation are close
at hand. Of these boats, each manned by a fearless crew of
twelve volunteers, there are 141 stationed along the coast ;
seventy being under the management of the National Life-
Boat Institution, and seventy-one under the direction of various
corporations and local authorities. To the princely conduct of
the Duke of Northumberland, the President of the National
Life-Boat Institution, we owe the present improved condition
of the means of saving life in cases of shipwreck. As far back
as the year 1790, two humble boatbuilders on the banks of the
Tyne, Greathead and Wouldhave (who were encouraged and
fostered by the then Duke of Northumberland), invented the
broad, curved form of life-boat, with air-cases, which was
chiefly in use around our coasts. This model was afterwards
much departed from, and by degrees the most imperfect boats
Y
322 SHIPWRECKS.
(provided they were lined with what were supposed to be air-
tight cases) were dignified with the name of life-boats. The
many casualties that happened to these craft, which were built
by rule of thumb rather than upon any scientific system,
brought them into much disrepute. Too often, indeed, their
hardy crews, instead of fulfilling their mission, were drowned
on the way. In some instances, owing to their defective build,
they turned end over end when struck by a heavy sea, and,
from want of the power to right themselves when capsized, the
unfortunate men were encaged beneath them. To prevent the
recurrence of such disastrous accidents, the Duke of Northum-
berland offered a premium for the production of a model life-
boat, and the result was the exhibition of several respectable
contrivances. Not one of them, however, fulfilled all the pre-
scribed conditions; nor was it until after several trials and
many experiments that the present life-boat was completed.
It appears to be the production of a committee and not of an
individual ; but the chief credit of it is due to Mr. Peake, of
the Royal Dockyard, Woolwich ; to Joseph Prowse, junior,
foreman of the same yard ; and to Messrs. Forrestt, the well-
known boat-builders of Limehouse. It has been adopted by
the Life-Boat Institution, and has stood the test of some years'
experience without a single failure. In a trial lately made at
Boulogne, the boat was twice purposely capsized by the help of
a crane, and righted herself in two seconds, and in less than
fifteen seconds the water with which she was filled disappeared
through her self-acting valves. Of the entire number of 1668
seamen saved during the last year, 399 owed their lives to
these boats, and we have no doubt that in future years they
will prove still more effective, if only well handled and not
rashly sailed by inexperienced men ; for no life-boat can be
devised that will not be liable to accidents if entrusted to care-
less or unskilful hands.
But there is another point almost equally important that
seems to have been greatly overlooked, the worthlessness of the
so-called life-boats that every emigrant ship, every transport,
every passenger vessel, is by Act of Parliament required to
SHIPWRECKS. 323
carry. "We have no hesitation in pronouncing them to be in
most cases a mockery, a delusion, and a snare. It is not long
since that we heard from the lips of one of the most extensive
boat-builders on the banks of the Thames, that, when a boat
was condemned as unsea worthy for any other purpose, it was a
common practice to patch it up, add a certain amount of air-
case, and dispose of it as a life-boat. We know not with whom
it rests to see the Act enforced, whether with the Board of
Trade or the Life-boat Association, but the fact of its evasion
is notorious, and a heavy responsibility rests somewhere. Even
when the crazy thing is embarked, it is often so stowed that it
cannot be lowered in case of need without long delay, and is
frequently deficient in sails, oars, thole-pins, plugs, and always
without an efficient compass. Yet in this ill-equipped boat the
lives of thirty, forty, perhaps fifty, of our too confiding coun-
trymen are risked. It would be easy to see, before the vessel
sailed, that the life-boat was efficient ; that a certain supply of
provisions and fresh water was placed in proper cases ; that the
mast, sails, oars, and thole-pins were secured into the boat, and
that an efficient boat-compass was provided, instead of the ridi-
culous toy that goes by that name, the card of which spins round
like a top at every stroke of the oars. The beautiful spirit or
liquid boat-compass of Dent may be purchased for less than £5.
A life-boat thus furnished would give confidence to the passen-
gers, would serve them well in time of need, and would be no
more than the legislature is entitled to require under the pro-
visions of the Act. Anything less is a gross imposition upon
the simple emigrants, who embark in confidence, believing that
everything has been done for their safety.
In addition to the life-boat system we have located in most
of the coast-guard stations rocket and mortar apparatus to
enable a connection to be established with stranded vessels by
firing a rope over them. This method was effectual in 243
cases during the last year, and is well worked under the auspices
of the Board of Trade. The drawback to the use of the mortar
apparatus is its weight, which prevents its being easily trans-
ported along the rocky shores where it is chiefly needed, but we
T 2
324 SHIPWEECKS.
understand that Mr. Brown, of the General Register and
Record Office of Seamen, has invented a portable apparatus,
which will in all probability greatly facilitate our means of
communicating with stranded vessels, and tend in no small
measure to still further lessen the dismal list of seamen who
annually perish on our weather-beaten coast.
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF
SOLDIERS.
If the question had been asked a short time since what body of
men presented the most healthy lives in her Majesty's dominions,
the reply might reasonably have been Her Majesty's Foot-
Guards. Recruited, at the age of nineteen, principally from
among the agricultural population, submitted to the critical ex-
amination of the inspecting surgeon, tried in wind and limb and
tested at every point, the would-be soldier must be proved an
athlete, or renounce for ever the hope of wearing her Majesty's
uniform. Absorbed into the picked corps of the army ;
quartered either in metropolitan barracks or within a stone's-
throw of the palace of the Sovereign ; clothed, fed, housed, and
tended in sickness by the State; and only in the face of great
emergencies required to brave the dangers of foreign service ;
the weak and incapable instantly weeded out from the ranks, —
his does indeed seem to be a select life, with which no other
among the labouring classes would appear to be comparable.
As we see him on parade in all the pomp and panoply of war,
we view him with pride as worthy of that noble band that
swept irresistibly before it the eagles of France, and, single-
handed, at Inkermann, long kept the foe at bay, and saved two
armies from destruction. Yet take the unhealthiest trades in
England — the pallid tailor, as he sits at his board, or the miner
who lives in the bowels of the earth — and it will be found that
the percentage of deaths in their ranks is not nearly so great
as in those of the magnificent Guards, pipeclayed and polished
up to meet the eye of princes, but, alas ! often little better than
whited sepulchres. Such is the fact elicited by the labours of
326 LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIEES.
the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the regulations
affecting the sanitary condition of the army. If the " most
favoured " regiments furnish these disastrous results, it may be
imagined that the condition of the rank and file, who take their
turn in all climates, must be much worse ; but, strange to say,
the contrary is the fact. This is shown in the following table,
which gives the number per thousand who die every year among
the army at home and among the male civilians of England and
Wales at army ages : —
Household cavalry . . . . . 11 '0
Dragoon Guards and Dragoons . . . 13 '3
Foot Guards 20*4
Infantry of the line 18*7
Population of England and Wales, at army ages : —
Town and country population . . . 9*2
Country alone ...... 7"7
One of the unhealthiest towns at army ages : —
Manchester 12'4
According to Mr. Neison's calculation, the mortality of the
Household Cavalry is If, Dragoons, &c, 2\, Line 2-^-, and
Guards 3 T ^ times as great as the mortality of the agricultural
labourers who are members of friendly societies. Well may the
Commissioners, contemplating these returns, remark — ■
" That in war men should die from exposure, from fatigue, from in-
sufficient supplies, is intelligible ; or that the occupation of a town of
30,000 inhabitants by an army of 30,000 men, without any sanitary precau-
tion, suddenly doubling the population to the area, and thereby halving the
proportion of every accommodation, supplies, water, drainage, sewerage,
&c. &c, should engender disease, is readily understood ; but the problem
submitted to us is to find the causes of a mortality more than double that
of civil life among 60,000 men, scattered, in numbers seldom exceeding a
thousand in one place, among a population of 28,000,000, in time of pro-
found peace, in a country which is not only the healthiest, but which
possesses the greatest facility of communication and the greatest abundance
of supply in Europe."
In endeavouring to solve this extraordinary problem, the first
question naturally asked is, Why the foot soldiers suffer a rate
of mortality so much higher than the cavalry 1 They are re-
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS. 327
cruited pretty much from the same source, and breathe appa-
rently pretty much the same atmosphere ; yet we find that the
Foot Guards perish at nearly double the rate of the Life
Guards. The causes of this difference are mainly, overcrowding
and the want of due exercise and employment. The chief
diseases of the soldier are fever and consumption ; the latter,
or " the English Death," as it is but too aptly termed, being the
chief destroyer. The deaths by pulmonary disease amount in
the cavalry to 7*3 per thousand, in the infantry of the line to
10-2, and in the Guards to 13*8 ; whilst of the entire number of
deaths from all causes in the army, diseases of the lungs con-
stitute in the cavalry 53 '9 per cent., in the infantry of the line
57*277 per cent., and in the Foot Guards 67*683 per cent.
We are strongly inclined to believe that some portion of this
extraordinary mortality from pulmonary disease may be owing
to the atmosphere of pipeclay in which the Foot Guards, and
indeed the Horse Guards in a minor degree, live. In 1853,
the year in which the mortality tables were made up, the
former pipe-clayed their white trousers and fatigue jackets as
well as their belts. Thus the fine dust must have been for
ever entering their lungs, and Mr. Simon, in his recent Report
affecting the health of special occupations, expressly states
that the workers in potteries are among the most unhealthy
artisans, in consequence of the clay-dust they are constantly
inhaling in the course of their daily work affecting their respi-
ratory organs.
It would appear that overcrowding is the chief cause of
the disparity of the death-rate between the two classes of
Guards. If we compare the extremes, we find that, whilst the
Foot Guards quartered in Portman-street barracks have only
331 cubic feet of air allotted to each man, the Horse Guards at
the Hyde Park barracks have 572 cubic feet; and if we take the
whole force of Foot and Horse Guards, we find that in London
the latter have the advantage of between one-fourth and one-
fifth more air in their barracks. But there is another and very
important difference in favour of the Horse Guard : his exercise
is on the whole more varied than that of the Foot Guard. In
328 LODGING, FOOD, AND DEESS OF SOLDIERS.
the infautry, the drill only exercises the lower limbs and fixes
the chest in one position ; the grooming of a horse brings
nearly every mnscle into play, which tends to open and expand
the chest. The broadsword exercise has the like effect. This
diversity in the daily duties and in the amount of air they have
to breathe, explains, we believe, the great discrepancy between
the deaths from consumption of the two classes of Guards.
The reason for the increased mortalitv of the Dragoon regi-
ments over that of the Life Guards is not so easy to discover.
As regards the Line regiments, being quartered mostly in
country localities, they breathe on the whole a better atmos-
phere and have more exercise than the Foot Guards. That
this is the reason of their lower rate of mortality would appear
from the fact, that while the Guards were campaigning in
Canada during the rebellion, enjoying the same pure air as the
Line, and undergoing precisely the same fatigue and exposure,
their relative rate of mortality was reversed, and the Foot
Guards proved the more healthy of the two. The latter
portion of the Crimean campaign showed the same result.
TThen the high rate of mortality was first made "known in
the " Times," military authorities imputed it chiefly to the
destructive nature of the night duties. The evidence given
before the Commissioners, however, entirely negatives this
explanation.
There are three classes of men whose night duties are
more severe than those of the Foot Guards — firemen, the
police, and sailors ; yet, strange to say, all three enjoy a high
state of health. The London fireman undergoes, perhaps, more
wear and tear than the rest. His duties call him sometimes to
several fires in a night, and when not out he is waiting in
readiness. Whilst on service he is liable to great varieties of
temperature, and to a good deal of wet ; one minute he is
scorching in the midst of the fire, the next half-drowned by the
water. Nevertheless, he suffers a mortality of only seven per
thousand. The metropolitan police are on duty ten conse-
cutive hours in all weather, yet their mortality is less than nine
per thousand. The comparison between them and the Foo*-
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OP SOLDIERS. 329
Guards is the closest that could be made, as the unmarried
men all live in section-houses (or barracks), are clothed in a
uniform, and fed in messes. Yet the mortality is just half that
of the line regiments, and less than half the mortality of the
Foot Guards ! The sailor on the home station, who is worse
lodged than either, and is subject to constant nightwork of
a very exposed character, shows a still more favourable
result. It is clear therefore that the nightwork will
not account for the frightful inroads made by disease in
the . ranks of the soldier. Nor need we go much further than
the barracks to know the main causes of all this suffer-
ing and death. In London, as we have said, no more than
331 cubic feet of air was meted out to her Majesty's Foot
Guards, and in Dover Castle it was reduced to 147 feet per
man, or less than the quantity which brought about the jail
fever which Howard discovered to be raging in the Cambridge
Town Bridewell in 1774. The highest average space allotted
to each man before 1847 was 447 cubic feet. Even this
amount of air is rendered less pure by defective arrangements.
Add to which the beds are placed only one foot apart, in defi-
ance of the fact that a man may be suffocated in a crowd not-
withstanding that he has all the sky above him. The state of
the morning atmosphere is thus summed up by Serjeant
Brown, in answer to the questions from one of the Com-
missioners : — ■
"Have you often gone into the men's rooms in the morning before the
windows were open ? — Yes. In what state did you find the atmosphere ? —
In a very thick and nasty state, especially if I came in out of the air. If
I went in out of my own room sometimes, I could not bear it till I had
ordered the windows to be opened to make a draught. I have often
retired to the passage and called to the orderly man to open the windows."
In some cases the troops are lodged in the basement of build-
ings below the natural level of the soil, or in places where the
storekeepers object to put their stores, in consequence of the
damage that would result to them from the damp. A notable
instance is given in evidence by Dr. T. E. Balfour : —
"In 1845 the armoury was burnt down in the Tower, and a new barrack
was erected on its site — certainly not before it was wanted, because the
330 LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS.
accommodation was very bad. The barrack was finished in the beginning
of 1S49 ; fever was then prevailing among the men, and cholera threatening.
The surgeon applied to have the new barracks given over for the use of the
men, and he got two rooms ; he remonstrated through his commanding
officer with the authorities, when he was informed that he could not have
more given over to him, as they were full of stores — blankets, I believe.
On suggesting that the stores might be put into the old barracks, he was
told that they were a great deal too damp to put stores into, and it was
only in consequence of an energetic remonstrance on the part of the com-
manding officer, which I believe reached the Duke of Wellington, that a
Board of officers was ordered to assemble, who recommended that the
troops should be immediately moved into the new barracks."
ISTow* and then the crotchet of a Colonel does a vast deal of
mischief. Not many years since, the cavalry at Knightsbridge
were condemned to drink the water from the Serpentine, — a
reservoir of filth, which is now pronounced to be pestilential to
the neighbourhood. The men. objected to use this diluted sew-
age ; but the commanding-officer had perfect faith in filters.
Nevertheless, the water persisted in smelling bad, notwith-
standing it looked clear, — a mystery the Colonel's knowledge
of chemistry could not fathom ; nor would he give in until a
Board had been called. The veterinary surgeon now began to
complain that the coats of the horses were beginning to stare,
and he wished that they should drink from the improved supply
which was furnished to the men. The Colonel still had faith
in his Serpentine water, and maintained that the horses would
prefer it to the purer stream. A bucket of each was placed side
by side in the barrack-yard, and ahorse was brought. in, which
immediately settled the question by refusing the dirty water,
and plunging its muzzle into the clean. It is not many years
since the troops stationed at the Tower were, in like manner,
forced to drink the Thames water, taken from the most conve-
nient, which chanced to be the foulest, spot in the whole river.
A coarse filter did not suffice to protect them from the disease
such supplies were sure to engender.
They manage these things better now in civil life. In the
year 1848, the Society for Improving the Condition of the
Working Classes opened their first model lodging-house. Their
measure of the quantity of air necessary for the poor man was
much greater than that settled three years later, by the mili-
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS. 331
tary authorities, for the soldier. The mechanic and labourer
were allowed 542 cubic feet ; the soldier, under the most
favourable conditions, breathed no more than from 400 to 500
cubic feet, — a measure which fines off, by degrees, to the Black
Hole allowance at Dover Castle, where the soldier was reduced
to 131 cubic inches. Nor is this the only point in favour of
the model lodging-house, of which there are several situated in
the foulest portions of the metropolis, and which accommodate
sometimes seven hundred inmates, or the full strength of many
a regiment. Besides containing pure air, which, with a proper
system of ventilation, costs nothing, but is of incalculable value
to human life, the lodging-house, instead of being confined to
one room, used for all purposes, is divided into the ordinary
apartments of an inn ; every inmate has his own dormitory,
and there is a good coffee-room stored with papers and books,
and supplied with hot water. In the kitchen below, there are
facilities for roasting, boiling, baking, and frying, and each man
has his safe for provisions. Hot and cold baths are provided ;
and the whole building is heated by hot-water pipes, and well
lighted by gas. If the soldier was treated like his brother of
the chisel and the hammer, the mortality of the Guards would
not be at the rate of 20*4, and that of the ordinary rank and
file at the rate of 17*8 per thousand, whilst that of the
mechanic is only 13 '9 per thousand.
If we were to write volumes, we could not deepen the im-
pression these figures are calculated to convey of the impor-
tance to health of sanitary science. It has been said that
soldiers would not appreciate the benefits of a model lodging-
house, and that, as the colonel asserted of the troop-horse, they
prefer the dirty to the clean, — crowding in a common room, to
separate apartments. If this were true, it would be no reason
for not teaching them better. If bad habits are congenial to
them, they do not suffer less when the mischief is done ; and
if they were callous to the last, the interest of the nation still
requires that lives which cost so much should not be recklessly
thrown away. But experience refutes the supposition that
soldiers have different notions of comfort from civilians. The
332 LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS.
Guards, in the old part of the Wellington Barracks, had, on
one occasion, the temporary use, as a day-room, of an apartment
fifty feet by thirty, and, large as it was, it became inconveni-
ently crowded. The Commissioners, in their report, recommend
that a minimum space of 600 feet be allotted to each man in
his barrack and guard-room, that an interval of at least three
feet be maintained between each bed, and that a day-room
should be provided. The barrack should at least be on a par
with the workhouse.
The high rate of mortality in the army is not to be attri-
buted to the bad arrangements of barracks alone ; the im-
portant elements of exercise and food have to be considered,
and in both the infantry are in an inferior position to the
artisan.
"Perhaps," says Colonel Lindsay, "no living individual suffers more
than the soldier from ennui. He has no employment save the drill and its
duties ; these are of a most monotonous and uninteresting description, so
much so that you cannot increase their amount without wearying and dis-
gusting him. All he has to do is under restraint ; he is not like a working
man or an artisan ; a working man will dig, and his mind is his own ; an
artisan is interested in the work on which he is engaged : but a soldier has
to give you all his attention, and he has nothing to show for the work
done. He gets up at six ; there is no drill before breakfast ; he makes up
his bed and cleans up his things : he gets his breakfast at seven ; he turns
out for drill at half-past seven or eight ; his drill may last half an hour.
If it be guard-day there is no drill except for defaulters. The men for duty
are paraded at ten o'clock ; that finishes his day-drill altogether. There is
evening parade, which takes half an hour, and then his time is his own
until tattoo, which is at nine in winter and ten in summer. That is the
day of a soldier not on guard or not belonging to a company which is out
for Minie practice."
Unless it be denied that the mind has any influence over the
body, it cannot be doubted that the inaction to which the
infantry soldier is subjected in barracks, by the regulations of
the service, is most detrimental to his mental activity and
bodily health. The actuary well knows that the affluent upper
classes, although in every other respect placed in the best sani-
tary condition, are shorter lived than the agricultural labourer,
for the simple reason that, having but little active duty to per-
form, they suffer from ennui, which begets dissipation. The
soldier shares with the wealthy this cause of increased mor-
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIEES. 333
tality, without sharing in their other favourable conditions.
Idle and ill-lodged, he naturally resorts to the public-house,
and, having but little money to procure drink, he too often
degrades himself by sponging upon the female admirers of red
coats for the means. The annals of the police-courts are but
too rife with, the records of crimes and misdemeanours com-
mitted by the Foot-Guards from these causes. Mr. Jeffreys,
a high authority, testifies that in India a large proportion of
the men chafe and drink themselves to death, under modes of
life so opposed to the habits of out-door labour in which they
have been reared. The soldier is not so much in fault as the
rule of the service which precludes him from making himself
useful. The best-conducted troops are the Engineers, who
work at their different trades. The evil does not stop with
the mischief which the idle are sure to perpetrate. The active,
self-reliant Englishman is notoriously the most dependant
soldier in Europe. He can neither cook, bake, make, his
clothes, nor hut himself, like the Frenchman, the Sardinian, or
even the Turk. Contractors follow him everywhere, excepting
into the presence of the enemy ; and when he most needs
every necessary of life he finds himself a helpless man. Mr.
J. R. Martin, one of the Commissioners, who has passed a life
in high posts as a military surgeon in India, and who has done
more for the sanitary condition of the soldier than any living
person, holds it as a principle, " that in all climates the soldier
should do for himself whatever he can perform without injury
to his health, morals, or discipline ; and, further, that he should
be required to do whatever may be essential to his serviceable
condition, in the event of a failure of the appointed appliances.
Before the soldier can be held as fit to undertake his duties to
the State, he must be made capable of maintaining everything
which may . be necessary to his personal care and comfort."
Does Aldershott or Shorncliffe fulfil even the majority of the
conditions calculated to train the soldier for active service 1 Is
he taught to build his own hut, to dig his own well, to make
his own roads, to cook his own victuals, or to mend his own
clothes 1 Aldershott, in fact, is not a camp at all, but a city
334 LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS.
of soldiers, built and maintained "by contract;" the sum
expended on the buildings alone, for the years 1854 to 1856,
being no less than 486,502£ 13s. 6d. ; and we have little doubt
that up to the present time, the civil labour has cost more than
600,000^* Now, as Colonel Tulloch urged, before these bar-
racks were erected, why should not the men hut themselves'?
There are clay, gravel, and sand, on the spot, with abundance of
small wood that no one will buy, not more than eight miles
distant. Soldiers have hutted themselves at Maroon Town, in
the West Indies, at 251. per head. The buildings would not
be such permanent structures as the contractors have put
together : we should miss the architectural facades for the
officers' quarters, and the " moulded cornices " so maliciously
described by the Times' correspondent ; but we should have
serviceable huts which would last for eight or ten years. There
can be little doubt that the men would be healthier in them
than in vast barracks. The process of building would supply
the kind of exercise which would amuse as well as instruct,
and the plan would certainly save money to the State. Con-
siderably more than one half, or 647*9 per thousand, of our
soldiers have been recruited from the agricultural population,
to whom the erection of earthworks and building of all kinds
would be somewhat familiar. Of the remaining number, 294*7
have been trained to mechanical trades. Surely, from this
force handicraftsmen could be selected to perform much of the
work of the army. Bakers, cooks, tailors, and bootmakers,
could be found to supply the wants of the regiment, and relieve
us from the incubus of government contractors. We place
more confidence in a system in which the artisan-soldier will
reap the fruits of his labour, than in athletic games, which are
not to be neglected, but which become irksome when they are
enjoined upon the soldier by regulation. Serious exertion,
too, with a useful result, is always more invigorating in the
* "Whilst the civil workman is called in to do the work of the soldier at
home, strangely enough we send out the soldier to do the work of the
emigrant abroad. A force of Royal Engineers some time since left these
shores for the purpose of discharging this office in British Columbia.
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS. 335
long run than exertion which leaves no result at all. Work,
in short, within reasonable limits, is more healthful than play.
Daring the disastrous months of the Crimean campaign,
Mr. Galton proposed to give a series of lectures to the rein-
forcements about to proceed to the seat of war, on the shifts
available in wild countries. He went to the Museum of the
United Service Club at the hour he had advertised, but as his
audience amounted to but one soldier, he discontinued his
efforts to make known those wrinkles he had acquired with so
much suffering himself. The substance of these intended
lectures he has since amplified into a book, which is one of the
most interesting little volumes we ever read, and which should
be in the hands of every campaigner, whether military or other-
wise. Had our soldiers been acquainted with its contents when
our commissariat broke down, they would have been able to
lighten their miseries in a considerable degree. The services
which he extracts from a single piece of stick are almost in-
conceivable ; and when there seems to be no further hope, he
shows how the difficulties may often be overcome by the aid of
the very circumstances which appeared to have caused the break-
down. His makeshifts and expedients are, it is true, at times
rather rough ; and Ensign Firebrass, as he looks at his neatly-
polished little boot, would perhaps be startled at being told,
that on a march, " pieces of linen a foot square, smeared with
grease, and nicely folded over the foot cornerwise," form a
capital substitute for socks ; or that breaking " a raw egg into
a hard boot before putting it on greatly softens the leather."
Such announcements may be horrifying in the midst of luxury,
but in .hard circumstances the most nicely got up London
dandy would be grateful for the hint. Many a poor soldier, at
any rate, would be glad to know that even on a plain where
there is nothing except the turf beneath his feet, protection is
at hand if he were aware how to avail himself of it. " He need
only turn up a broad sod seven feet long by two wide, and if
he succeeds in propping it up on its edge, it will form a sufficient
shield against the wind," and even against a drifting rain,
provided he plants his turf between the weather and himself.
336 LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS.
As regards the in-door amusements of the soldier, we have
but little belief in regimental libraries. The recruit from the
agricultural districts will not read such volumes as generally
form the bulk of these collections. A Scotch sergeant or two
will thumb over Eollin's " Ancient History," or Robertson's
"History of Scotland," but the majority of the soldiers will not
look at them. " I have never heard of a reading army," said
the late Dr. William Fergusson ; and we agree with him as
far as what are called standard works are concerned. The
soldier can be amused, however, with a lighter class of litera-
ture, and there is a certainty of pleasing him with a newspaper.
This is the reading he selects for himself in the public-house,
and why not condescend to consult his tastes'? Major- General
Lawrance stated that the system had been tried in some
garrisons with excellent effect, of providing a room where the
men could procure papers, coffee, and a pipe. " We approach
the soldier," says "Robert Jackson, " with the dram-bottle in one
hand, and the lash in the other." Things are not so bad as in
his day, but the temptation and the punishment are still pro-
vided j and to reduce both as much as possible, we should
employ pleasant preventives, both of a moral and physical
kind.
The question of food is intimately connected with the health
of the soldier, and, as far as we can see, no attempt has been
made by the commissariat to adjust it satisfactorily to the
varying conditions to which he is subjected. The truck system,
which has long been abolished by law in the payment of work-
men, is still maintained to some extent in the army. The
soldier is nominally paid 13c?. per day, but out of this the
authorities stop a certain sum, which varies with the markets,
for the rations and other necessaries supplied to him. The
quantity of the ration is fixed both for service at home and
abroad. At home he has 1 lb. of bread and f lb. of meat in-
clusive of bone, an additional ^ lb. of bread being given to
troops encamped in England. Abroad the ration consists of
1 lb. of bread or f lb. of biscuit, and 1 lb. of meat either salt
or fresh, the additional ^ lb. being given to compensate for the
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS. 337
inferior quality of foreign compared to English meat. There
are one or two exceptional rations ; but at home or abroad, in
peace or in war, the ration (the quality of the meat being
considered) is the same. Simplicity may be urged in favour of
the system, but we fear this is its only merit, and we are not
at all surprised to find the following remarks in the Report : —
" We are of opinion that no ration can be fixed upon which
shall be adhered to in both peace and war. The conditions of
life are so different in the two cases, that whatever is suitable
for the one must be either too much or too little for the other."
Common sense would clearly point out that the ration which
would be amply sufficient for the soldier in country quarters,
whose principal occupation is lounging along the street, or
leaning upon a bridge, would go but little way to maintain the
wear and tear of a man when exhausted by the fatigues of an
active campaign. The degree and nature of his labours then
may be gathered from the following extract from the Report
of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the Supplies of the Army
in the East : —
"The average weight carried by a soldier on the march, including food
and water for the day, is probably not less than from fifty to sixty pouuds,
and while carrying that burden he is frequently required not only to march
considerable distances, but also to move rapidly, and make other great
exertions. In the ordinary course of his duty he is called upon to watch
during the night at longer or shorter intervals, whatever may have been
his previous exertions. He is exposed to every vicissitude of temperature,
and often to the inclemency of the weather, by night as well as by day,
and must be ready to turn out when required, at any hour, and under any
circumstances. He must generally be content with the shelter of a tent,
whatever the climate may be. When engaged in siege operations, he has
to perform, mostly during the night, the work that a railway labourer
performs by day — excavating and removing earth. When stores are to be
landed, he is often required to do the work of a dockyard labourer. When
employed in active service the soldier, therefore, requires a diet as nourish-
ing as that which is requisite to maintain the physical powers of any other
man engaged in hard labour involving frequent watching and exposure."
That is, the soldier is required at times to be a railway navvy,
and something more ; but, unlike the navvy, he is not allowed
to replenish his inward man according to his natural desires,
but according to a certain fixed regulation. As well may a
stoker limit his engine to a hundredweight of coals a day, and
z
338 LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS.
expect to get any speed out of it lie pleased. The navigator,
whilst executing heavy work, is known to eat as much as six
pounds of meat a day. Now we question if any navigator ever
worked harder than the common soldier in the trenches before
Sebastopol, yet he was expected to perform his task on one
pound of meat, fresh or salt, equal to three-quarters of a pound
of English beef or mutton. The salt meat too is vastly less
nutritive than fresh ; and in case the lemon-juice fails, as it did
in the Crimea, scurvy and its allied diseases are sure to follow
its use. Well may Dr. Christison have remarked "that any
scientific person conversant with the present subject (dietaries)
could have foretold, as a certain consequence, sooner or later, of
their duty, that the British troops would fall into the calaniitous
state which befell them in the Crimea/' It must be evident
again that the soldier during a Canadian winter requires more
meat than he does between the tropics. In cold climates the
nitrogenous and carboniferous food should predominate ; in
warm climates a larger amount of vegetable food is required.
The exact amount of the different kinds of food, however,
requires a special study ; but surely chemistry, which has so
admirably catered for the varying wants of prisoners under-
going fluctuating amounts of exertion, could find no difficulty
in furnishing proper dietary tables for the British army in
different parts of the globe. The Commissioners, in their
Report, fully convinced of the injustice even at home of
keeping stalwart English soldiers upon half a pound of meat
per day, recommend that it shall be incrfeswed'foa pound.
In the clothing of the British soldier a contest has been long
going on between what is considered by the officers to look
" smart," and what is found by the men to be comfortable. A
soldier upon parade and a soldier going into action scarcely
looks the same man. The tight coat, the stiff stock, and the
ugly shako, give a stiffness to his figure which is termed "a
soldierly appearance :" but upon the march or the eve of battle
the jacket is thrown open, the trowsers are tucked up, the
shako is thrown away, and the stock follows suit. He has
divested himself of every particle of clothing which is supposed
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OP SOLDIERS. 339
to conduce to his smartness ; but he is a free man : he can use
his limbs with facility, he can march without fainting, and he can
fight at his ease. Major-General Lawrance, apologising for the
retention of the shako, and for the leathern stock, upon home
service, urges that " it is essential to consider the appearance as
well as the comfort of the soldier." Some of the soldiers them-
selves wish to keep the stock, provided " that it may always be
taken off when muscular exertion is required." The Commis-
sioners are of opinion, and we think rightly, that " this condition
applied to any part of a soldier's dress is condemnatory of it."
Why should he possess a set of fine weather feathers any more
than the fireman or the policeman ? Fitness is the very essence
of comeliness. The Ironsides of Cromwell would have smiled
grimly at the holiday suit of the modern soldier. The Commis-
sioners in their Report condemn nearly every article of clothing
in present use — the stock as an instrument of strangulation;
the shako as neither fitted by size, colour, weight, material, nor
form, for service in hot climates ; and the trowscrs as gathering
dust on the march. In the Crimea the men were in the
habit of wrapping a piece of bale canvas from the commissariat
stores round their legs, which effectually protected them from
the mud and wet. This suggests a return to the old gaiter
used in the army during the early part of George III.'s reign,
and still by some regiments of Highlanders, or the adoption
of a boot to lace over the bottom of the trowsers like the
ordinary shooting boot. The West India regiments are ordered
to wear the Zouave dress — the loose trowsers, leather leggings,
jacket, and fez. This may be well enough adapted for black
troops, but we should be sorry to see our own men tricked out
in this foreign fashion.
The chief parts of the soldier's body which require attention,
as regards health, are the head and neck. The head should be
protected against the extremes of heat and cold by every means
that science can devise. In tropical climates we still retain the
shako, shielding it from the sun with a linen cover. The
insufficiency of this device is read in the fearful mortality from
sun-stroke, which devastates our army in India at the present
z 2
340 LODGING, FOOD, AKD DRESS OF SOLDIERS.
time. The natives wear a cotton turban with an old horseshoe
on the top to protect them from sword-cuts ; and the Com-
missioners recommend a light cap covered with wadded linen,
with a flap hanging down behind. Like the sola or pith helmet,
the protection here is in the slow conducting power of the
material. Mr. Jeffreys, however, in his admirable treatise
entitled "The British Army in India," justly remarks, that
the slower a substance conducts, the longer it retains its heat.
A turban-covered shako worn all day in an Indian sun becomes
charged with caloric to such an extent that it will give out a
sensible heat when hung up in the tent, and will distress the
head the moment it is put on ; for this reason the covering-
should be placed outside the tent at night to cool. But, after
all, though the heat may penetrate very slowly to the wearer,
the time comes when at last it reaches the skull. The pro-
tection may be ample for the acclimatised Hindoo, and yet be
insufficient for the European. Mr. Jeffreys tells us that the
scarf-skin of the Indian is so much thicker than that of the
European, that, when serving as a medical officer, he was
obliged to have a lancet ground in a peculiar manner for
vaccinating the horny hide of the native infants. We therefore
agree with him that science must be called upon to give the
English soldier a still further defence against the sun. He has
himself attempted to solve the problem. Instead of the use of
the cloth-covered helmets he terms sun-traps he has constructed
an ingenious covering in which reflection, retarded conduction,
slow radiation, convection, and ventilation are brought con-
secutively into play. There can be little doubt that scientifically
his contrivance is unexceptionable, and would keep the head
always cool. The weight, however, which his plan necessitates
is a material element, although it is the heat not the weight
which kills. If we desire to form an idea of the amount of
heat which is thrown off by a bright surface, we have only to
place our hands before the polished sides of a common firegrate,
when the reflected heat will be found to be very little less than
that directly radiated from the fire. It is just because these sides
cast the heat which strikes them back again that the inner face
LODGING, FOOD, AND DEESS OF SOLDIERS. 341
is kept comparatively cool. This, therefore, is the best descrip-
tion of surface to present to the sky. It may be objected that
the soldiers would be dazzled by the helmets of their comrades ;
but the inconvenience would only be incident to a curvilinear-
shaped helmet, possessing numerous tangential planes of reflec-
tion. A rectangular form, such as that of the present shako,
would reflect the rays of the midday sun either down to the
earth or up to the sky, and there would be no more glare
observable than from the windows of a house, which, except at
sunset, are the darkest part of the building. The helmet of
the crusader was made in the form of a tin pot : this was
retained by the Knights Templars, who well understood the
value of the bright reflecting surface and the rectangular shape.
Mr. Jeffreys goes further. He proposes that the body-dress
of soldiers serving in tropical climates should also have a
metallic reflecting surface. Though the idea may seem strange, we
think it worthy of consideration. A good defence against tropical
heat must be devised if we intend to keep India ; for we cannot
afford to send English regiments to be wholly destroyed as
fighting men every ten years. The sun is the great ally of the
natives ; they counted upon its service in the late rebellion, and
we must endeavour to convert this enemy into a friend. A
perfectly sun-proof dress would be worth many armies to us.
Some regiments of irregular horse, which are by far the most
picturesque-looking troops we have, wear a light gray woollen
blouse with simple curb chains on the shoulders to protect
them from sword-cuts. This we believe to be the most suitable
garment at present in use. Mr. Galton says that " during the
progress of expeditions notes have been made of the number in
them of those who have provided themselves with flannel, and of
those who have not, and the list of sick always included names
from the latter list in a very great proportion." With a host
of such facts, well known to all who have paid attention to the
subject, it seems surprising that the military authorities should
have adopted a linen blouse for the troops in India. This
material is perhaps the best conductor of all the fabrics used in
dress : its unsuitableness therefore for a climate which is
342 LODGING, FOOD, AND DKESS OF SOLDIERS.
alternately hot, cold, and wet, may easily be imagined. The
neck and spine should be guarded against the assaults of the
sun almost as carefully as the head. In all ages Easterns have
been mindful to protect the great nervous highway. The Arabs
invariably bring one of the ends of the turban down over the
neck, and the French have adopted the same plan in Algeria.
As regards the spine, every one has experienced the sense of
sickness which is produced when the back is brought close to a
strong fire. Such a fire the poor soldier often endures for hours
when marching under an Indian sun. Sun-strokes arise as much
from this cause as from the exposure of the head. The Arab has
a long tasselled loop of cloth hanging down in the small of the
back, which acts as a piece of solar armour : the English soldier
should have a similar protection, unless we are to consider that
his black knapsack and his neatly rolled great-coat are all that
is required. A belt of flannel should by no means be forgotten.
The direct rays of the sun striking upon the expanse of nerves
over the abdomen often bring on cholera or dysentery. The
soldier should have, in addition, a loose woollen wrapper to
serve as a change when campaigning. The value of dry clothes
when he lies down on the bare ground after a fatiguing march
is not to be overrated. " The skin's debility is malaria's oppor-
tunity," justly remarks Mr. Jeffreys. " The germs of fever,
dysentery, and cholera, stalking over the bodies of a sleeping
army, which has been exposed to the sun by day, quickly scent
out the enfeebled skins and divide the prey !"
The colour of the dress is important. Dr. Coulier, who has
lately investigated the qualities of different materials as clothing
for troops, found that white cotton placed over a cloth dress
produced a fall of 7 degrees per cent, in heat. When the tube
of a thermometer was covered with cotton sheeting and placed
in the sun, it marked 35-1, with cotton lining 355, with un-
bleached linen 39-6, with dark blue cloth 42, with red cloth 42.
From these experiments it will be seen that the staring red of
our uniforms absorbs no less than seven degrees more of heat
than simple cotton. As we have to guard against the cold
of night, and the damp of the rainy season, perhaps the best
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS. 343
method of meeting the varied conditions of heat, moisture, and
cold would be to give the soldier a simple woollen blouse of
some neutral colour, which, while it did not absorb the sun's
rays, would yet be pleasing to the eye. Gray, faced with red,
or girdled with a red sash or belt, would have an excellent effect,
and would answer admirably.
It is singular that whilst our troops at home, for the last
twenty years within the immediate influence of a growing
sanitary science, have profited little by its teaching, the troops
quartered abroad within the same time have experienced a
marked decline in their annual rate of mortality. In the year
1835 Lord Howick caused a parliamentary inquiry to be made
into the causes of the fearful mortality among the troops on
some of the foreign stations, especially in the West Indian
islands. The returns proved even worse than had been antici-
pated. The mortality in Jamaica was no less than 128 per
thousand, or, in other words, every eighth man who stepped on
board a transport for service in this beautiful island was doomed
to leave his body for the land crabs. In the other islands the
mortality was somewhat less, the deaths being 81 in the
thousand. The reason of this decimation had long been
known. More than fifty years ago Robert Jackson had pointed
out the deadly nature of our military posts, situated for the
most part at the embouchures of rivers and in low harbours, or
placed in the immediate neighbourhood of pestiferous swamps.
Salt pork and rum were called in to finish the work malaria
had commenced. Five days a-week were our soldiers rationed
upon this poisonous food ; and, to make the injustice more
glaring, the convicts upon the island were fed with fresh meat,
and were consequently in good health. In 1843 Sir Charles
Metcalfe determined that the troops should no longer perish.
He altered their diet and removed them entirely from the
marshy plains to Maroon Town, which stands at an elevation of
not more than 2,500 feet on the Blue Mountains, but sufficient
to lift European life above the level of the deadly fevers of the
climate. The effect of these changes exactly corresponded with
what had been foretold by Jackson ; the mortality speedily fell
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDI]
from 128 to 60 per thousand, and is now reduced to 32.
Thus for many generations the mortality of white troops
in Jamaica was fourfold what it should have been, througli
ignorance and extravagance ; for, strange to say, the difference
between the cost of the poisonous salt pork and the healthy
fresh meat caused a saving to the Government of 80,000?.
a-year.
In other colonies the improvement in the health of the troops
has been marked of late years. At Ceylon, where resort has
been had to hill-stations, the mortality has decreased from 74
per thousand, — at which ratio it stood until 1836, — to 38 per
thousand at the present time. During the same period, we
find that at St. Helena the rate has fallen from 25 to 12, at
Gibraltar from 22 to 12, at the Ionian islands from 27 to 17,
and at Newfoundland from 37 to 11 per thousand. From this
gratifying statement we must except the greatest dependency
of all, — our Indian Empire. In Bengal the mortality of the
British soldier, just before the mutiny, was even greater than
it had been twenty years before. On the average of nineteen
years previous to 1836, it had been 75 per thousand ; on the
average of the next period of eighteen years, it was 76 per
thousand. In Bombay, the mortality has decreased 2 per
thousand ; but in Madras the improvement has been such that
the deaths have fallen from 76 to 41 per thousand. "Whilst
India remained in the hands of the East India Company, and
the British troops stationed there seldom exceeded 25,000, the
high mortality of the presidency of Bengal might have escaped
observation • but now that the European soldiers are more
than doubled, the necessity for putting their sanitary condition
upon a proper footing must be obvious. " Colonel Tulloch has
informed me," says Mr. Martin, in his admirable work on the
Influence of Tropical Climates on the European Constitution,
'■that between 1815 and 1855 there died, of European soldiers
belonging to her Majesty's and the East India Company's army
in India, very nearly 100,000 men, the greater portion of
whose lives might have been saved, had better localities been
selected for military occupation in that country." Estimating
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS. 345
the value of each soldier in India at 1001., this would give a
sum of 10,000,0002.
The barracks and cantonments of India, as regard vastness
and solidity, are, perhaps, not to be equalled by any in the
world. The military buildings of Burhampore, in Bengal, are
said to have cost, during the seventy-seven years they were in
existence, including capital and interest, 16,891,206^. ; yet this
costly station, like that of Secunderabad, in the Madras presi-
dency, was planted in an absolutely pestiferous locality. All
over India the localities of the barracks are bad, and their
construction and arrangement extremely faulty. "Nearly the
whole station of Cawnpore," says Mr. Jeffreys, " running some
miles along the river, was so cut up into small ' compounds/ by
high mud walls, that a bird's-eye view would have given it the
appearance of a divided honey-comb. These walls, with the
profusion of trees they enclosed, seemed as if designed to cut
off every current of wind from the inhabitants of the ground-
floor dwellings hidden within them." In another case, as if to
make stagnation doubly secure, he mentions that there is a
square wall within a square wall, surrounding a cantonment.
Hence we can easily account for the fearful mortality among
European troops in India. As if to make patent to us the
folly we commit in constructing these vast bakehouses, the
native troops, who hut themselves outside our lines, and thus
get plenty of air, present the unique example of a soldiery
whose mortality is below that of the population from which it
is recruited. In the Bengal presidency the mutiny has cleared
away the difficulty ; for it has swept the mass of these pesti-
lential cantonments from the face of the earth. The question,
how shall we profit by the loss ? is answered by Mr. Martin in
his " Suggestions for promoting the Health and Efficiency of
the British Troops serving in the East Indies." He insists
that we must station our troops, in future, upon the hills, but
not on such stations as we have on the Himalaya and Neil-
gherry mountains, — positions of 7,000 feet above the sea ; for,
although they are a security against the fevers of the country,
they are apt to induce bowel complaints, which are almost as
o4b LODGING, FOOD, AND DEESS OF SOLDIERS.
fatal. His opinion is, that elevations of from 2,800 to 6,000
feet would yield a climate most congenial for European troops,
— such, in fact, as we have already found in the Blue Mountains
of Jamaica. He especially draws attention to the solitary
hills, — " those islands of the plains," — as capable of affording a
refuge from the fevers that inundate the low-lying ground.
Here the mass of the British army may be lodged until their
services are needed. From these eyries, like the Romans of
old, they may watch the champaign country, and be ready, at
a moment's notice, to move on any threatened position. There
is no intention of recommending the abandonment of strate-
gical points, or large cities which serve as arsenals, simply
because they are not wholesome. There are dangers to be
braved in peace as well as in war. Yet our experience of the
heroic qualities of the British soldier justifies the assumption
that small bodies of them, placed in strongly fortified positions,
could hold out against all comers until succour should arrive
from the hill-stations, especially now India is being traversed
by railroads and telegraphs. But even these stations are not
sufficient to restore patients suffering under chronic disease.
These, if possible, should at once be sent home. The sick
officer is invalided, and speedily recovers in the air of his
native land ; the common soldier, on the contrary, is forced to
enter the hospital, — too often to die. The men, moreover,
should be recruited for a shorter time. At present they prac-
tically serve seventeen years in India, — a period which breaks
lown the constitutions of the majority. It is the exposure to
heat for a great length of time, and not its intensity for a short
period, that destroys European life. If we entrap the ignorant
labourer by the most unworthy artifices,* we should, at least,
be merciful to him. Let the term of service be reduced to
ten years, and then the stream of stalwart Britons, fresh from
the mother-country, would enable us, in conjunction with hill-
stations, to keep a powerful and resistless grasp upon the country.
* Mr. Jeffreys informs us that he saw during 1 the mutiny a recruiting
sergeant's placard in which there was an engraving of a British trooper
cutting down a Sepoy and taking from him a bag of treasure.
LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS. 34:7
It may well be imagined that, if the sanitary condition of
our army is so bad in times of peace, its sufferings in war must
be greatly exaggerated. The experience of the Peninsula,
"Walcheren, Burmah, and Sebastopol, has unfailingly proved
this to be the case, and, in manifold instances, the evils were
such as could have been avoided with ease.
"The barracks and the military hospital," says Miss Nightingale, "exist
at home and in the colonies as tests of our sanitary condition in peace ; and
the histories of the Peninsular war, of Walcheren, and of the late Crimean
expedition, exist as tests of our sanitary condition in the state of war.
We have much more information on the sanitary history of the Crimean
campaign than we have of any other. It is a complete example — history
does not afford its equal — of an army, after a great disaster arising from
its neglects, having been brought into the highest state of health and
efficiency. It is the whole experiment on a colossal scale. In all other
examples the last step has been wanting to complete the solution of the
problem. We had in the first seven months of the Crimean campaign a
mortality among the troops at the rate of 60 per cent, per annum from
disease alone — a rate of mortality which exceeds that of the great plague
in the population of London, and a higher ratio than the mortality in
cholera to the attacks ; that is to say, that there died out of the army of
the Crimea an annual rate greater than ordinarily die in time of pestilence
out of sick. We had during the last six months of the war a mortality
among our sicJc not much more than among our healthy Guards at home,
and a mortality among our troops in the last five months two-thirds only of
what it is among our troops at home."
This splendid testimony to the value of sanitary science,
exhibited on the largest scale, on an apparently hopeless field,
is without appeal. The Commissioners propose a medical
officer of health for the army,"" second in rank to the principal
medical officer, and attached to the quartermaster-general in
the field. This officer, says the Report, should be the head of
the sanitary police of the army, should be answerable for all the
measures to be adopted for the prevention of disease, and should
report to the quartermaster-general, and to the principal
medical officer. In order to prevent any evasion of responsi-
bility, they further recommend that the sanitary officer shall
give his advice in writing, aud that the disregard of it on
* This idea of a sanitary officer for armies in the field originated with
Mr. J. Hanald Martin, who has long advocated the measure in his cor-
respondence with the medical journals, and with the East India Govern-
ment. To this gentleman we also owe the suggestion of a health officer in
civil life.
348 LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS.
strategical grounds shall be equally recorded by the officer in
command. Having thus provided for the army in the field,
the Commissioners propose that there shall be associated with
the Medical Director-General of the Army a sanitary, statistical,
and medical colleague. Each of these officers would be at the
head of a distinct department — the sanitary officer taking cog-
nizance of all questions of food, dress, diet, exercise, and lodging
for the soldier ; the statistical department gathering together
those invaluable details relative to the health of the army, for
the want of which the British troops have so long suffered a
mortality out of all proportion to the civil community ; while
the medical department would serve as a connecting link
between civil and military medicine, keeping the latter up to
the last word of science, as spoken by the great medical
authorities in all countries. Some of these suggestions will
require deep consideration before they are adopted. Nothing,
at any rate, must be permitted to fetter the absolute power of
the commander in the field, who must have a real as well as a
nominal freedom. But every precaution which can guard the
health of the soldier without cramping the discretion of the
general is demanded alike by humanity and policy. What was
so powerfully said in the last century has remained in a great
degree true in our own. " The life of a modern soldier is ill-
represented by heroic fiction. War has means of destruction
more formidable than the cannon and the sword. Of the
thousands and ten thousands that perished in our late contests
with France and Spain, a very small part ever felt the stroke of
an enemy ; the rest languished in tents and ships, amidst damps
and putrefaction ; pale, torpid, spiritless and helpless ; gasping
and groaning unpitied among men, made obdurate by long con-
tinuance of hopeless misery ; and were at last whelmed in pits
or heaved into the ocean, without notice or remembrance. By
incommodious encampments and unwholesome stations, where
courage is useless and enterprise impracticable, fleets are silently
dispeopled, and armies sluggishly melted away."
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
If a needle turning upon a pivot were fixed at York, and if, by
a wire placed in close proximity to it, the needle could be made
to move to the right or to the left through the agency of a
power applied at the other end of the wire in London, and if it
were agreed that one motion of the needle to the left should
signify a, and one to the right b, &c.,* we should have just
such a contrivance as the common needle telegraph now in
use.
Such is the dry statement of a problem the more detailed
working of which we are about to explain to the reader.
When a schoolboy places a sixpence and a piece of zinc in
juxta-position with each other in his mouth, he immediately
* Code of letter signals in the needle telegraph commonly used in
England. Two needles are generally employed, in order to facilitate the
transmission of signals : —
Let a denote a deflection of the left-hand needle to the left, a to the right;
b a deflection of the right-hand needle to the left, b' to the right. Then here
is the code :
b
bb
bbb
b'b
bb'
V
b'b'
V V V
Thus F is indicated by two successive deflections of the left-hand needle
to the right ; R by a simultaneous deflection of both needles to the left.
Where both needles are required they may be and are deflected simul-
taneously ; where one only is used its deflections must of necessity be
successive. The sign + means " I do not understand ; " the letter E "I
do understand."
+
a
H
A
a a
I
B
aa a
K
C
a' a
L
D
a a'
M
E
a'
N
F
a' a'
G
a! a! a'
P
E
a b
S
a abb
T
a a ah bb
U
a' a b' b
W
a b'
X
a' a' b' b'
Y
a' a' a' b' b' b'
350 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
perceives a singular taste, which as instantly disappears upon
their separation ; it is an experiment which most of us have
performed, wondered at for a moment, and then forgotten.
How little did we ever dream that in so doing we were calling
into life one of the most subtle, active, and universal agents in
nature — a spirit like Ariel to carry our thoughts with the speed
of thought to the uttermost ends of the earth — a workman
more delicate of hand than the Florentine Cellini, and more
resistless in force than the Titans of old !
If now we place a piece of zinc, Z, and of copper, C, in a
glass of acidulated water, instead of in the saliva of the mouth,
and if we then attach to the piece of zinc the wire D K, and to
the piece of copper the wire B A, and approxi-
mate the two ends, A K, until they touch, we
shall have the philosophic expression of the
contrivance of the boy — a decomposition of the
water will immediately take place, and either
as its cause or consequence — for scientific men
have not yet decided which — an electric current
will flow in a continued stream from the zinc plate or positive
pole to the copper plate or negative pole of the battery, and
this action, provided the plates are kept clean and the acidulated
water is supplied, will go on as long as the materials last. If
this little instrument, which generates a very small amount of
electric force, is combined with others,
as in figure 2, — the zinc plate of one
cell being connected with the copper
plate of the next by a piece of wire —
we shall have the celebrated battery
invented by Volta in 1800, in which
the accumulated current, after flowing from one cell into
another, by means of the little hoops of wire, is transmitted
along the large hoop, DKAB, from the one pole of the battery
to the other. Within the narrow chambers of some such battery
(which may be made of any number of cells, according to the
force required), the motive power is generated by which the
electric telegraph is worked, and the large hoop by which
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 351
its two poles are connected represents the telegraphic wire we
see running beside the railroad, whose office is to form a con-
ducting pipe for the conveyance of the electricity. Different
substances possess this property in various degrees ; some, such
as dry paper, not permitting the passage of the electric fluid
to any sensible extent ; and others transmitting it with great
freedom. Of all known bodies, the metals are the most perfect
conductors, and copper is in this respect superior to iron ; but the
latter, being cheaper and more durable, is commonly employed
in the construction of the telegraph. Thus we have two of the
indispensable requisites — a constant force and a channel which
conveys it from place to place.
There was yet a third thing necessary — some contrivance by
which the force could be made instrumental in forming signs
or characters at its destined goal ; and this final condition was
supplied by Oersted's discovery in 1819, that a magnetic needle
is deflected by the passage of a circuit of electricity through a
wire parallel and in close neighbourhood to it. The following
cut will explain our
meaning : — When the
fluid passes from the
U pole of the battery
in the direction of
B A K L M Z, and
enters Y, its opposite
pole, "a current," as
it is called, is completed, running from left to right, the effect
of which upon the needle, N, is to deflect it in the direction of
the dotted line (seen in perspective) 2, 3, or to an angle of
90 degrees, with the wire, if the current is sufficiently strong.
If, however, the current be reversed, and the electric fluid
made to traverse the wire from right to left, in the direction of
the letters Y Z M L K A B, to the U end of the battery, the
needle will immediately reverse its position and place itself at
90 degrees in the opposite direction. This then is the whole
principle and mystery of the needle telegraph, the one still
most extensively used in this country. The break that occurs
352 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
between the letters B TJ and Z Y is intended to show the
method in which the needle is made to work. Whilst the
wires are thus apart the " circuit is broken," or the fluid no
longer passes along the wire, but immediately they are approxi-
mated the circulation again commences, and the needle " answers
the helm." By the opening and closing, then, of this small
space, which is effected by a lever, the needle is made to oscil-
late at will.
The mere fact, however, of an electric current passing along
a wire in proximity to a magnetic needle was not sufficient to
enable any person to construct a telegraph. Would the needle
be deflected by a wire, the battery of which was placed at any
considerable distance % it would not ; therefore, for all tele-
graphic purposes Oersted's discovery was worthless. Schweigger,
however, soon after ascertained that by
passing a great number of times round
the needle a wire, thoroughly insulated
by a " serving" of silk thread, as shown
in figure 4, the deflecting powers of the currant were multiplied,
and the sensibility of the instrument marvellously increased.
In the same year that Oersted made his brilliant discovery,
M. Arago detected another law, which furnished a second
method by which the electric current could be made to tell its
tale. He announced to the French Academy the fact so
pregnant in its consequences, that the fluid possessed the power
of imparting magnetism to steel or iron ; and shortly after-
wards our own countryman, Sturgeon, invented the first electro-
magnet, by coiling around a piece of soft iron a great length of
fine insulated copper wire, the ends of which communicated
_ with a battery. Figure 5 will give a
rough idea of this instrument. The wire
TJ B A, when it reaches the cylinder
K L, is wound many times round it, and
returns to the battery at V. As long as
the current is passing, the soft iron becomes a magnet and
attracts the iron armature P ; but directly the circuit is broken
power ceases, and P, by the action of a spring,
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 353
flies back. It will at once be seen that by alternately making
and breaking the circuit, which can be done as fast as the hand
can move the handle of a lever, an up and down movement of
the armature P will take place, and this is the principle of
action in Wheatstone's electro-magnetic dial instrument and
Morse's recording telegraph, so extensively used in America. ■'
The general modus operandi of the latter, which is a contrivance'
of singular merit and efficiency, can be easily understood. At the
station at which the message is received, a poised iron lever
has a metal pin on its upper surface at one end, and an arma-
ture on its under surface at the other end. When the magnet,
which is placed beneath the armature, attracts and draws it
down, the pin at the opposite extremity is raised, and presses
against a strip of paper, which is moved between the metal
point, and a roller supported above it, at a uniform rate by
means of clock-work. The pin or style will then make a
simple dot, or trace lines of variable length upon the paper,
according as the electric current is kept up only for a single
instant, or for a longer period. "The impressions on the
paper," says Dr. Turnbull, "resemble the raised printing for
the blind." Out of these dots and lines an alphabet is formed
similar to that which we have given in a subsequent page,
when speaking of the chemical telegraph at Bain. The instru-
ment of Morse requires only a single wire to work it, and is,
says the Abbe Moigno, " an excellent telegraph, very simple,
very efficacious, and very rapid in its transmissions. A practised
clerk can indent on an average seventeen words a minute,
which is consequently as many as a skilful writer could tran-
scribe with a pen. It is, moreover, a great advantage to have
fixed on a band of paper the messages which the needle tele-
graphs merely figure in the air."
Since the year 1821 the principles of action of two of the
working telegraphs of the present day were known to scientific
men, and the question naturally arises, how was it that it still
took so many years to make the telegraph a working fact % The
answer is, that the combination of circumstances necessary to
bring it to perfection had not arisen. What interest had
2 A
3^1 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
practical men in carrying out the dreams of philosophers?
No one imagined that it would ever become a necessary social
engine, or that it would pay " seven per cent." to a public
Company. The patronage of the Government could alone have
been looked to by any of the proposers of the new method of
telegraphy, and the sort of encouragement received from this
quarter may be judged from the fact that when Mr. Ronalds
attempted to draw the attention of some of the officials to the
working of his instrument, they did not even deign to pay it a
visit, but returned for answer, " That the telegraph was of no
use in time of peace, and that the semaphore in time of war
answered all the required purposes." The occasion that sud-
denly ripened' the invention and brought it into practical
operation was the introduction of railroads. Were it not for
the universal spread of this new means of locomotion, the tele-
graph might still have remained in that limbo from which so
many discoveries have never emerged. The vast advantage to
a railroad of a method of conveying signals instantaneously
throughout its entire length was at once seen, and the con-
tinuity of its property, together with the protection afforded
by its servants, presented facilities for its introduction and
maintenance which had never before occurred.
A problem of great scientific interest as well as of practical
importance in connection with the electric telegraph had still
to be solved. The experiments of Dr. T^atson on Shooter's
Hill, in the middle of the last century, proved, it is true, that
a shock of electricity passed along a four mile circuit without
any appreciable loss of time, but nothing was definitely kuown
about the speed at which it really travelled. This difficult
question was answered by Professor Wheatstone. His beau-
tiful investigations on the subject were made by means of a
very rapidly revolving mirror, upon which the passage of the
electric fluid, at different and distant parts of a severed wire,
was indicated by sparks, which appeared as lines of light on
the rapidly turning glass, on the same principle that a bit of
lighted charcoal whirled round and round in the air appears as
a circle of fire. By this instrument, which we cannot render
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 355
intelligible to the general reader, but for a fuller account of
which we refer him to the Philosophical Transactions of 1834,
he made it evident to the eye that one spark or leap of the
electric fluid did occur before the other — thus proving that its
transit along the wire was a matter of time. The manner in
which he took measure of this infinitesimal period was extremely
ingenious. By attaching a hollow piece of metal — a metallic
humming-top as it were — to the spiudle of his revolving
mirror, and at the same time directing a current of air against
it, he was enabled to test its speed by the pitch of the sound
produced : this once known, the measuring of time that
elapsed between the different sparks was easy. Thus he forced
the lightning to tell how fast it was going. His admirably-
contrived apparatus has since proved of considerable use to
philosophers in measuring very minute parts of time, and
scientific men can now with the greatest ease ascertain the
period a flash of light takes to traverse a distance of 50 feet
— and light, be it remembered, travels at the speed of 200,000
miles a second !
By this experiment it appeared that electricity travels
through a copper-wire with at least the velocity of light
through the celestial space, though the recent experiments
made for Professor Bache, director of the national survey of
America, have proved that the velocity of the current through
suspended iron wires is not more than 15,400 miles per second.
The philosophic proof of the marvellous rate at which the
electric current moved, doubtless turned many minds once
more in the direction of the long sought for telegraph, and it
is not surprising that the eminent elucidator of the fact was
among the number. A short time after this he insulated four
miles of wire in the vaults of King's College, on which he
performed most of his subsequent experiments.'"" Thus in the
* It may interest our readers to reproduce the first published notice we
can find of Professor Wheatstone's experiments relating to the electric
telegraph, and which appeared anterior to his connection with Mr.
Cooke: — " During the month of June last year (1836), in a course of
lectures delivered at King's College, Londou, Professor Wheatstone
repealed his experiments on the velocity of electricity which were pub-
2 a '2,
356 THE ELECTEIC TELEGRAPH.
silence of these gloomy vaults, as early as 1836, the lightning
that was to flash with intelligence round the world — the
nervous system so shortly destined to spread itself through two
hemispheres, string together continents and islands, and carry
human thought under the wide-spreading seas, was slowly
being trained to the service of man by one of the most dis-
tinguished of the many philosophers who have contributed to
the development of this branch of science.
Following up his experiment, Professor Wheatstone worked
out the arrangements of his telegraph, and having associated
himself in 1837 with Mr, Cooke, who had previously devoted
much time to the same subject, a patent was taken out in
the June of that year in their joint names. Their telegraph
had five wires and five needles ; the latter being worked upon
the face of a lozenge-shaped dial inscribed with the letters of
the alphabet, any one of which could be indicated by the con-
vergence of two of the needles. This very ingenious instru-
ment could be manipulated by any person who knew how to
read, and did not labour under the disadvantage of working by
a code which required time to be understood. Immediately
upon the taking out of the patent, the directors of the Xorth
Western Railway sanctioned the laying down of wires between
the Euston Square and Camden Town stations, and towards
the end of July the telegraph was ready to work.
listed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1S34, but with an insulated
circuit of copper wire, the length of which was now increased to nearly
four miles; the thickness of the wire was 1-1 6th of an inch. YThen
machine electricity w~as employed, an electrometer placed on any point of
the circuit diverged, and, wherever the continuity of the circuit was
broken, bright sparks were visible. With a voltaic battery, or with a
magneto-electric machine, w~ater was decomposed, the needle of the gal-
vanometer was deflected, &c, in the middle of the circuit. But, which
has a more direct reference to the subject of our esteemed correspondent's
communication from Munich, Professor Vvneatstone gave a sketch of the
means by which he proposes to convert his apparatus into an electrical
telegraph, which, by the aid of a few finger stops, will instantaneously,
and distinctly, convey communications between the most distant points.
These experiments are, we understand, still in progress, and the appa-
ratus, as it is at present constructed, is capable of conveying thirty simple
signals, which, combined in various manners, will be fully sufficient for
the purposes of telegraphic communication." — From the Magazine of
Popular Science (Parker, Strand) for March 1, 1837.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 357
Late in the evening of the 25th of that month, in a dingy-
little room near the booking-office at Euston square, by the
light of a flaring dip-candle, which only illuminated the sur-
rounding darkness, sat the inventor, with a beating pulse and
a heart full of hope. In an equally small room at the Camden
Town station, where the wires terminated, sat Mr. Cooke, his
co-patentee, and among others, two witnesses well known to
fame, Mr. Charles Fox and Mr. Stephenson. These gentlemen
listened to the first word spelt by that trembling tongue of
steel which will only cease to discourse with the extinction of
man himself. Mr. Cooke in his turn touched the keys and
returned the answer. " Never did I feel such a tumultuous
sensation before," said the Professor, " as when all alone in the
still room I heard the needles click, and as I spelled the words
I felt all the magnitude of the invention, now proved to be
practical beyond cavil or dispute." The telegraph thence-
forward, as far as its mechanism was concerned, went on without
a check, and the modifications of this instrument, which is still
in use, have been made for the purpose of rendering it more
economical in its construction and working, two wires at present
being employed, and in some cases only one.
A frequently renewed and still unsettled controversy has
arisen upon the point of who is to be considered the first con-
triver of the telegraph in the form which made it available for
popular use. Two names alone are now put forward to dispute
the claim with Wheatstone — Steinheil of Munich and Morse
of New York.
From a communication of M. Arago to the French
Academy of Sciences, it appears that the telegraph of
Steinheil was in operation, for a distance of seven miles, on the
19 th of July, 1837, the same month in which Wheatstone put
his own contrivance to the test upon the North Western Rail-
way. But besides that the patent of Wheatstone was taken
out in the preceding June, and was itself founded upon previous
and thoroughly successful experiments, there is another material
circumstance which gives him a claim to priority over Steinheil,
viz., that the latter published no description of his instrument
358 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
until August, 1838, that he altered and improved it in the
interval, and that the only accounts we have of his contrivance
describe its amended and not its original form. It was, how-
ever, a very meritorious performance, and, in addition to its
other excellences, Steinheil was the first who employed the
earth to complete the circuit — a most important fact, which we
shall explain hereafter. Still his telegraph was inferior in its
mechanical arrangements to that of Wheatstone, and the
inventor himself soon abandoned it in favour of a modification
of the instrument of Morse.
Morse dates his claim to the invention of the telegraph from
the year 1832, when the first idea of such an instrument, he
tells us, struck him as he was returning home from Havre in
the ship Sully. A fellow-passenger, Professor Jackson, it
appears, was in the habit of amusing himself, in common with
the rest of the passengers, with some accounts of the wonders
of electricity ; and when Morse later developed his contrivance,
Professor Jackson not only claimed it as a plagiarism from his
own conversation, but added that Morse was so ignorant as
to ask, upon hearing the term Electro-Magnetism, " In what
does that differ from ordinary Magnetism?" The telegraph,
was at best, on the part of both of them, a crude idea; and
it was not till September, 1837, that Professor Morse was able
to exhibit his still imperfect machinery in action. He ulti-
mately succeeded, as we have before stated, in producing a
telegraph of first-rate excellence ; and, out of 15,000 miles of
wire which had been erected by 1852 in the United States,
12,124 were worked on the system of Morse.
The question of priority is, in our opinion, after all, of no
sort of importance, at least as regards the rival claims of
Wheatstone and Steinheil. "When the progress of science has
prepared the way for a great discovery, two geniuses will occa-
sionally take the step together, because each is able to take the
step of a giant. It was thus that the Calculus was found out
by both Newton and Leibnitz, and the place of Neptune in the
heavens by both Adams and Leverrier. It was the same with
the telegraph. The investigations of Wheatstone and Stein-
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 359
heil were entirely independent of each other, and it cannot
lessen the merit of either that there was a second man in Europe
who was equal to the task.
There are some who dispute Professor Wheatstone's claim, by
urging that, inasmuch as all the main features of the telegraph
existed before he took out his patent, there was nothing left to
invent. It is true that much had been doue, but it is equally
certain that there was much to do. When Wheatstone first
directed his attention to electricity as a means of communicat-
ing thoughts to a distance, the telegraph was a useless and
inoperative machine. He and his partner established as a
working, paying fact, what had hitherto been little better than
a philosophic toy. To those who now disparage the Professor's
labours we think it sufficient to reply by the admirable saying of
the French savant, M. Biot, " Nothing is so easy as the discovery
of yesterday ; nothing so difficult as the discovery of to-day "
Let us return, however, to the history of the telegraph in
England, from which we have digressed. After the successful
working of the mile-and-a- quarter line, the Directors of the
London and Birmingham Eailway proposed to lay it down to
the latter town if the Birmingham and Liverpool Directors
would continue it on their line ; but they objected, and the
telegraph received notice to quit the ground it already occupied.
Of course, its sudden disappearance would have branded it as a
failure in most men's minds, and, in all probability, the telegraph
would have been put back many years, had not Mr. Brunei, to
his honour, in 1839, determined to adopt it on the Great
Western line. It was accordingly carried at first as far as West
Drayton, thirteen miles, and afterwards to Slough, a distance of
eighteen miles. The wires were not at this early date suspended
upon posts, but insulated and encased in an iron tube, which
was placed beneath the ground.
The telegraph hitherto had been strictly confined to railway
business, and in furtherance of this object Brunei proposed to
continue it to Bristol as soon as the line was opened. Here,
again, the folly and blindness of railway proprietors threw
obstacles in the way, which led, however, to an unlooked-for
360 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
application of its powers to public purposes. At a general
meeting of the proprietors of the Great Western Railway in
Bristol,, a Mr. Hayward, of Manchester, got up and denounced
the invention as a "new-fangled scheme," and managed to pass
a resolution repudiating the agreement entered into with the
patentees. Thus within a few years we find the telegraph
rejected by two of the most powerful railway companies, the
persons above all others who ought to have welcomed it with
acclamation.
To keep the wires on the ground, Mr. Cooke proposed to
maintain it at his own expense, and was permitted by the
directors to do so on condition of sending their railway signals
free of charge, and of extending the line to Slough. In return,
he was allowed to transmit the messages of the public. Here
commences the first popular use of the telegraph in England, or
in any other country. The tariff was one shilling per message.
The effect of this low charge was to develop a class of business
which seems beneath the notice of the powerful company now
in possession of most of the telegraphic lines in the kingdom.
The transactions of the retail dealers are considered too petty,
perhaps, for their attention ; but there can be no doubt that the
comfort of the public would be vastly increased, and also the
revenues of the company, if they would only condescend to take
a lesson by the commercial experience of this shilling tariff, the
working of which we will illustrate by transcribing from the
telegraph book at Paddington a few specimens of the messages
sent : —
" Commercial News. 1844, Xov. 1, Slough, 4.10 p.m. — 'Send a mes-
senger to Mr. Harris, poulterer, Duke-street, Manchester-square, and
order him to send twelve more chickens to Mr. Finch, High-street,
Windsor, by the 5.0 P.M. down train, without fail.' Answer : Paddington,
5.5 P.M. — ' The chickens are sent by the 5.0 P.M. train.'
" Slough, 7.35 P.M. — ! A Mr. Thomas B., a first-class passenger, 6.30 P.M.
train, left a blue cloak with a velvet collar in first-class booking-office.
Send it by mail train if found.'
'•' Paddington 7.45 P.M. — 'There are two such cloaks in the booking-
office : has Mr. B.'s any mark on any part of it ? ' Slough, 7.47 P.M. —
'Mr. B.'s has the mark x under the collar, inside.'
" Paddington, 7.55 P.M. — ' Cloak found, and will be sent on as re-
quested.'
"Slough, Nov. 11, 1844, 4.3 P.M. — 'Send a messenger to Mr. Harris,
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 361
Duke-street, Manchester-square, and request him to send 6 lbs. of white
bait and 4 lbs. of sausages, by the 5.40 train, to Mr. Finch, of Windsor ;
they must be sent by 5.30 down train, or not at all.'
-/'Paddington, 5.27 p.m. — 'Messenger returned with articles, which
will be sent by 5.30 train, as requested.'"
The first application of the telegraph to police purposes took
place about this time on the Great Western Railway, and, as it
was the first intimation thieves got of the electric constable
being on duty, it is full of interest. The following extracts are
from the telegraph book kept at the Paddington station : —
"Eaton Montem day, August 28, 1844. — The Commissioners of Police
have issued orders that several officers of the detective force shall be
stationed at Paddington to watch the movements of suspicious persons,
going by the down-train, and give notice by the electric telegraph to the
Slough station of the number of such suspected persons, and dress, their
names if known, also the carriages in which they are."
Now come the messages following one after the other, and
influencing the fate of the marked individuals with all the
celerity, certainty, and calmness of the Nemesis of the Greek
drama : —
"Paddington, 10.20 a.m. — 'Mail train just started. It contains three
thieves, named Sparrow, Burrell, and Spurgeon, in the first compartment
of the fourth first-class carriage.'
"Slough, 10.48a.m. — 'Mail train arrived. Tlie officers have cautioned
the three thieves'
"Paddington, 10.50 a.m. — 'Special train just left. It contained two
thieves : one named Oliver Martin, who is dressed in black, crape on his
hat; the other named Fiddler Dick, in black trowsers and light blouse.
Both in the third compartment of the first second-class carriage.'
" Slough, 11.16 A.M. — ' Special train arrived. Officers have taken the
two thieves into custody, a lady having lost her bag, containing a purse
with two sovereigns and some silver in it ; one of the sovereigns was
sworn to by the lady as having been her property. It was found in Fiddler
Dick's watch-fob.' "
It appears that, on the arrival of the train, a policeman
opened the door of the " third compartment of the first second-
class carriage " and asked the passengers if they had missed
anything ? A search in pockets and bags accordingly ensued,
until one lady called out that her purse was gone. " Fiddler
Dick, you are wanted," was the immediate demand of the police-
officer, beckoning to the culprit, who came out of the carriage
thunderstruck at the discovery, and gave himself up, together
362 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
with the booty, with the air of a completely beaten man. The
effect of the capture so cleverly brought about is thus spoken of
in the telegraph book : — ♦
"Slough, 11.51 am. — 'Several of the suspected persons who came by
the various down-trains are lurking about Slough, littering hitter in-
vectives against the telegraph. Not one of those cautioned has ventured to
proceed to the Montem.' "
Ever after this the lightfingered gentry avoided the railway
and the too intelligent companion that ran beside it, and betook
themselves again to the road — a retrograde step, to which on all
great public occasions they continue to adhere.
The telegraph, even up to this period, was very little known
to the great mass of the public, and might have continued for
some time longer in obscurity but for its remarkable agency in
causing the arrest of the quaker Tawell. This event, which
took place on the afternoon of Friday, January 3rd, 184o,
placed it before the world as a prominent instrument in a
terrible drama, and at once drew universal attention to its
capabilities.
It must not be imagined, however, that Mr. Wheatstone's
was the only patent taken out for a telegraph in the year 1837.
"A number of inquiring minds were simultaneously with the
Professor wandering in the tangled wood of doubt, and when he
burst his way through, others speedily emerged at different
points, one after another. Consequently, the year 1837 was
distinguished by a complete crop of telegraphs, any one of
which would perhaps have held its ground had it stood alone,
but not one of them was practically equal to the first, and they
have all long since departed to the tomb, already stored with
the abortive results of so many merely ingenious minds.
The rapidity with which the needle instrument transmits
messages, the small amount of electricity required to work it,
and the simplicity of its construction, are its chief recom-
mendations, Upwards of 200 letters can be forwarded by it
within the minute. Its great drawback — a drawback that will
appear greater every year — is that it can only be worked by a
system of signs, which requires some practice to understand.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 363
As long as the public is content to send its messages open to
the light of day, this plan will hold its ground, as a practised
manipulator can indicate the letters as fast as it is possible to
read, much less transcribe them, at the other end of the wire ;
but immediately that the public come to demand secrecy — to
put a seal as of old on its letters — this telegraph will, we predict,
fall into public disuse ; and the revolving dial telegraph, invented
by Mr. Wheatstone, in 1840, or the recording telegraph of Bain
or Morse, or, more likely still, the American printing telegraph
of House, will come into play.
This latter instrument appears to contain within itself capa-
bilities of very high excellence ; for instance, it requires no one
to interpret, and then to re-write its messages — this it does
itself. In fact it extends the compositor's fingers as far as the
wire can be stretched. Messages are thus printed at the rate
of fifty letters a minute, say at five hundred miles distance,
in common Eoman characters, on long slips of paper similar to
those used on the recording instrument. Any description of
its complicated mechanism would be utterly unintelligible to
general readers. " While the arrangements of the telegraph of
Morse," said Mr. Justice Woodbury, of America, in giving judg-
ment in a patent case, " can be readily understood by most
mechanics and men of science, it requires days, if not weeks
with some, thoroughly to comprehend all the parts and move-
ments of the telegraph of House." His system is in use for
thousands of miles of the American lines. Bakewell's copying-
telegraph is naturally suggested by the telegraph of House,
from the fact that it reproduces its messages, although in a
different manner. The sender of the message may be said to
write with a pen long enough to stretch to the most distant
correspondent ; that is, he not only forwards instantaneously
the substance of a message, but it is conveyed in his own hand-
writing. The principle is similar to that of Davy's chemical
recording telegraph. The person sending the message writes it
on a piece of tin foil with a pen dipped in varnish or any other
non-conducting substance ; this message is then placed round a
metal cylinder, which is made to revolve at a certain regulated
364 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
pace. In contact with this cylinder is a blunt steel point,
which, by the action of a screw, makes a spiral line from the
top to the bottom of the cylinder, thus touching every. portion
of the written message enveloping it. In connection with the
steel point is the conducting wire, and at the end of the wire is
a similar steel point working spirally upon a like cylinder. It
will be at once seen that the current will always be transmitted",
except at those portions of the tin foil which are covered with
the non-conducting varnish, and which, therefore, cut off the
flow of electricity, and the handwriting will appear at the
other end of the telegraphic wire upon a piece of chemically-
prepared paper rolled upon its cylinder, and moving synchron-
ously with it. The transmitted letter appears to be written in
white upon a dark ground, the white parts, of course, indicating
where the current has been broken, and where, consequently,
no decomposition of the chemical paper has taken place.
To return, however, to our subject after this little digression.
At the same time that the first working telegraph was being
simplified and improved, the system was gradually spreading,
and, by the end of the year 1845, lines exceeding 500 miles in
extent were in operation in England, working Messrs. Wheat-
stone and Cook's patents. In the following year, capital, as
represented by the powerful Electric Telegraph Company,
commenced its operations, and an immediate and rapid de-
velopment of the new method of carrying intelligence was
the result.
" A period of eight years has elapsed," as they say in a cer-
tain class of drama, and let us now look upon the condition of
electro-telegraphy in England. We left it exerting its influ-
ence in a disjointed manner over a few railways, and striking
out its wires here and there at random, without governing
head or organization ; and how do we find it 1
Jammed in between lofty houses, at the bottom of a narrow
court in Lothbury, we see before us a stuccoed wall, ornamented
with an electric illuminated clock. Who would think that
behind this narrow forehead lay the great brain, — if we may
so term it, — of the nervous system of Britain, or that beneath
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 36-5
the narrow pavement of the alley lies its spinal chord, com-
posed of hundreds of fibres, which transmit intelligence as unper-
ceived as does the medulla oblongata beneath the skin % Emerg-
ing from this narrow channel, the " efferent " wires branch off
beneath the different footways, ramify in certain plexuses
within the great centre of intelligence itself, and then shoot
out along the different lines of railway until the shores of the
island would seem to interpose a limit to their further progress.
Not so, however : — beneath the seas, under the heaving waves
covered with stately navies, they take their darksome way,
until, with the burden of their moving fire, they emerge once
more upon the foreign strand, and commence afresh their
career over the wide expanse of the Continent.
And now, like a curious physiologist, let us examine the
various parts of this ingeniously-constructed sensorium, and
endeavour to show our readers how in this high chamber,
fashioned by human hands, thoughts circulate, and ideas come
and go. The door of the " Central Telegraph Station " leads
immediately into the Central Hall, an oblong space, open quite
up to the roof, which presents an appearance something like
the Coal Exchange or the Geological Museum, two tiers of gal-
leries being suspended from the bare walls, and affording
communication to the different parts of the building. If we
ascend the first gallery, and lean over the balustrade, we shall
get a very clear bird's-eye view of the method in which mes-
sages are received and tansmitted. Here, man, like the watch-
ful spider, sits centered within his radiating web, and "lives
along the line." Beneath us runs a sweep of counter forming
three sides of a quadrangle, divided into compartments of about
a square yard by green curtains. A desk and printed forms, to
be filled up, are placed in each of these isolated cells, towards
which we see individuals immediatly make, and then bury
themselves, being for the time profoundly intent upon the
printed form.
We all know the jocose excuse of the correspondent for
having written a long letter — that he had not time to make it
shorter. And truly it requires some art to be laconic enough
3G6 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
to satisfy the pocket in this establisment. Let us watch, for
instance, yonder youth : he seems to have filled his sheet very
close — now he gives it in to the receiving-clerk, and something
evidently is wrong, for he looks perplexed — it is some hitch
about the charge, for his attention is directed to the scale of
prices printed at the head of the paper.
"Messages (not exceeding twenty words) can be sent between all the
principal towns in Great Britain at a charge of Is. within a circuit of 50
miles, of 25. Qd. within a circuit of 100 miles (geographical distance), and
of 5s. beyoud a circuit of 100 miles, with an additional sum of 6d. porterage
within half a mile of the station."
" Economy," says a French writer, M. de Courcy, " teaches
conciseness. The telegraphic style banishes all the forms of
politeness. ' May I ask you to do me the favour,' is 6d. for a
distance of fifty miles." How many of those fond adjectives,
therefore, must our poor fellow relentlessly strike out to bring
his billet down to a reasonable charge ! What food for specula-
tion each person affords, as he writes his hurried epistle, dic-
tated either by fear, or greed, or more powerful love ! — for we
have not yet got into the habit of employing the telegraph,
like the Americans, on the mere every-day business of life.
Every message — and of these there are 350,000 transmitted by
this Company yearly for the public, and upwards of 3,500,000
for the Railways — is faithfully copied, and put by in fire-poof
safes, those sent by the recording telegraph being wound in
tape-like lengths upon a roller, and appearing exactly like discs
of sarcenet ribbon. Fancy some future Macaulay rummaging
among such a store, and painting therefrom the salient features
of the social and commercial life of England in the nineteenth
century. If from the Household Book of the Duke of North-
umberland, or still later, from the Paston Letters, we can catch
such glimpses of the manners of an early age, what might not be
gathered some day in the twenty-first century from a record of
the correspondence of an entire people ?
" Softly, softly," interposes the Secretary of the Company,
" we have no such intention of gratifying posterity ; for, after
a certain brief period, all copies of communications are de-
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 3G7
stroyed. No person unconnected with the office is, under any
consideration, allowed to have access to them, and the servants
of the Company are under a bond not to divulge 'the secrets
of the prison-house.' " Yery good, as far as the present gene-
ration is concerned ; nevertheless, it is devoutly to be wished
that an odd box or two of these sarcenet ribbons, with their
linear language, may escape, for future Rawlinsons to puzzle
over and decipher for the instruction of mankind.
Whilst we have been thus speculating, however, a dozen
messages for all parts of the kingdom have successively ascended,
through the long lift before us, to the instrument-rooms, of
which there are two, situated in the attics of the establish-
ment, on either side of the top gallery of the central hall ;
these, to carry out our anatomical simile, might be called the
two hemispheres of the establishment's cerebrum. The instru-
ments of one of these rooms are worked by youths, while those
of the other are manipulated by young ladies ; and it seems to
us as though the directors were pitting them against each
other — establishing a kind of industrial tournament — to see
which description of labourer is worthiest. As yet, little or no
difference can be detected : this, however, is in itself a triumph
for the fair sex, as it proves their capacity for a species of em-
ployment well calculated for their habits and physical powers,
and opens another door for that superabundance of female
labour of a superior kind which has hitherto sought employ-
ment in vain.
Click, click, go the needles on every hand as we enter. Here
we see the iron tongues of the telegraph wagging, and talking
as fast as a tea-table full of old maids. London is holding com-
munication with Manchester. Plymouth is listening atten-
tively to a long story, and every now and then intimates by a
slight movement that he perfectly comprehends. Bat there is
one speaker whose nimble tongue seems to be saying important
things by the stir around him, — that is the Hague whispering
under the North Sea the news he has heard, an hour or so
ago, from Vienna of a great victory just gained by the Turks.
We are witness to a series of conversations carried on with all
368 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
orld
tely
corners of the island, and between the metropolis of the world
and every capital of northern and central Europe, as intimately
as though the speakers were bending their heads over the
dinner-table, and talking confidentially to the host. And by
what agency is this extraordinary conversation carried on 1
Ail that the visitor sees is a number of little mahogany cases,
very similar to those of American clocks, each having a dial,
with two lozenge-shaped needles working by pivots, which
hang, when at rest, perpendicularly upon it. Two dependant
handles, situated at the base of this instrument, which the
operator grasps and moves from side to side at his will, suffice
to make and break the currents or reverse them, and conse-
quently to deflect the needles either to the right or left. Two
little stops of ivory are placed about half an inch apart, on
either side of the needle, to prevent its deflecting too much,
and to check all vibration. It is the sound of the iron tongue
striking against these stops that makes the clicking, and to
which the telegraphists are sensitively alive. In the early days
of telegraphy, the operator's attention, at all the stations, was
drawn to the instrument by the sudden ringing of an alarum,
which was effected by the agency of an electro-magnet ; but
the horrid din it occasioned became insupportable to persons
in constant attendance, and this part of the instrument was
speedily given up, the clicking of the needle being found quite
sufficient to draw his attention to the arrival or passing of a
message. We say or passing of a message, because, when a
communication is made, as for instance, between London and
Edinburgh, the needles of all the telegraph-stations on the line
are simultaneously deflected, but the attendant has only to take
notice of what is going on when a special signal is made to his
particular locality, informing him that he is spoken with. A
story is told of a certain somnolent station clerk, who, in order
to enjoy his nap, trained his terrier to scratch and awaken
him at the first sound of the clicking needles.
There are but two kinds of telegraph used by the company,
the needle telegraph and a few of the chemical recording tele-
graph of Pain. The latter instrument strikes the spectator
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 369
more, perhaps, than the nimble-working needle apparatus, but
its action is equally simple. Slits of variable length represent-
ing letters, according to the alphabet in the note,* are punched
out from a long strip of paper called the message- strip, which
is placed between a revolving cylinder and a toothed spring-
The battery is connected with the cylinder ; the wire, which
goes from station to station, is joined to the spring. As dry
paper is a non-conductor, no electricity passes while the un-
pierced portion of the message-slip interposes between the
cylinder and the tooth ; but when the tooth drops into a space,
and comes in contact with the cylinder, the current flows. If
we now transfer our attention to the station at which the mes-
sage is received, we find a similar cylinder revolving at a regular
rate, and a metal pin, depending from the end of the telegraph
wire, pressing upon it ; but in this case the paper between the
cylinder and the pin has been washed with a solution of prussiate
of potash, which electricity has the effect of changing to Prussian
blue at the point where the pin touches it. Therefore, as the
chemically prepared paper moves under the pin, a blue line is
formed of the same length as the slits at the other end, which
regulate the duration of the electric current ; and thus every
letter punched upon the message-strip is faithfully transferred
to its distant fellow. Such is the celerity with which the nota-
tion is transmitted by this method, that " in an experiment
performed by M. Le Yerrier and Dr. Lardner, before committees
of the Institute and the Legislative Assembly at Paris, despatches
were sent 1,000 miles at the rate of nearly 20,000 words an hour."
In ordinary practice, however, the speed is limited to the rate
at which an expert clerk can punch out the holes, which is not
much above a hundred per minute. Where the object was to
forward long documents, such as a speech, a number of persons
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Oii) THE ELECTRIC TELEGEAPH.
could be employed simultaneously in punching out different
portions of the message, and the message-strips would then be
supplied as fast as the machine could work.
This system is used extensively in America. A weaker
current of electricity than what is required for deflecting
needles or magnetising iron, suffices to effect the requisite
chemical decomposition. The conducting power of vapour
or rain carries much of the electricity from the wires in
certain states of the atmosphere ; " and in such cases, where
both Morse's and Bain's telegraphs are used by an amalgamated
company in the same office, it is found convenient to remove
the wires from Morse's instruments, and connect them with
Bain's, on which it is practicable to operate when communication
by Morse's system is interrupted. — (Whitivortli s Eeport, p. 51.)
This chemical telegraph has also the advantage, in common
with all recording instruments, that it leaves an indelible record
of every message transmitted, and therefore is very useful when
the mistake of a single figure or letter might be of cousequence,
which we will illustrate by a case which happened very lately.
A stockbroker in the City received, during a very agitated state
of the funds, an order to buy for a client in a distant part of
the country, by a certain time of the day, 80.000£. of consols.
This order being unusually large for the individual, the broker
doubted its accuracy, and immediately made inquiries at the
office. The message had luckily been sent by the recording
instrument, and upon looking at the record it was immediately
seen that the order was for 8,000?., the transcriber having put
in an too much, for which, according to the rules of the com-
pany, he was incontinently fined. Now, here the error was
immediately traced to the person who made it, and there was
no need of telegraphing back to inquire if all were right, two
matters of vital importance in such a transaction as this,
involving so much personal responsibility ; for if the purchase
had been made and turned out unfortunate, the loss would
indubitably have fallen upon the unhappy sharebroker.*
* In justice to the Company, which is very properly jealous of the parti-
culars of its messages transpiring, we beg to state that we acquired the above
fact from a person totally disconnected with the Electric Telegraph Office.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 371
In all ordinary transactions, however, the needle instrument
is preferable, because it transmits its messages much more
quickly. The speed with which the attendants upon these
instruments read off the signals made by the needles is really
marvellous : they do not in some cases even wait to spell the
words letter by letter, but jump at the sentence before it is
concluded ; and they have learned by practice, as Sir Francis
Head says in " Stokers and Pokers," to recognize immediately
who is telegraphing to them, say at York, by the peculiar
expression of the needles, the long drawn wires thus forming
a kind of human antennae by which individual peculiarities of
touch are projected to an infinite distance. To catalogue the
kind of messages which pass through the room, either on their
way from London or in course of distribution to it, would be to
give a history of human affairs. Here, from the shores of this
tight island, comes the morning news gathered by watchers,
telescopes in hand, on remote headlands, of what ships have
just hove in sight, or what craft have foundered or come ashore
— to this room, swifter beyond comparison than the carrier-dove
of old, the wire speeds the name of the winner of the Derby or
the Oaks. How the four winds are blowing throughout the
island ; how stocks rise or fall every hour of the day in all the
great towns and in the continental capitals ; what corn is at
Mark Lane, and what farmer Giles got a quarter of an hour
since in a country town in Yorkshire, are equally known in the
telegraph room. Intermixed with quotations of tallow and the
price of Wall's End coals, now and then comes a love-billet,
which excites no more sympathy in the clerk than in the iron
that conveys it ; or a notice that the sudden dart of death has
struck some distant friend, is transmitted and received as un-
concernedly as an account of the fall in Russian stock. When
business is slack the telegraphists sometimes amuse them-
selves by an interchange of badinage with their distant
friends. Sir Francis Head informs us that an absolute
quarrel once took place by telegraph, and the two irri-
tated manipulators were obliged to be separated in conse-
quence.
2 b 2
372 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
In addition to this private message department there is,
below stairs, an intelligence office, in which news published in
the London morning papers is condensed and forwarded to the
Exchanges of Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow, &c* A
few years since the company opened subscription rooms in all
the large towns of the north, in which intelligence of every
kind was posted immediately after its arrival in London ; but
the craving for early intelligence was not sufficient to induce
the people to incur the expense, and, with the exception of the
room at Hull, the establishments have all been shut up.
On Friday evening especially this department is very busy
condensing for the country papers the news which appears in
that exciting column headed " By Electric Telegraph, London,
2 a.m." Thus the telegraph rides express through the night
for the broadsheets of the entire kingdom, and even steps across
from Portpatrick to Donaghadee into the sister country, with
its budget of latest intelligence, by which means the extremities
of the two islands are kept as well up in the progress of im-
portant events as London itself. Upwards of 120 provincial
papers each receive in this manner their column of parliamentary
news of the night ; and the Daily If ail, published in Glasgow,
gets sometimes as much as thiee columns of the debates for-
warded whilst the House is sitting. A superintendent and four
clerks are expressly employed in this department ; and early in
the day, towards the end of the week, the office presents all the
appearance of an editor's room. At seven in the morning the
clerks are to be seen deep in the Times and other daily papers,
just hot from the press, making extracts, and condensing into
short paragraphs all the most important events, which are
immediately sent off to the country papers to form " second
editions." Neither does the work cease here; for no sooner
is a second edition published in town, than its news, if of more
than ordinary interest, is transmitted to the provinces. For
instance : whilst we were in the company's telegraph room a
short time since, the following intelligence was being served out
* Mr. Reuter now performs this duty both for home and foreign news.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 373
to Liverpool, York, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Birmingham, and
Hull :—
" Eastern War — Battle on the Danube — From Evening Edition
of the 'Morning Chronicle.'
Saturday, April 8th.
" The journal Fremden Blatt announces, under date of Bucharest, 4th
April, that a great battle was being fought at Rassova, about midway
between Hirsova and Silistria, in the Dobrudscha. The result was not
known. Mustapha Pasha is at the head of 50,000 men."
Arrived at the above-mentioned places, swifter than a rocket
could fly the distance, like a rocket it bursts, and is again carried
by the diverging wires into a dozen neighbouring towns. The
announcement we have quoted comes opportunely to remind us
that intelligence thus hastily gathered and transmitted has also
its drawbacks, and is not so trustworthy as the news which
starts later and travels slower. The "great battle of Rassova"
has not yet been fought, and the general action announced
through the telegraph was only a sanguinary skirmish.
The telegraphic organization of London, meagre as it is at
present, would form alone a curious paper : " a province
covered with houses," it demands a special arrangement, and
accordingly we see day by day new branches opened within its
precincts, by which means every part of the metropolis is being
put in communication with the country and Europe.
The branch stations are, London Docks (main entrance) ;
No. 43, Mincing Lane ; General Post Office, St. Martin's -lc-
Grand ; No. 30, Fleet Street ; No. 448, West Strand ; No. 17a,
Great George Street, Westminster ; No. 89, St. James's Street ;
No. 1, Park Side, Knightsbridge ; No. 6, Edge ware Road ; Great
Western Railway Station ; London and North- Western Railway
Station ; Great Northern Railway Station ; Highbury Railway
Station ; Eastern Counties' Railway Station ; Blackwall Railway
Station ; London and Brighton and South Coast Railway Sta-
tion ; and the London and South- Western Railway Station ; of
these only two are open night and day. The central office,
strange as it might appear, is closed at half-past 8 o'clock p.m.,
and its wires are put in connection with those at the Charing
Cross Station, which takes upon itself the night work — a sin-
374 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
gular proof, by the way, that London proper is deserted shortly
after the hours of business are over. The Eastern Counties'
office is also open at eight, and forms the East End office of the
company. These stations communicate with the central office
in Lothbury, and form, in fact, direct feeders to it, just as the
hundred suckers do to the zoophyte.
We have yet, however, to notice the special telegraphic com-
munication which exists in the metropolis between place and
place, either for governmental purposes or for social convenience.
The most curious of these lines is the wire between the Octagon
Hall in the new Houses of Parliament and the St. James's Street
Commercial station. They should name this line from the
" whipper-in" of the House, for it is nothing more than a call-
wire for members. The company employ reporters during the
sitting of Parliament, to make an abstract from the gallery of
the business of the two Houses as it proceeds ; and this abstract
is forwarded, at very short intervals, to the office in St. James's
Street, where it is set up and printed, additions being made to
the sheet issued as the MS. comes in. This flying sheet is
posted half-hourly to the following clubs and establishments : —
Arthur's ; Carlton ; Oxford and Cambridge ; Brook's ; Con-
servative ; United Service ; Athenaeum ; Reform ; Traveller's ;
United University ; Union ; and White's • hourly to Boodle's
Club and Prince's Club ; and half-hourly to the Royal Italian
Opera. The shortest possible abstract is of course supplied —
just sufficient, in fact, to enable the after-dinner M.P. so to
economize his proceedings as to be able to finish his claret, and
yet be in time for the ministerial statement, or to count in the
division.
The wire to the Opera is a still more curious example of the
social services the new power is destined to perform. An abstract
of the proceedings of Parliament, similar to the above, but in
writing, is posted, during the performance, in the lobby ; and
Young England has only to lounge out between the acts to
know if Disraeli or Lord John Russell is up, and whether he
may sit out the piece, or must hasten down to Westminster.
The Opera House even communicates with the Strand Office, so
THE ELECTRO TELEGRAPH. 375
that messages may be sent from thence to all parts of the king-
dom. The Government wires go from Somerset House to the
Admiralty, and thence to Portsmouth and Plymouth by the
South- Western and Great Western Railways ; and these two
establishments are put in communication, by means of
subterranean lines, with the naval establishments at Dept-
ford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, and with the Cinque
Ports of Deal and Dover. They are worked quite indepen-
dently of the Company, and the messages are sent in cipher,
the meaning of which is unknown, even to the telegraphic
clerks employed in transmitting it. In addition to the wires
already spoken of, street branches run from Buckingham Palace
and Scotland Yard (the head police-office) to the station at
Charing Cross, and thence on to Founder's Court ; whilst the
Post-office, Lloyd's, Capel Court, and the Corn Exchange
communicate directly with the Central Office.
The function, then, of the Central Office is to receive and
redistribute communications. Of the manner in which these
ends are accomplished nothing can be gained from a glance
round the instrument-rooms. You see no wires coming into or
emerging from them ; you ask for a solution of the mystery,
and one of the clerks leads you to the staircase and opens the
door of what looks like a long wooden shoot placed perpendicu-
larly against the wall. This is the great spinal cord of the
establishment, consisting of a vast bundle of wires, insulated
from each other by gutta percha. One set of these conveys the
gathered-up streams of intelligence from the remote ends of the
continent and the farthest shores of Britain, conducts them
through London by the street lines underneath the thronging
footsteps of the multitude, and ascends with its invisible des-
patches directly to the different instruments. Another set is
composed of the wires that descend into the battery-chamber.
It is impossible to realize the fact by merely gazing upon this
brown and dusty-looking bundle of threads ; nevertheless so it
is, that they put us in communication with no less than 4,409
miles of telegraph, which is coterminous with the railway
system of the island, and forms a complete network over its
376 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
entire surface, with the exception of the highlands of North
Wales. It penetrates already into the wilds of Scotland,
as we see the wire is carried on from Aberdeen to Bal-
moral.
The physiologist, minutely dissecting the star-fish, shows us
its nervous system extending to the tip of each limb, and descants
upon the beauty of this arrangement, by which the central mouth
is informed of the nutriment within its reach. The telegraphic
system, already developed in England, has rendered her as
sensitive, to the utmost extremities, as the star-fish. Day by
day and hour by hour everything that happens of importance
is immediately referred to its centre at Lothbury, and this centre
returns the service by spreading the information afresh in every
direction. Thus, should an enemy appear off our coast, his
presence, by the aid of the fibre, is immediately felt at the
Admiralty, and an immediate reply sends out the fleet in chase.
Should a riot occur in the manufacturing districts, the local
authorities communicate with the Home Office, and orders are
sent down to put the distant troops in motion. Does a murderer
escape, the same wire makes the fact known to Scotland Yard,
and from thence word is sent to the distant policemen to inter-
cept him in his flight. The arm is scarcely uplifted quicker to
ward off a sudden blow — the eye does not close with more
rapidity upon an unexpected flood of light, than, by the aid
of the telegraph, actions follow upon impressions conveyed along
the length and breadth of the land. But, says our reader,
suppose these wires should be severed or damaged, your whole
line is paralyzed ; and how are you to find out where the fault
may be ? Against these eventualities human foresight has pro-
vided : by testing from station to station along the line, the office
soon knows how far the wires are perfect ; and if the breach of
continuity should be in the subterranean street wires, there are
iron testing-posts at every 500 yards distance, by the aid of
which the workman knows where to make his repairs. Whilst
all is being made right again, however, a curious contrivance
is brought into play, in order to keep the communication open.
Every one is acquainted with the action of the railway " switch,"
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 377
by which a train is enabled to leave one line of rails and run on
to another. The telegraph has its switch also, and thus a
message can be transferred from one line to another, or can be
sent right throuyh to any locality, without making a stoppage at
the usual resting-place on its way. By this device, then, the
"sick wires" can be altogether avoided. Suppose, for instance,
that some accident had happened to the direct Bristol line, and
it would not work in consequence, then the clerk at the Lothbury
station would signal to Birmingham to switch the wire through
to Bristol, or, in other words, to put him in communication with
that place ; this done, the message would fly along the North-
Western line, look in at the Birmingham station, and imme-
diately be off down the Midland wire to Bristol, arriving, to all
perception, in the same latitude as quickly as though it had
gone direct by the Great Western wire. Every large station is
provided with a switching apparatus, and the Lothbury office
has several. Here also there is a very curious contrivance
called the " testing-box," which enables the manipulator to
connect any number of batteries to a wire, in order to give
extra power, without going into the battery vault.
These switches, testing, and battery boxes are of great
service in certain conditions of the atmosphere. For instance, a
thunderstorm, or more often a fog, will now and then so affect
the conducting power of a wire, working through a long distance,
that it is found impossible to send a message along it, in which
case the clerk " dodges" the passing storm or fog by switching
the dispatch round the country through a fine-weather wire.
If however the foggy weather should continue, the manipulator
has only to go to the battery box and couple on one or more
batteries, just as fresh engines are put on a train going up an
incline when the rails are "greasy." By thus increasing the
power of the electric current the message is driven through the
worst weather. Sometimes as many as six or eight 24-plate
batteries are necessary to speed a signal to Glasgow. The more
general way in such cases, however, is to transmit the dispatch
to some intermediate station, where the message is repeated.
Let us now descend into the battery vaults — two long narrow
378 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
chambers, situated in the basement of the building. Who
would think that in this quiet place, night and day, a power was
being generated that exerted its influence to the very margin of
this seagirt isle, nay, invaded the territories of Holland, Belgium,
and France ? Who would think that those long dusty
boxes on the shelves were making scores of iron tongues wag
hundreds of miles off? There are upwards of sixty Daniel's
batteries in full employment in these vaults.. They are ranked
as sixes, twelves, and twenty-fours, according to the number of
their elements or plates; and just like guns, the higher they
rank the further they carry. The powerful twenty-fours work
the long ranges of wire, and the smaller batteries the shorter
circuits. Of course some of these batteries have harder work to
do than others, and the " twenty-fours " working the North-
Western line have much the busiest time of it. Considering
the work done by them, their maintenance is not very costly.
A twenty -four, when in full work, does not consume its zinc
plates under three months, and a gill of sulphuric acid, diluted,
is its strong but rather moderate allowance of liquid per month.
Other batteries of the same force are satisfied with 1 lb. of
sulphate of copper per month, with a little sulphate of zinc, and
salt and water. The entire amount of electric power employed
by the Company throughout the country is produced by 8000
12-plate batteries, or 96,000 cells, which are lined with 1,500,000
square inches of copper, and about the same of zinc. To work
these batteries six tons of acid is yearly consumed, and fifty -five
tons of sand ; the principal use of the latter is to prevent the
chemicals from slopping about, and the metal plates from getting
oxidised too rapidly. The language of the " wire," with respect
to the working of the telegraph, is very curious. For instance,
when a distant station-clerk finds that a battery is not up to
its work, by the weak action of the needles, he sends word that
it requires " refreshment," and it is accordingly served with its
gill of aquafortis, and, totally opposed to the doctrines of
temperance, a "long-lived battery" owes its vitality to the
strongest drink.
We have followed the wires down to one pole of their
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. o,9
respective batteries, and now we have to pursue them out
of the opposite pole until they take to " earth." No elec-
tricity will flow from the positive pole Z of the battery (Fig. 2)
unless the wire DKAB is connected, either by being itself
unbroken, or by the interposition of some other conductor
where a gap occurs, to the negative pole C. In the earlier
telegraphs it was usual to have a return- wire to effect this
purpose. But, strange as it may sound, it was discovered that
the earth itself would convey the current back to the negative
pole, and thus an entire length of wire was saved. Accordingly
the earth completes the two hundred and odd different circuits,
which pass their loops, as it were, through the central office.
In order to get a "good earth" a hole was dug deep in the
foundations, until some moist ground was found, dry soil being
a very bad conductor, and into this a cylinder of copper, four
inches in diameter and 40 lbs. in weight, was sunken, surrounded
by a mass of sulphate of copper in crystals. All the earth wires
of the establishment were then put in connection with this mass
of metal, or earth plate.
The non-scientific reader will perhaps require a figure to
explain to him our meaning, when we say that the earth is
capable of completing the " circuit." In the accompanying
diagram (No. 6) we have a battery, U Y, in the central office in
London, deflecting a needle N, say in Liverpool. The fluid
Fig. 6.
passes from the positive pole of the battery IT, traverses the
wire of the North- Western Railway, and after working the
telegraph in Liverpool, descends into the earth by the wire B,
which has a metal or earth-plate attached to it. From this
point the electric fluid starts homewards, through the solid
ground, and finding out the earth-plate* under the foundations
* The use of the metal or earth-plate will be understood from the fol-
380 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
at Lothbury, ascends along the wire A, into the negative pole of
the battery V. By reversing the current, it flows first through
the earth from VA to B, and returns by the wire to the
opposite pole U.
Nothing in telegraphy impresses the thoughtful mind more
than the fact that the electric fluid, after spanning, maybe,
half the globe, should come back to its battery, through
adamantine rocks, through seas and all the diverse elements
which make up the anatomy of the globe. The explanation of
the phenomenon is still a matter of pure speculation. Indeed,
it may be objected that our flight of the electric principle is
altogether a flight of fancy — that there is in fact no flow of
electricity at all, but that its progress through bodies, according
to the generally received theory, is owing to opposite poles of
contiguous particles acting upon each other. The hypothesis,
however, first received in science gives birth to its language,
which usually continues the same, although it may have ceased
to be an adequate expression of the current doctrine of
philosophers.
The traveller, as he flies along in the train, and looks out
upon the wires which seem stretched against the sky like the
ledger lines of music, little dreams of these invisible conductors
that are returning the current through the ground. In ninety-
nine cases out of a hundred, indeed, the wires and their sus-
taining posts represent to the spectator the entire telegraph.
The following conversation between two navigators, overheard
the other day by a friend, gives the most popular view of the
way the telegraph works. " I say, Jem, how do 'em jaw along
them wires ?" " Why, Bill, they pulls at one end, and rings a
bell at t'other." Others again fancy that messages are conveyed
lowing statement of Steinheil : — "Owing to the low conducting power of
water or the ground, compared with metals, it is necessary that at the two
places where the metal conductor is in connection with the soil, the former
should present very large surfaces of contact. Assuming that water con-
ducts two million times worse than copper, a surface of water proportional
to this must be brought into contact with the water. If the section of a
copper wire is 05 of a square line, it will require a copper plate of 61
square feet surface in order to conduct the galvanic current through the
ground, as the wire in question would conduct it."
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 381
by means of the vibrations of the metal, for on windy days they
sometimes give out sounds like an iEolian harp : a fact which,
according to Sir Francis Head, called forth the remark from a
North- Western driver to his stoker, " I say, Bill, aint they a
giving it to 'em at Thrapstone V The more ignorant class of
people actually believe that it conveys parcels and letters, and
they sometimes carry them for transmission to the office.
Iron wire, coated with zinc, or "galvanised," as it is termed,
to prevent its rusting, is now universally used as the conductor
of the electric fluid when the lines are suspended in the air.
The first rain falling upon the zinc converts it into an oxide of
that metal, which is insoluble in water, so that henceforth in
pure air it cannot be acted upon by that element, and all further
oxidation ceases. Mr. Highton says, however, that in the
neighbourhood of large manufacturing towns the sulphur from
the smoky atmosphere converts the oxide into a sulphate of
zinc, which is soluble, and consequently the rain continually
washes it off the wire. He asserts that he has had wires in
this manner reduced from the eighth of an inch to the diameter
of a common sewing-needle. There has been a great contro-
versy as to the best means of insulating the wires from their
supporting-poles, which would otherwise convey the electricity
from the wires to the earth. There is no method known of
effecting this completely, but we believe it is now decided that
stoneware is the best material for the purpose, both on account
of its non-conducting qualities, and the readiness with which it
throws off from its surface particles of water. The latter quality
is extremely important, for, in very rainy weather, if the insu-
lator should happen to get wet, the electric fluid will sometimes
make a bridge of the moisture to quit the wire, run down the
post to the earth, and make a short circuit home again to its
battery. Indeed, when there are many wires suspended to the
same pole on the same plane, a dripping stream of water falling
from an upper to a lower one will often suffice to return the
current before it has done its work, much to the telegraphist's
annoyance. Not long ago, a mishap, having similar conse-
quences, occurred on the line between Lewes and New^v-™
382 THE ELECTKIC TELEGHAPH.
owing to the following very singular circumstance : a crane, in
its flight through the rain, came in contact with the wires, and
having threaded his long neck completely through them, the
current made a short cut along his damp feathers to the wire
below, and by this channel home. Moisture, however, much as
it may interfere for a time with the working of a line, rarely
does any permanent injury. Lightning, on the contrary if not
guarded against, is capable of producing great mischief. It has
been known to strike and run for miles along a wire, and, in its
course, to enter station after station, and melt the delicate coils
and the finer portions of the instruments into solid masses. In
most cases it reverses the polarity of the needles, or renders
permanent the magnetism of the electro-magnets. All these
dangerous and annoying contingencies are easily avoided by the
application of a simple conducting-apparatus to lead away the
unwelcome visitor. The method adopted by Mr. Highton is to
line a small deal box, say ten or twelve inches long, with a tin
plate, and to put this plate in connection with the earth. The
wire bound up in bibulous paper — which is a sufficient insulator
for the low-tensioned fluid of the battery — is carried, before it
enters the instrument, through the centre of the box, and is
surrounded with iron fillings. The high-tensioned electricity
of the lightning instantly darts from the wire, through the pores
of the paper, to the million points of the finely-divided iron, and
so escapes to the earth. There are, of course, many kinds of
lightning conductors used on different lines, but this one is
simple in its construction, and, we are given to understand,
answers its purpose exceedingly well.
Notwithstanding that the Electric Telegraph Company has
been established so many years, it is only just now that the
public have begun to understand the use of the " wire." The
very high charges at first demanded for the transmission of a
message, doubtless, made it a luxury rather than a necessary of
life ; and every reduction of the tariff clearly brought it within
the range of a very much larger class of the community, as will
be seen by the following table issued by the Company, which
shows the advance of the system under its management.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
383
In the half-years ending
Miles of
Telegraph
Miles
of
Number
of
Receipts.
Dividends paid.
operation.
Wires.
Messages
£. s. d.
June, 1850 . .
I,fi84
6.730
29,245
20,436 10
4 per Cent, per Ann.
December, 1850 «
1,786
7,200
37,389
23,087 13 9
4 per Cent per Ann.
June, 1851 . •
1,965
7,900
47,259
25,529 12 4
f 6 per Ct.per Ann.
l&2perCt.Bonus.
December, 1851
2,122
10,650
53,957
24,336 8 10
6 per Cent, per Ann.
JS'ote. — In thisbalf-year
the pairl-up Capital of
the Company was in-
creased, and the tariff
diminished about 50
per Cent, from the ori-
ginal rate of charge.
June, 1852
2,502
12,500
87,150
27,437 4 8
6 perCent.per Ann.
December, 1852 .
3. 709
19,560
127.987
40,087 18 2
d^perCent.perAnn.
June, 1853 . .
4,008
20,800
138,060
4/.265 16 3
iiiperCent.perAnn.
December, 1853 .
4,409
24,340
212,440
56,919 1
7 per Cent, per Ann.
It will be seen from the above what an impulse was given to
the business by the reduction in the tariff which took place in
December, 1851 ; for if we compare the messages of the half-
year ending June, 1850, with those of the half-year of June,
1852, we shall find that whilst the miles of telegraph in work
had not increased one-half, the messages transmitted had nearly
trebled. It is only within this last year or two, however — as
will be seen by the table — that a very large augmentation of
business has taken place, which is doubtless owing to the public
being better acquainted with its capabilities. The tariff has
since been further reduced, with the result of a still further
increase of the messages sent and of the money received — the
profits allowing, at the present moment, of a seven per cent,
dividend ! The lowest point of cheapness, in our opinion, is
yet very far from being reached ; and it would only be a wise
act on the part of the Company to at once adopt an uniform
charge for messages, say of fifty words, for one shilling. If
this were done, the only limit to its business would be the
number of wires they could conveniently hang, for the present
set would clearly be insufficient. Means should also be taken
to obviate one great objection, at present felt, with respect to
sending private communications by telegraph — the violation of
all secrecy, — for in any case half a dozen people must be cog-
384: THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
nizant of every word addressed by one person to another, iiie
elerks of the English Electric Telegraph Company are sworn to
secrecy, but we often write things that it would be intolerable
to see strangers read before our eyes. This is a grievous fault
in the telegraph, and it must be remedied by some means or
other. Our own opinion is that the public would much prefer
the dial telegraph, by the use of which two persons could con-
verse with each other, without the intervention of a third party
at all — or the printing step by step instrument would be
equally good. At all events, some simple yet secure cipher,
easily acquired and easily read, should be introduced, by which
means messages might to all intents and purposes be " sealed "
to any person except the recipient. We have reason to believe
that Professor Wheatstone has invented a cipher of this descrip-
tion, which will speedily be made public. " One-eighth of
the despatches between New Orleans and New York/' says
Mr. Jones in his "Historical Sketch of the Electric Telegraph,"
" are in cipher. For instance, merchants in either city agree
upon a cipher, and if the New Orleans correspondent wishes to
inform his New York friend of the prices and prospects of the
cotton market, instead of saying * Cotton eight quarter — don't
sell,' he may use the following : — ' Shepherd — rum — kiss — flash
-dog.' "
The Company has lately made an arrangement, by which the
very absurd and inconvenient necessity of being obliged to
attend personally at the telegraph station with a message has
been obviated. " Franked message papers," pre-paid, are now
issued, procurable at any stationers'. These, with the message
filled in, can be dispatched to the office when and how the
sender likes, and the Company intend very quickly to sell
electric stamps, like Queen's heads, which may be stuck on to
any piece of paper, and frank its contents without further
trouble. Another very important arrangement for mercantile
men is the sending of "remittance messages," by means of which
money can be paid in at the central office in London, and,
within a few minutes, paid out at Liverpool or Manchester, or
by the same means sent up to town with the like dispatch from
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 385
Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow,
Edinburgh, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Hull, York, Plymouth, and
Exeter. There is a money -order office in the Lothbury
establishment to manage this department, which will, no doubt,
in all emergencies speedily supersede the Government money-
order office, which works through the slower medium of the
Post Office.
We have spoken hitherto only of the Old Electric Telegraph
Company. There are several other companies in the United
Kingdom, working different patents. We have chosen, how-
ever, to describe the proceedings of the original Company,
because it is the only one that has an amount of business suffi-
cient to give it universal interest ; it is the only company, in
fact, that has seized the map of England in its nervous grasp,
and shot its wires through every broad English shire. The
European and the British Telegraph Companies have laid their
lines, insulated with gutta percha and protected by iron tubes,
beneath the public roads. The European Company works be-
tween Manchester, Birmingham, London, and Dover, and, by
means of the two submarine cables of Dover and Calais and
Dover and Ostend, puts the great manufacturing and commer-
cial emporiums in connection with France, Belgium, and the
rest of Europe by a double route. The British Telegraph 1
Company works principally in the northern counties. Of the
other lines, we need only mention at present the United
Kingdom, and the English and Irish Magnetic Company,
which works wires between London, Belfast, and Galway, by
means of a subterranean line as far as the west coast of Scot-
land, and of a submarine cable stretched between Portpatrick
and Donaghadee. ,
It will, perhaps, be a source of wonder to our readers that
one company should virtually possess the monopoly of telegra-
phic communication in this country, but this will cease when
they consider that this Company was the first to enter the
field, that it came forward with a large capital, speedily se-
cured to themselves the different lines of railway — the only
paths it was then considered that telegraphs could traverse
2 c
386 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
with security, — and that it bought up, one after another, most
of the patents that stood any chance of competing with its
own. The time is fast approaching, however, when most of
these advantages will fail them, and when the Company,
powerful as it is, must be prepared to encounter a severe and
active competition, and that for the following reasons : —
1. The plan of bringing the wires under the public roads
turns, as it were, the flank of the railroad lines.
2. The patents of the old company are year by year
expiring.
3. The very large capital expended by it — upwards of
170,000£ being sunk in patent rights alone, — independently
of the vast expense attaching to the first introduction of the
invention, forms a dead-weight which no new company would
have to bear.
In the ordinary course of events, then, the other lines at
present in existence will gain strength ; new companies will
spring up, and the supply of a great public want will be thrown
into the arena of competition. Would it not be wise for the
legislature to consider the question of telegraphy in England
before it is too late ? We all know what the principle of reck-
less competition led us into in our railway system. For years
opposing companies scrambled for the monopoly of certain
districts, and the result was the intersection of the country
with bad lines, and, in many cases, with useless double routes.
Millions were spent in litigation ; railway travelling became,
as a natural consequence, dear ; the property of the original
shareholders rapidly deteriorated ; and it has all ended in half
a dozen powerful companies swallowing up the smaller ones ;
and that competition, in whose name so much was demanded,
has turned out to be only " a delusion and a snare." The con-
veyance of intelligence cannot safely and conveniently be left
in the hands ot even one company without a strict Government
supervision ; much less can half a dozen systems be allowed to.
distract the land at their own will. Indeed, the question
might with propriety be asked, Is not telegraphic communica-
tion as much a function of Government as the conveyance of
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 387
letters ? If the do-nothing principle is to he allowed to take
its course, we shall have to go through a similar state of things to
that which occurred only a few years since in the United States,
when different competing lines refused to forward each other's
messages, and the whole system of telegraphic communication
was accordingly dislocated. Indeed, even with the most perfect
accord between different companies, the dissimilarity of instru-
ments used by them would prove a great practical evil — as
great a one, if not greater, than the break of gauge in the
railway system. Messages could not be passed from one line to
another, and delays as vexatious as those which occur on the
continental lines would take away much of the value of the
invention. It seems to us, then, that even if Parliament should
refuse to interfere with the principle of competition in the case
of the telegraphic communication, it should, at least,, provide for
the use of the same kind of instruments, and make it a fineable
offence for one line to refuse to forward the messages of
another.
Having done so much towards completing our telegraphic
organization at home, our engineers adventurously determined to
carry the wires across to the continent, and thus destroy the last
remnant of that isolation to which we were forced to submit on
account of our insular position. As long back as the year 1840
we find, by the Minutes of Evidence in the Fifth Report upon
Railways, wherein the subject of electric telegraphy was partially
examined, that, whilst Mr. Wheatstone was under examination
Sir John Guest asked, " Have you tried to pass the line through
water ? " to which he replied, " There would be no difficulty in
doing so ; but the experiment has not yet been tried." Again,
on the chairman, Lord Seymour, asking, " Could you communi-
cate from Dover to Calais in that way 1 " he replied, " I think
it perfectly practicable." A couple of years later the professor,
indeed, engaged, and had everything in readiness, to lay a line
for the Government across Portsmouth Harbour ; it was not
executed, however, through circumstances over which he had
no control, but which were quite irrespective ot the perfect
feasibility of the undertaking.
2 c 2
38S THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
We question, however, whether it would have been possible
to have accomplished the feat of crossing the Channel with the
electric fire before this date, as the difficulty of insulating the
wires, so as to prevent the water from carrying off the electricity,
would, we imagine, have been insuperable, but for the happy
discovery of gutta percha, which supplied the very tough, flexible,
non-conducting material the electrician sought for. Thus it
might be said that the instantaneous interchange of thought
between distant nations awaited the discovery of a vegetable
production in the dense forests of the Eastern Archipelago. The
first application of this singular substance to the insulation of
electric conducting wires was made in 1847, by Lieutenant
Siemens, of the Prussian artillery, for a line to cross the Rhine
at Cologne.
The first submarine wire laid down was that between Dover
and Cape Gris-nez, in the vicinity of Calais, belonging to the
Submarine Telegraph Company. This wire, thirty miles in
length, was covered with gutta percha to the diameter of half
an inch, and sunk (August, 1850), as it was paid out, by the
addition of clumps of lead at every sixteenth of a mile. The
whole was completed and a message sent between the two
countries on the same day. In the course of a month, however,
the cable broke, owing to its having fretted upon a sharp ridge
of rocks about a mile from Cape Gris-nez. It was now deter-
termined to make a stronger and better-constructed cable,
capable of resisting all friction in this part of the Channel. The
form of cable adopted for this and all other submarine tele-
graphs now in existence seems to have been originally suggested
by Messrs. IsTewall and Co., of Gateshead, the wellknown wire-
rope manufacturers. Instead of one, four wires, insulated by
the Gutta Percha Company, were twisted together into a strand,
and next "served" or enveloped in spun-yarn. This core was
then covered with ten iron galvanized wires five-sixteenths of an
inch in diameter, welded into lengths of twenty-four miles, and
forming a flexible kind of mail. The cable was manufactured
in the short space of twenty-one days. It weighed 180 tons,
and formed a coil in the hold of the old hulk that carried it of
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
3S9
thirty feet in diameter outside, and fifteen feet inside, standing
five feet high. All went well with the undertaking until about
one-half had been " paid out," when, a gale arising, unfortunately
the tug-boat that towed the hulk containing the rope broke
away, and vessel, wire, and all, drifted, with a racing tide, full
a mile up the Channel before it could be overtaken. The con-
sequence was, that the cable was violently dragged out of its
course in the middle of the straits. "What was worse, a sharp
" kink," or bend, also occurred near the Dover shore, which
doubled the cable on itself, but luckily produced no serious
damage. The " lie " of the submarine cable between Dover and
the vicinity of Calais, at this present moment, is expressed in
the following diagram : —
** ""%«*
H ^iCfc
"When the cable at length came near the French coast, it was
found to. be, in consequence of this unintentional detour, at least
half a mile too short. This was remedied, however, by splicing
on a fresh piece ; and,, on securing it at Saugat, the new place
of landing, fixed upon on account of its sandy shore, it was found
that the communication was good, and good it has remained ever
since — a proof of the admirable manner in which the wires were
insulated and the cable constructed. The placing of this suc-
cessful cable was superintended by Mr.Wollaston, the Company's
engineer, and by Mr. Crampton, the contractor. Mr. Wollaston,
who is a nephew of the illustrious philosopher of the same name,
and who also presided over the earlier attempt, will accordingly,
in the annals of electricit}^ carry off the honours of having first
laid down the ocean telegraph.
390 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
The same Company, not long afterwards, laid another cable
across to Ostend. This established a connection with Europe
through Belgium, and was planned to prevent this line of com
munication falling into the hands of another company, and w
not, as was suspected at the time, a matter of political foresigh
on the part of the directors, to enable them to carry on their
intercourse with the continent, in spite of France, supposing war
should break out between the two countries. Who would have
believed a short time since, in Belgium, that the day would
come when it would be quicker to convey intelligence to France
by way of England than directly across the frontiers 1 Yet such
was actually the case ; for, before the line was laid by land, it
was a thing of very frequent occurrence for despatches from
Ostend to cross the Channel to Dover by one cable, and to be
immediately switched across to Calais by the other ; thus paying
us a momentary triangular visit underneath the rapid straits.
The notion, however, of preventing competition proved to be
vain. A third cable was laid on the 30th May, 1853, between
the English coast at Orfordness, near Ipswich, and the port of
Schevening in Holland, and thence to the Hague. This cable
is the longest at present in connection with this isle, extending
120 miles under the turbulent North Sea. It was, however,
paid out during a violent gale of wind without the slightest
accident, and affords the most direct means of communication
with the north of Europe, and entirely commands the commer-
cial traffic of the cities of Amsterdam and Kotterdam. The
Hague cable (or cables, for there are now many, consisting of a
single wire conductor each, running side by side) is the property
of the International Company, a bmnch of the Old Electric
Telegraph, and its wires go direct to the Lothbury office.
Whilst England has moored her south-eastern shores to the
continent by three cables, and put herself en rapport with all its
principal cities, her north-western extremity has been secured,
after many failures, to the sister kingdom — the Electro-Magnetic
Company having laid a submarine wire from Portpatrick and
Donaghadee, in the neighbourhood of Belfast, and the British
Eletric Telegraph Company another between Portpatrick and
ht
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 391
Whitehead in Belfast Lough. England, as befits her, led the
way in these adventures upon the sea with the electric fire, and
the Danes, Dutch, Russians, and others, are now following in
her track.
Will it be believed that in 1841, long after the electric
telegraph was working in England, scientific men were seriously
discussing in the French Chamber the propriety of establishing
a night telegraph on the visual principle, and that when at
length it was determined to call in the aid of electricity, instru-
ments were ordered to be so constructed that signals could be
given after the fashion of the old semaphore, in order that the
officials might be spared the trouble of leaving their ancient
ruts ? The needles were accordingly displaced for a mimic
post, to which moveable arms were attached and signs were
transmitted by elevating or depressing them by electricity,
instead of by hand. Of course this absurd system was after a
while abolished, and the instrument now made use of is a modi-
fication of the dial telegraph constructed by Breguet. The first
telegraph planted in France was constructed by Mr. Wheatstone,
from Paris to Versailles, in 1842. The principal line is that
running from Calais via Paris to Marseilles, which puts the
English Channel and the Mediterranean in communication, and
transmits for us the more urgent items of the India and China
mail.
Belgium and Switzerland are perhaps the best supplied of all
the continental kingdoms with telegraphic communication. The
Belgian lines were excellently planned and cheaply constructed,
consequently their tariff is comparatively low, the average charge
for a message being 3 francs 48 centimes, or about 2s. 10±d. Of
the nature of the messages sent we can form a very good idea by
the following classification of a hundred dispatches : —
Government
Stock-jobbing
Commercial
Newspaper
Family affairs
50
31
13
100
392 THE ELECTRIC TELEGEAPH.
A comparison of the average division of messages in every
state would afford a very fair index of the nature of the occupa
tions of their peoples. We have attempted to obtain material
for this purpose in vain; foreign governments, as well as Englis'
companies, being very jealous of giving any information relativ
to their messages. The history of the telegraph in Switzerland
is an evidence of what patriotic feeling is capable of accom-
plishing. Although by far the best and most extensive, for a
mountainous country, in the world, it was constructed by the
spontaneous efforts of the people. The peasantry gave their free
labour towards erecting the wires and poles, the landlords found
the timber and gave the right of way over their lands, and the
communes provided station room in the towns. Thus the
telegraph was completed, so to speak, for nothing. The pecu-
liarity of the Swiss telegraph is that, like the great wall of
China, it proceeds totally regardless of the nature of the ground.
It climbs the pass of the Simplon in proceeding from Geneva
to Milan ; it goes over St. Gothard in its way from Lucerne to
Como : it mounts the Splugen, and again it goes from Feld-
kirch to Inspruck by the Arlberg pass, thus ascending the
great chain of the Alps as though it were only a gentle hillside.
The wires course along the lakes of Lucerne, Zug, Zurich, and
Constance ; sometimes they are nailed to precipices, sometimes
they make short cuts over unfrequented spurs of the mountains,
going every way, in short, that it is found most convenient to
hang them. The completion of the telegraphic system of this
little republic, which stands in the same relation to Southern as
Belgium does to Northern Europe, was of great consequence, as
it forms the keystone between France, Prussia, Austria, Pied-
I mont, and Italy.
Ti Prussia the lines are insulated in gutta percha, and buried
m the ground in leaden tubes, a very costly process, but with
many great advantages, in freedom from injury and atmospheric
influences, over the more usual method of suspending them in
the air on poles. Upwards of 4,000 miles of wire have already
been laid down in this kingdom. Although Austria only com-
menced operations in 1847, she already possesses 4,000 miles
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 393
of telegraph, which puts the greater part of her extensive empire
in communication with Vienna.
Whatever injury the Eastern war might have inflicted
upon the world, it at least infused fresh vigour into the
telegraphic system, as, independently of the lines planned
to put Constantinople in communication with the Danubian
frontier, Russia has been stimulated to complete a line between
St. Petersburg and Helsingfors, in the Baltic, and a continua-
tion of the line already extending from the capital to Moscow,
down to Bucharest, Odessa, and Sebastopol. One feature dis-
tinguishes the management of continental telegraphs over those
of England and America : they are all, with the exception of
the short line between Hamburg and Cuxhaven, possessed and
worked by the different governments, who seem afraid of the
use they might be put to for political . purposes, and accordingly
exercise a strict surveillance over all messages sent, and rigidly
interdict the use of a cipher.* The Anglo-Saxon race, however,
has far surpassed any other in the energy with which it has
woven the globe with telegraphic wires. The Americans in the
"West and the British in the East alike emulate each other in
the magnitude of their undertakings of this nature. The United
States, although she came into the field long after England —
her first line from Washington to Baltimore not having been
completed until 1844 — has far outstripped the mother country
in the length of her lines, which already extend over 16,729
miles. Every portion of the Union, with the exception of
California and the upper portion of the Mississippi, is covered
with a network of wire.
New York and New Orleans communicate with each other
by a double route — one skirting the seacoast, the other taking
an inland direction by Cincinnati. These lines alone, following the
sinuosities of their routes, are upwards of 2,000 miles in length.
* It may be as well to state that nearly all the continental telegraphs
have formed themselves into a confederacy, called the Austro-Germanic
Union, which includes the lines of Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria,
Hanover, Wurtemberg, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the Grand Duchy
of Baden. The Union regulates the tariff and all questions relative to the
working of the allied lines.
394 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
Other lines extend as far as Quebec, in Upper Canada, so
that messages may be forwarded in the course of a couple of
hours from the freezing north to the burning south. The great
chain of lakes which form the northern boundary of the Union
is put in communication with the Missouri and Mississippi
rivers, and the great valley traversed by the latter will, ere
long, interchange messages with the Pacific coast, — Congress
having under its consideration a plan to establish a telegraph
across the continent to Sau Francisco, as the precursor of the
proposed railroad.
This we suspect is the project of Mr. O'Reilly, the engineer
who has already executed the boldest lines in America. In
constructing such a line, man, not nature, is the great obstacle
to be encountered. The implacable Indians inhabiting this
portion of the States certainly would not pay any respect to
the telegraphic wire ; on the contrary, they would in all likeli-
hood take it to bind on the heads of their scalping tomahawks.
To provide against this contingency, it is proposed to station
parties of twenty dragoons at stockades twenty miles apart,
along the whole unprotected portion of the route ; two or
three of these soldiers are also to ride from post to post and
carry a daily express letter across the continent.
When this project is executed, it is asserted that " European
news may be published in six days on the American shores of
the Pacific, on the shortened route between the old and new
world." " The shortened route," it should be mentioned, lies
between Cape Race, in Newfoundland, and Galway, in Ire-
land, a passage calculated to take, on the average, only five days.
It may be asked how is it that such lengths of wire, carried
through thinly settled parts of the country, and sometimes
through howling wildernesses, can pay ? The only manner
that we can account for it is the cheapness with which the
telegraph is built in America, the average price being 150
dollars, or about 311. a mile — less than a fourth part of the
cost at which the early lines of the English Electric Telegraph
Company were erected. Again, the low prices charged for the
transmission of messages produce an amount of business which
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAni. 395
the lines running through thickly-inhabited England cannot
boast. For instance, let us take the following advertised
" specimen message," of the latter Company, and compare the
price charged for it here, with what it could be sent for in
America : —
"From To
James Smith, -S. E. Brown,
London, Exchange,
Liverpool.
"I will meet you at Birmingham to-morrow, 3 P.M. Don't fail me."
Now, the London charge for the above, if forwarded to
Liverpool, would be 2s. 6d. ; but the American tariff for the
same, on the Louisville and Pittsburgh rail, would be only one
cent a word, or sixpence halfpenny English. On very long
distances our friends on the other side of the steam ferry have a
still greater advantage over us : for instance, a message of ten
words can be sent on O'Reilly's line, from New York to New-
Orleans, a distance of 2,000 miles, for sixty cents, or two and
sixpence — not half the sum it would cost to send the same
message from London to Edinburgh, about 500 miles. We give,
as a curiosity, the scale of prices on this line :*—
Per word.
200 miles
or under .
, . 1 cent.
500 „
or over 300 miles
. 2 cents.
700 „
„ 500 „
- 3 „
1000 „
„ 700 „
, • 4 „
1500 „
» iooo „
. 5 „
2000 „
„ 1500 „
. . 6 „
These charges, it is true, are unusually low ; but if they will
pay one Company, why should they not another ? There are as
many as twenty Telegraph Companies in America, and conse-
quently there is great competition, three or four competing
lines in many cases running between the same towns. Great
confusion has arisen from this competition, as we have before
stated ; but it cannot be doubted that prices have materially
fallen in consequence. It is common to send a message 1,000
miles in the United States without its being read and repeated
* See "Tariff of the Bates charged for general Dispatches on the Pitts-
burgh and Louisville Telegraph, Jones's Electric Telegraph, New York,"
p. 105.
396 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
it Le
at intermediate stations ; and brother Jonathan boasts that
can communicate in fine weather instantaneously between New
York and New Orleans. This, if done at all, must be at the
expense of enormous battery power, as 2,000 miles of No. 8
wire would expose a conducting surface of no less than 450,000
square feet to the air. The wires in America are all suspended
upon poles, and those passing through the southern pine forests
are in consequence particularly liable to injury from the falling
of trees, and watchers are posted at every twenty miles' distance
to patrol the line. The telegraph is rarely seen in America
running beside the railway, for what reason we do not know;
the consequence, however, is, that locomotion in the United
States is vastly more dangerous- than with us. A comparison
of the casualties occurring on railroads in the two countries, in
the year 1852, will show this at a glance ; for in the State of
New York alone, during that year, 228 persons were killed out
of 7,440,653 travellers, whilst during the same period only
216 people perished in Great Britain out of a total number of
89.135,729 passengers : thus the average in America was 1
killed in 286,179, and in Great Britain 1 in 2,785,491 ! Of
course property suffers in an equal degree with life on the
American lines. The people of Boston, on the recommendation
of Dr. Channing, have constructed a municipal telegraph, the
many uses of which will be obvious. Mr. Alexander Jones,
in his historical sketch of the electric telegraph in America,
gives the following account of the application of the electric
wire in cases of fire : —
" A central office or station is fixed upon, at which the main battery,
with other instruments, is placed. From this two circuit-wires proceed,
like those of the common telegraph wires, fastened to housetops or in-
geniously insulated supports. One of the wires communicates from the
main fire bell-tower to all the others, and connects each with machinery,
which puts in motion the largest-sized hammer, and causes it to strike a
large fire-bell the desired number of blows ; the other wire proceeds on a
still more circuitous route, and from one local street or ward signal-station
to another. Each station is provided with a strong box and hinged door
and lock. Inside of this box there is a connecting electro-magnet and con-
necting lever, an axle with a number of pins in it to correspond to the
number of the station. The axle is turned by a short crank, and in its
revolutions the pins break and close the circuit, by moving the end of the
lever as often as there are pins or cogs, the result of which is communicated
THE ELECLRIC TELEGKAPH. 397
to the central station. If the alarm indicates a fire in the local district
No. 3, the alarm can be instantly rung on all the bells in the city. If it is
a subject requiring the speedy and efficient attention of the police, in-
formation by alarms can be given at each police-station, or the despatches
can be recorded by instruments at each place. The local street alarm- boxes
are placed in the charge of a person whose duty it is to give the alarm
from the local to the central station, when called upon, or circumstances
require him to do so."
Canada has also sketched out a plan of telegraphs, which every
year will see filled up. Already she has lines connecting all her
principal towns, and extending over nearly two thousand miles
of country, all of which lock in with the American system.
In India, Dr. O'Shaughnessy has for some time been engaged in
carrying out a telegraphic system proposed by Lord Dalhousie,
and approved by the East India Company, which has already put
all the important towns of the peninsula in communication with
the seat of government and with each other. The fine No. 8
galvanized iron wire, which in Europe runs along from pole to
pole, like a delicate harp-string, is discarded in this country for
rods of iron three-eighths of an inch in thickness. The nature
of the climate, and the character of its animal life, has caused
this departure from the far more economical European plan.
Clouds of kites and troops of monkeys would speedily take such
liberties with the fine wires as to place them hors-de-combat.
Again, the deluges of rain which occur in the wet season would
render the insulation of a small wire so imperfect that a
message could not be sent through it to any distance. The
larger mass of metal, on the contrary, is capable of affording
passage for the electric fluid through any amount of rain, with-
out danger of " leakage ;" and as for the kites and other large
birds of the country, they may perch on these rods by thousands
without stopping the messages, which will fly harmlessly
through their claws ; and the weight of the heaviest monkey is
not sufficient to injure them. These rods are planted, without
any insulation, upon the tops of bamboo poles (coated with tar
and pitch), at such a height that loaded elephants can pass
beneath without displacing them ; and even if by chance they
should be thrown down, bullock-carts or buffaloes and elephant;-
may trample them under foot without doing them injury. In
3V8 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
soms places the rods, if we are rightly informed, run through
rice-swamps, buried in the ground, and even here the only
insulating material used is a kind of cement made of rosin and
sand. The telegraph, like a swift messenger, goes forward and
prepares the way for the railroad, which is planned to follow in
its footsteps. When these two systems are completed, the real
consolidation of England's power in the East will have com-
menced, and the countless resources of the Indian peninsula
will be called forth for the benefit of the conquered as well as
of the conquering race.
The restless spirit of English engineers, having provided for
the internal telegraphic communication of Great Britain and
her principal dependencies, seems bent upon stretching out her
lines to the East and to the West, so as ultimately to clasp the
entire globe. The project of connecting, telegraphically, Eng-
land with America is at the present moment seriously engaging
the attention of scientific and commercial men. The more
daring engineers are still sanguine of the practicability of laying
a submarine cable directly across the Atlantic, from Galway to
Cape Race in Newfoundland. Now that we have Lieutenant
Maury's authentic determination of the existence of a shelf
across the North Atlantic, the soundings on which are nowhere
more than 1,500 fathoms, the feasibility of the project is
tolerably certain. The principal question is, whether if* a
line were laid an electric current can be wosked to com-
mercial advantage through 3,000 miles of cable. No doubt,
by the expenditure of enormous battery power, this might
be accomplished through wires suspended in the air, but
it is a question whether it can be done along a vast length
of gutta-percha coated wire, passing through salt-water.
There is such a thing as too great an insulation. Professor
Faraday has shown that in such circumstances the wire be-
comes a Leyden jar, and may be so charged with electricity
that a current cannot, without the greatest difficulty, move
through it. This is the objection to a direct cable between the
iwo continents : if, however, it can be overcome, doubtless the
ocean path would in all possible ca-ses be adopted where com-
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 399
munications had to be made between civilized countries having
intermediate, barbarous, or ungenial lands. To escape this at
present dubious ocean path, it is proposed to carry the cable
Irom the northernmost point of the Highlands of Scotland to
Iceland, by way of the Orkney, Shetland, and Ferroe islands —
to lay it from Iceland across to the nearest point in Greenland,
thence down the coast to Cape Farewell, where the cable would
again take to the water, span Davis's Straits, and make right
away across Labrador and Upper Canada to Quebec. Here it
would lock in with the North American meshwork of wires,
which hold themselves out like an open hand for the European
grasp. This plan seems quite feasible, for in no part of the
journey would the cable require to be more than 900 miles
long ; and as it seems pretty certain that a sandbank ex-
tends, with good soundings, all the way to Cape Farewell,
there would be little difficulty in mooring the cable to a level
and soft bottom. The only obstacle that we see is the strong
partiality of the Esquimaux for old iron, and it would perhaps
be tempting them too much to hang their coasts with this
material, just ready to their hands. The want of settlements
along this inhospitable arctic coast to protect the wire is, we
confess, a great drawback to the scheme ; but, we fancy, posts
might be organized at comparatively a small cost, considering
the magnitude and importance of the undertaking. The mere
expense of making and laying the cable would not be much
more than double that of building the new Westminster-bridge
across the Thames.
Whilst England would thus grasp the West with one hand,
her active children have plotted the seizure of the East with
the other. A cable runs from Genoa to Corsica, and from
thence to Sardinia. From the southernmost point of the
latter island, Cape Spartivento, to the gulf of Tunis, another
cable can easily be carried. The direction thence (after giving
off a coast branch to Algeria) will be along the African shore,
by Tripoli to Alexandria, and eventually across Arabia, along
the coasts of Persia and Beloochistan until it enters Scinde,
and finally joins the wire at Hydrabad, which in all pro-
400 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
bability by that time will have advanced from Barman,
across the Indian peninsula, to welcome it. America will
shortly carry her line of telegraph to the Pacific shore, and run
it up the coast as far as San Francisco. Can there be any
reasonable doubt that, before the end of the century, the one
line advancing towards the West and the other towards the
East — through China and Siberia — will gradually approach
each other so closely that a short cable stretched across Behring
Straits will bring the four quarters of the globe within speaking
distance of each other, and enable the electric fire to " put a
girdle round the world in forty minutes?"
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
Among the more salient features of the metropolis which
instantly strike the attention of the stranger are the stations
of the Fire Brigade. Whenever he happens to pass them, he
finds the sentinel on duty, he sees the " red artillery " of the
force j and the polished axle, the gleaming branch, and the
shining chain, testify to the beautiful condition of the instru-
ment, ready for active service at a moment's notice. Ensconced
in the shadow of the station, the liveried watchmen look like
hunters waiting for their prey — nor does the hunter move
quicker to his quarry at the rustle of a leaf, than the Firemen
dash for the first ruddy glow in the sky. No sooner comes the
alarm, than one sees with a shudder the rush of one of these
engines through the crowded streets, the tearing horses covered
with foam, the heavy vehicle swerving from side to side, and
the black helmeted attendants swaying to and fro. The wonder
is that horses or men ever get safely to their destination : the
wonder is still greater that no one is ridden over in their
furious drive.
Arrived at the place of action, the hunter's spirit which
animates the fireman, and makes him attack an element as
determinedly as he would a wild beast, becomes evident to the
spectator. The scene which a London fire presents can never
be forgotten : the shouts of the crowd as it opens to let the
engines dart through it, the foaming head of water springing
out of the ground, and spreading over the road until it becomes
a broad mirror reflecting the glowing blaze — the black, snake-
like coils of the leather hose rising and falling like things of
2 D
402 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
life, whilst a hundred arms work at the pump, their central
heart, the applause that rings out clear above the roaring flame
as the adventurous band throw the first hissing jet ; cheer
following cheer, as stream after stream shoots against the
burning mass, now flying into the socket-holes of fire, set in the
black face of the house-front, now dashing with a loud shir-r
against the window-frame and wall, and falling off in broken
showers. Suddenly there is a loud shrill cry,, and the bank of
human faces is upturned to where a shrieking wretch hangs
frantically to an ujDper window-sill. A deafening shout goes
forth, as the huge fire-escape comes full swing upon the scene :
a moment's pause, and all is still, save the beat, beat, of the
great water pulses, whilst every eye is strained towards the
fluttering garments flapping against the wall. Will the ladder
reach, and not dislodge those weary hands clutching so con-
vulsively to the hot stone ! Will the nimble figure gain the
topmost rung ere nature fails 1 The blood in a thousand hearts
runs cold, and then again break forth a thousand cheers to
celebrate a daring rescue. Such scenes as this are of almost
nightly occurrence in the great metropolis. A still more impos-
ing yet dreadful sight is often exhibited in the conflagrations of
those vast piles of buildings in the City filled with inflammable
merchandise. Here the most powerful engines seem reduced
to mere squirts; and the efforts of the adventurous brigade
men are confined to keeping the mischief within its own
bounds.
When we recollect that London presents an area of thirty-
six square miles, covered with 21,600 square acres of bricks
and mortar, and numbers more than 380,600 houses ; that all
the riches it contains are nightly threatened in every direction
by an ever-present enemy ; that the secret match, the sponta-
neous fire, and the hand of the drunkard, are busily at work ;
it is evident that nothing but a force the most disciplined, and
implements the most effective, can be competent to cope with
so sudden and persevering a foe.
As late as twenty-two years ago there was no proper fire
police to protect the metropolis against what is commonly
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 403
called the " all-devouring element." There was, it is true, a
force of 300 parochial engines set on foot by acts which were
passed between the years 1768-74, acts which are still in
existence ; but these engines are under the superintendence of
the beadles and parish engineers, who are : not the most active
of men or nimble of risers. It may easily be imagined, there-
fore, that the machines arrived a little too late ; and, when
brought into service, were often found to be out of working-
order. Hence their employment did not supersede the private
engines kept by some of the insurance offices long prior to
their existence. On the contrary, owing to the increase of
business which took place about this time, the different com-
panies thought it worth their while to strengthen their former
establishments, and this process continued while the parochial
engines, with a few honourable exceptions, were dropping into
disuse.
About the year 1833 it became evident that much was lost,
both to the public and to the insurance companies, by every
engine acting on its own responsibility — a folly which is the
cause of such jealousy among the firemen at Boston (United
States), that rival engines have been known to stop on their
way to a fire to exchange shots from revolvers. It was, there-
fore, determined to incorporate the divided force, and place it
under the management of one superintendent, each office
contributing towards its support, according to the amount of
its business. All the old-established companies, with one excep-
tion,* shortly came into the arrangement, and Mr. Braid wood,
the master of the fire-engines of Edinburgh, being invited to
take the command, organized the now celebrated London Fire
Brigade.
At the present moment, then, the protection against fire in
London consists, firstly, in the three hundred and odd parish-
engines (two to each parish), which are paid for out of the
rates. The majority of these are very inefficient, not having
* The "West of England Fire-Office, which retains the command of its
own engines.
2 j> 2
404 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
any persons appointed to work them who possess a competent
knowledge of the service. Even women used now and then to
nil the arduous post of director; and it is not long since a
certain Mrs. Smith, a widow, might be seen at conflagrations,
hurrying about in her pattens, directing the firemen of her
engine, which belonged to the united parishes of St. Michael
Royal and St. Martin Yintry, in the city. We question,
indeed, if at the present moment any of the parish-engines are
much better officered than in the days of widow Smith, with
the exception of those of Hackney, Whitechapel, Islington, and
perhaps two or three others. Secondly, there are an unknown
number of private engines kept in public buildings and large
manufactories, which sometimes do good service when they
arrive early at small fires in their neighbourhood, although,
singularly enough, when called upon to extinguish a conflagra-
tion in their own establishments, they generally " lose their
heads," as the brigade men express it ; and very many instances
have occurred where even the parish-engines have arrived and
set to work before the one on the premises could be brought to
bear upon the fire. The cause is clear. The requisite coolness
and method which every one can exercise so philosophically in
other people's misfortunes utterly fail them when in trouble
themselves. The doctor is wiser in his generation, and is
never so foolish as to prescribe for himself, or to attend his own
family.
Thirdly, we have, in contrast to the immense rabble of
Bumble engines and the Bashi-Bazouks of private establish-
ments, the small complement of men and material of the fire
brigade. It consists of twenty-seven large horse-engines, capable
of throwing eighty-eight gallons a minute to the height of from
fifty to seventy feet, and nine smaller ones drawn by hand. To
work them there are twelve engineers, seven sub-engineers,
thirty-two senior firemen, thirty-nine junior firemen, and four-
teen drivers, or 104 men and 31 horses. In addition to these
persons, who form the main establishment, and live at the
different stations, tnere is an extra staff of four firemen, four
drivers, and eight horses. The members of this supplementary
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
405
force are also lodged at the stations,* as well as clothed, but
are only paid when their services are required, and pursue in
the daytime their ordinary occupations. This not very formid-
able army of 104 men and 31 horses, with its reserve of eight
men and eight horses, is distributed throughout the metropolis,
which is divided into four districts as follows : — On the north
side of the river — 1st, From the eastward to Paul's Chain, St.
Paul's Churchyard, Aldersgate Street, and Gosw T ell Street Road ;
2nd, From St. Paul's, <fcc, to Tottenham Court Road, Crown
Street, and St. Martin's Lane ; 3rd, From Tottenham Court
Road, &c, westward. 4th, The entire south side of the river.
At the head of each district is a foreman, who never leaves it
unless acting under the superior orders of Mr. Braidwood, the
superintendent or general-in-chief, whose head-quarters are in
Watling Street.
In comparison with the great continental cities, such a force
seems truly insignificant. Paris, which does not cover a fifth
part of the ground of London, and is not much more than a
third as populous, boasts 800 sapeurs-pompiers : we make up,
however, for want of numbers by activity. Again, our look-
out is admirable : the 6,000 police of the metropolis, patrolling
every alley and lane throughout its length and breadth, watch
for a fire as terriers watch at rat-holes, and every man is stimu-
lated by the knowledge, that if he is the first to g
* The following are the stations : — No
Watling Street (the principal station)
Wellclose Square .
Farringdon Street .
Chandos Street, Covent Garden
Schoolhouse Lane, Ratcliffe .
Horseferry Road, Westminster
Waterloo Road
Paradise Row, Rotherhithe .
Jeffrey Square, St. Mary- Axe
Whitecross Street .
High Holborn, No. 254 .
Crown Street, Soho
Wells Street, Oxford Street .
Baker Street, Portrnan Square
King Street, Golden Square.
South wark Bridge Road
Morgan's Lane, Tooley Street
Floating engine, off King's Stairs, Rotherhithe
ve notice of
of engines.
4
3
4
3
1
1
1
1
2
1
2
2
I
1
off South wark Bridge .
1
1
1—36
406 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
it at any of the stations it is half a sovereign in his pocket. In
addition to the police, there are the thousand eager eyes of the
night cabmen, and the houseless poor. It is not at all uncom-
mon for a cabman to earn four or five shillings of a night by
driving fast to the different stations and giving the alarm,
receiving a shilling from each, for the " call."
In most continental cities a watchman takes his stand during
the night on the topmost point of some high building, and gives
notice by either blowing a horn, firing a gun, or ringing a bell.
In Germany the quarter is indicated by holding out towards it
a flag by day, and a lantern at night. It immediately suggests
itself that a sentinel placed in the upper gallery of St. Paul's
would have under his eye the whole metropolis, and could
make known instantly, by means of an electric wire, the posi-
tion of a fire, to the head-station at Watling Street, in the
same manner as the Americans do in Boston. This plan is,
however, open to the objection, that London is intersected by
a sinuous river, which renders it difficult to tell on which bank
the conflagration is raging. Nevertheless, we imagine that the
northern part of the town could be advantageously superin-
tended from such, a height, whilst the southern half might rest
under the surveillance of one of the tall shot-towers on that
bank of the Thames. The bridges themselves have long been
posts of observation, from which a large portion of the river-
side property is watched. Not long ago there was a pieman
on London Bridge, who eked out a precarious existence by
keeping a good look-out up and down the stream.
"Watling Street was chosen as the head-quarters of the Fire
Brigade for a double reason : it is very nearly the centre of the
City, being close to the far-famed London Stone, and it is in the
very midst of what may be termed, speaking igneously, the most
dangerous part of the metropolis — the Manchester warehouses.
As the Fire Brigade is only a portion of a vast commercial
operation — Fire Insurance — its actions are regulated by strictly
commercial considerations. Where the largest amount of insured
property lies, there its chief force is planted. It will, it is true,
go any reasonable distance to put out a fire ; but of course it
pays most attention to property which its proprietors have
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 407
guaranteed. The central station receives the greatest number
of "calls ;" but as a commander-in-chief does not turn out for a
skirmish of outposts, so Mr. Braid wood keeps himself ready for
affairs of a more serious nature. When 'the summons is at
night — there are sometimes as many as half a dozen — the fire-
man on duty below apprises the superintendent by means of a
gutta percha speaking-tube, which comes up to his bedside.
By the light of the ever-burning gas, he rapidly consults the
" London Directory," and if the call should be to what is called
" a greengrocer's street," or any of the small thoroughfares in
by-parts of the town, he leaves the matter to the foreman in
whose district it is, and goes to sleep again. If, however, the
fire should be in the City, or in any of the great west- end
thoroughfares, he hurries off on the first engine. Five minutes
*&'
is considered a fair time for an engine " to horse and away," but
it is often done in three. Celerity in bringing up aid is the great
essential, as the first half hour generally determines the extent
to which a conflagration will proceed. Hence the rewards of
thirty shillings for the first, twenty for the second, and ten for
the third engine that arrives, which premiums are paid by the
parish. All the engines travel with as few hands as possible :
the larger ones having an engineer, four firemen and a driver,
and the following: furniture : — -
*s
" Several lengths of scaling-ladder, each 6^ feet long, all of which may
be readily connected, forming in a short space of time a ladder of any re-
quired length ; a canvas sheet, with ten or twelve handles of rope round
the edge of it for the purpose of a fire-escape ; one 10-fathom and one 14-
fathora piece of 2|-inch rope ; six lengths of hose, each 40 feet long ; two
branch-pipes, one 2^ feet, and the other from 4 to 6 feet long, with one
spare nose-pipe ; two 6-feet lengths of suction-pipe, a flat rose, stand-cock,
goose-neck, dam-board, boat-hook, saw, shovel, mattock, pole-axe, screw-
wrench, crow-bar, portable cistern, two dog-tails, two balls of strips of
sheepskin, two balls of .small cord, instruments for opening the fire-
plugs, and keys for turning the stop-cocks of the water-mains."
The weight of the whole, with the men, is not less than from
27 to 30 cwt., a load which in the excitement of the ride is
carried by a couple of horses at the gallop.
The hands to work the pumps are always forthcoming on the
spot at any hour of the night, not alone for goodwill, as every
man — and there have been as many as five hundred employed
408 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
at a time — receives one shilling for the first hour and six-pence
for every succeeding one, together with refreshments. In
France the law empowers the firemen to seize upon the
bystanders, and compel them to give their services, without fee
or reward. An Englishman at Bordeaux, whilst looking on,
some few years since, was forced, in spite of his remonstrances,
to roll wine-casks for seven hours out of the vicinity of a con-
flagration. We need not say which plan answers best. A
Frenchman runs away, as soon as the sapeurs^ompiers make
their appearance upon the scene, to avoid being impressed.
Still such is the excitement, that there are some gentlemen with
us who pursue the occupation of firemen as amateurs ; providing
themselves with the regulation-dress of dark-green turned up
with red, and with the accoutrements of the Brigade, and
working, under the orders of Mr. Braidwood, as energetically as
if they were earning their daily bread.
The fascination of fires even extends to the brute creation.
"Who has not heard of the dog " Chance," who first formed his
acquaintance with the Brigade by following a fireman from a
conflagration in Shoreditch to the central station at Watling
Street 1 Here, after he had been petted for some little time by
the men, his master came for him, and took him home ; but he
escaped on the first opportunity, and returned to the station.
After he had been carried back for the third time, his master —
like a mother whose son will go to sea — allowed him to have
his own way, and for years he invariably accompanied the
engine, now upon the machine, now under the horses' legs, and
always, when going up-hill, running in advance, and announcing
the welcome advent of the extinguisher by his bark. At the
fire he used to amuse himself with pulling burning logs of wood
out of the flames with his mouth. Although he had his legs
broken half a dozen times, he remained faithful to his pursuit ;
till at last, having received a severer hurt than usual, he was
being nursed by the fireman beside the hearth, when a " call"
came, and at the well-known sound of the engine turning out,
the poor brute made a last effort to climb upon it, and fell back
dead in the attempt. He was stuffed and preserved at the
station, and was doomed, even in death, to prove the fireman's
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
409
friend : for one of the engineers having committed suicide, the
Brigade determined to raffle him for the benefit of the widow,
and such was his renown, that he realized 123?. 10s. 9d.
The most interesting and practical part of our subject is the
inquiry into the various causes of fires. Mr. Braid wood comes
here to our aid with his invaluable yearly reports — the only
materials we have, in fact, on which fire insurance can be built
up into a science, a feat which we have not accomplished to
nearly the same extent as with life assurance, although the
Hand-in-Hand office was founded so far back as 1G96. Thus
we have the experience of upwards of 150 years, if we could
only get at it, to enable the actuary to ascertain the doctrine
of chances in this momentous subject, which at present is little
better than a speculation. An analysis of the reports, from the
organization of the Fire Brigade in 1833 to the close of 1853,
a period extending over 21 years, affords the following result :
Abstract of List of Fires and Alarms for Twenty Years, ending 1853.
Year.
Totally
Destroyed.
Consider-
ably
Damaged.
Slightly
Damaged.
Total
of
Fires.
Alarms.
Total of
Fires &
Alarms.
False.
Chimn'}
Total.
1833
31
135
292
458
59
75
134
592
1834
28
116
338
482
57
112
169
651
1835
31
125
315
471
G6
106
172
643
1836
33
134
397
564
66
126
192
756
1837
22
122
357
501
82
134
216
717
1838
33
152
383
568
79
108
187
755
1839
17
165
402
584
70
101
171
755
1840
26
204
451
681
84
98
182
863
1841
24
234
438
696
67
92
159
855
1842
24
224
521
769
61
82
143
912
1843
29
231
489
749
79
83
162
911
1844
23
237
502
762
70
94
164
926
1845
23
253
431
707
82
87
168
875
1846
25
233
576
834
119
69
188
1,022
1847
27
273
536
836
88
66
154
990
1848
27
269
509
805
120
86
206
1,011
1849
28
228
582
838
76
89
165
1,003
1850
18
229
621
868
91
79
170
1,038
1851
21
255
652
928
115
116
231
1,159
1852
25
238
660
923
93
89
182
1,105
1853
20
241
639
900
72
90
162
1,062
Total
535
4,298
10,091
14,924
1,695
1,982
3,677
18,601
410 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
If we examine this table, we find ample evidence that the
organization of the Fire Brigade has resulted in an abatement
of loss and labour. Taking the average of the last twenty-one
years, there has been a decrease of 5 -7 in the last year under
the head of "totally destroyed." This is the best test of tli
activity of the Brigade, and really means much more than i
obvious at first sight. Within these twenty-one years many
tens of thousands of houses have been added to the metropolis ;
our periphery has been continually enlarging ; like a tree, we
grow year by year by adding a fresh ring of bricks and mortar.
Whilst this increase is going on externally, the central part is
growing too. We can afford no dead wood in our very heart :
if it cannot expand oneway it must another. Accordingly, we
find the crowded city extending towards the sky ; and if we
take into account the immense mass of material added to that
which existed, all of which is equally liable to the inroads of
fire, we can understand why the total number of conflagrations
has increased from 458 in 1833 to 900 in 1853. With such an
augmentation of conflagrations, the decrease of houses totally
destroyed in 1853 is the highest testimony to the ability and
zeal of Mr. Braidwood.
The item " totally destroyed " is mainly made up of houses
and factories in which are stored very combustible materials,
such as carpenters' and cabinet-makers' shops, oilmen's ware-
houses, sawmills, &c, where the fire gains such a hold in a few
minutes as to preclude the possibility of putting it out. The
number is also swelled by houses which are situated many miles
from the nearest station ; for there are no stations in the out-
skirts of the town, and very few in the crowded suburbs. We
have seen complaints of this want of help in thickly-populated
localities ; but the companies only plant an establishment where
the insurances are sufficient to cover the expense, and people
who do not contribute have no more right to expect private
individuals to take care of their property than tradesmen in
the Strand would have to expect the private watchman Outside
Messrs, Coutts' bank to look after their shutters. Indeed, it
seems to us that the Brigade act very liberally. The firemen
v
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 411
never stop to ask whether the house is insured or not ; nor are
they deterred by distance ; and in many cases they have gone
as far as Brentford, Putney, Croydon, Barnet, Uxbridge,
Cranfordbridge, Windsor Castle, and once to Dover by an
express engine. The only difference made by the Brigade
between insured and uninsured property is, that after putting-
out a fire they take charge of the salvage of the former, and
leave that of the latter to its owner. The force is, however,
very careful to repair immediately any damage they may have
done to adjoining property — damage which they commit in the
most deliberate manner, regardless of pains and penalties. For
instance, housebreaking is almost a nightly crime with the fire-
men whilst in search of water, who never let a wall or a door
stand between them and a supply of this element. It is a proof
of the good feeling which prevails on such occasions that,
although they are technically guilty of an offence which ren-
ders them liable to punishment, no oue murmurs, much less
threatens proceedings. If the authorities in the great fire of
London had acted in a similar manner for the public good, they
would have saved the half of the Inner Temple, which was
destroyed because, according to Clarendon's account, all the
lawyers were absent on circuit, and the constables did not
clare to take the responsibility of breaking open their chamber
doors !
It is a question whether government ought not to relieve the
parish authorities from a duty which they cannot separately per-
form, and combine their engines into a metropolitan brigade ;
thus guarding the town from fire as they do from robbery by the
police.. If people will not protect themselves by insuring, the
state should protect them, and make them pay for it. An excel-
lent system prevails in most parts of Germany of levying a rate
at the close of the year upon all the inhabitants, sufficient to
cover the loss from fires during the past twelvemonth. As every
householder has a pecuniary interest in the result, he keeps a
bucket *and belt, and sallies out to extinguish the conflagration
in his neighbour's premises. If the rate were adopted in Lon-
don, and the present enormous duty on insurances reduced, the
412
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
cost to each person would be hardly more pence than it is pounds
at present to the provident few.
Mr. Samuel Brown, of the Institute of Actuaries, after
analyzing the returns of Mr. Braidwood, as well as the reports
in the Mechanics' Magazine by Mr. Baddeley, who has
devoted much attention to the subject, drew up some tables
of the times of the year and hours of the day at which fires are
most frequent. It would naturally be supposed that the winter
would show a vast preponderance over the summer months ;
but the difference is not so great as might be expected. Decem-
ber and January are very prolific of fires, as in these months
large public buildings are heated by flues, stoves, and boilers ;
but the other months share mishaps of the kind pretty equally,
with the exception that the hot and dry periods of summer and
autumn are marked by the most destructive class of conflagra-
tions, owing to the greater inflammability of the materials, than
in the damper portions of the year. This, from the desiccating
nature of the climate, is especially the case in Canada and the
United States, and, coupled with the extensive use of wood in
building, has a large influence in many parts of the continent.
The following list of all the great fires which have taken place
for the last hundred years will bear out our statement : —
Month.
Description of Property, &c.
Place.
Value of Pro- 1 Vp __
perty Destroyed.' Iear *
i
'Webb's Sugar-house
Liverpool ....
» ....
,, ....
„ ....
London
,, ....
York
London
Dublin
London
,, ....
Southwark. . . .
£4,600
198,000
45,000
40.000
200,000
300,000
1829
1833
Jan. . (
Town-hall and Exchange. . . .
Caxton Printing Office ....
Dublin & Co. Warehouse . .
Suffolk Street
1795
182]
1834
1818
Mile End
1834
1838
1829
Feb. . <
3 West-India Warehouses . .
House of Commons
1829
1792
1830
Camberwell Church
1841
1814
Hop Warehouse
1851
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
413
Month
Description of Property, &c.
Value of Pro-
perty Destroyed,
I J. F. Pawson & Co.'s Ware-
Feb. J houses
contS Pickford's Wharf
I Goree Warehouses
March v
f New Orleans
15,000 houses at Canton . . .
13,000 houses
Manchester
Fawcett's Foundry ,
Oil Street ,
Apothecaries' Hall
Sugar House, Harrington
Street
April (.
May I
June
July
1,000 Buildings
Savannah
Parksbead, Bacon Street .
Windsor Forest
Margetson's Tan Yard, Ber-
mondsey
1,158 Buildings, Charleston
Horsleydown
Dockhead London
St. Paul's
Churchyard
London
Liverpool
United States
China
Peru
England.
Liverpool
Pittsburg
United States
Liverpool
England
London ,
United States
London
Great Fire, 1,749 houses. . . .
23 Steamboats at St. Louis. .
15,000 Houses
York Minster
Duke's Warehouses
Okell's Sugar-house
Gibraltar Row
Liver Mills
Billinsgate
Rotherhithe
Copenhagen
Montreal
St. John
Louisville
47 persons, Quebec Theatre
1,300 houses, Quebec
Gutta Percha Co., Wharf)
Road J
Humphreys' Warehouse,
Southwark
Hindon
15,000 Houses
12,000 Houses
Hamburgh . ,
United States
Quebec ,
York
Liverpool
£40,000
50,000
dr. 650,000
£41,000
12,000
7,000
30,000
dr. 1,400,000
dr. 300,000
£36,000
36,000
dr. 600,000
London
London
Denmark
Cauada
Newfoundland
United States
Canada
London
Wiltshire . . .
Constantinople
Montreal . . .
£8,700
dr. 1,000,000
dr. 100,000
£23,000
100,000
1853
1824
1846
1853
1820
1799
1792
1843
1844
1844
1830
1845
1852
1851
1785
1852
1838
1780
1785
1842
1849
1845
1840
1843
1799
1838
1841
1809
1765
1759
1852
1846
1853
1846
1845
1853
1851
1754
1756
1852
414
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
Month
Description of Property, &c.
Place.
Value of Pro-
perty Destroyed
July
cont,
'300 Houses
300 Buildings
302 Stores
Apothecaries' Hall . .
( Glover's Warehouses
Dockyard
Wapping
Ratcliffe Cross
Varna
Aug. <
f Dublin
Gravesend
Walker's Oil Mill..
Falmouth Theatre
Buildings, Albany
10,000 Houses
Smithfield
East Smithfield. . .
Bankside
Gateshead
Sept.
Qct.
46 Bui:
200 Houses, Brooklyn
Scott, Russell, & Co., Ship )
Builders, Mill Wall . . /
St. Paul's Church, Covent \
Garden )
60 Houses Rotherhithe
Astley's Amphitheatre
Mark Lane
Covent Garden Theatre
Store Street and Tottenham \
Court Road J
Macfee's
Gorees
Formby Street
Cowdray House
52 Buildings
Grimsdell's Builders' Yard. .
Withwith's Mills
Robert Street
Lancelot's-hey
Memel Great Fire
London Wall
20 Houses, Rotherhithe
Lancelot's-hey
Wapping
Houses of Parliament
Pimlico
Philadelphia
North America dr. 160,000
New York. .
Liverpool . .
Portsmouth
London ....
Turkey
Ireland
England
Dover
Falmouth
United States
Constantinople
London .
England.
New York.
London . . .
Liverpool
Sussex . .
Philadelphia .
Spitalfields .
Halifax
North Liverp'
Liverpool .
Prussia . . .
London . . .
Liverpool
London . .
dr. 1,200,000
£1*7,000
1,000,000
60,000
30,000
dr. 600,000
£100,000
dr. 500,000
150,000
£80,000
150,000
40,000
400,000
380,000
dr. 100,000
£35,000
150,000
80,000
84,000
*30,000
100,000
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
415'
Month.
Description of Property, &c.
Place.
Value of Pro- 1 y
perty Destroyed.' '
-Royal Palace
Lisbon
United States
London
,, «...
Liverpool ....
London
Portsmouth . .
Washington . .
New York. . . .
Liverpool ....
„ ....
£100,000
"6,000
50,000
5,000
dr. 4,000,000
£36,000
34,000
1794
1835
20 Houses, Shadwell
1796
1783
Nov..<
Cornhill
1765
1829
Wright & Aspinall, Oxford )
Street \
Hill's Rice Mills
1826
1848
Dec.
1776
Patent Office and Post Office
1836
1835
1831
Brancker's Sugar-house ....
j 1843
{Extracted from the Royal Insurance Company's Almanack, 1854.)
One reason, perhaps, why there is such a general average in
the number of conflagrations throughout the year is, that the
vast majority occur in factories and workshops where fire is
used in summer as well as winter. This supposition appears at
first sight to be contradicted by the fact that nearly as many
fires occur on Sunday as on any other day of the week. But
when it is remembered that in numerous establishments it is
necessary to keep in the fires throughout that day, and as in
the majority of cases a very inadequate watch is kept, it is at
once apparent why there is no immunity from the scourge.
Indeed, some of the most destructive fires have broken out on
a Sunday night or on a Sunday morning ; no doubt because a
large body of fire had formed before it was detected. A certain
number of accidents occur in summer in private houses from
persons on hot nights opening the window behind the toilet-
glass in their bedrooms, when the draught blows the blind
against the candle. Swallows do not more certainly appear in
June, than such mishaps are found reported at the sultry season.
If we watch still more narrowly the habits of fires, we find
that they are active or dormant according to the time of day.
Thus, during a period of nine years, the per-centage regularly
increased from 1-96 at 9 o'clock a.m., the hour at which all
416
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
households might be considered to be about, to 3 - 34 at 1 p.m.,
3-55 at 5 p.m., and 8'15 per cent, at 10 p.m., which is just the
time at which a fire left to itself by the departure of the work-
men would have had swing enough to become visible.
The origin of fires is now so narrowly inquired into by the
officers of the Brigade, and by means of inquests, that we have
been made acquainted with a vast number of curious causes,
which would never have been suspected. From an analysis of
fires which have occurred since the establishment of the Brigade
we have constructed the following tables : —
Curtains 2,511
Candle 1,178
Flues 1,555
Stoves 494
Gas 932
Light dropped down Area . . 13
Lighted Tobacco falling ) _
down ditto \
Dust falling on horizontal Flue 1
Doubtful 76
lucendiaiism 89
Carelessness 100
I ntoxication 80
Dog 6
Cat 19
Hunting Bugs 15
Clothes-horse upset by Monkey 1
Lucifers 80
Children playing with ditto. . 45
Eat gnawing ditto 1
Jackdaw playing with ditto. . 1
Rat gnawing Gaspipe 1
Boys letting off Fireworks . . 14
Fireworks going off 63
Children playing with Fire. . 45
Spark from ditto 243
Spark from Railway 4
Smoking Tobacco 166
Smoking Ants 1
Smoking in Bed 2
Eeading in ditto 22
Sewing in ditto 4
Sewing by Candle 1
Lime overheating 44
Waste ditto 43
Cargo of Lime ditto 2
Bain slacking ditto 5
High Tide 1
Explosion 16
Spontaneous Combustion . . 43
Heat from Sun 8
Lightning 8
Carboy of Acid bursting .... 2
Drying Linen 1
Shirts falling into Fire 6
Lighting and Upsetting ) K ~
Naphtha Lamp ] _
Fire from Iron Kettle 1
Sealing Letter 1
Charcoal fire of a Suicide. ... 1
Insanity 5
Bleaching Nuts 7
Unknown 1.323
Among the more common causes of fire (such as gas, candle,
curtains taking fire, children playing with stoves, tfec.) it is
remarkable how uniformly the same numbers occur under each
head from year to year. General laws obtain as much in small
as in great events. We are informed by the Post Office autho-
rities that about eight persons daily drop their letters into the
post without directing them ; we know that there is an unvary-
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE, 417
ing percentage of broken heads and limbs received into the hos-
pitals ; and here we see that a regular number of houses take
fire, year by year, from the leaping out of a spark or the dropping
of a smouldering pipe of tobacco. It may indeed be a long time
before another conflagration will arise from " a monkey upsetting
a clothes-horse," but we have no doubt such an accident will recur
in its appointed cycle.
Although gas figures so largely as a cause of fire, it does not
appear that its rapid introduction of late years into private
houses has been attended with danger. There is another kind
of light, however, which the insurance offices look upon with
terror, especially those who make it their business to insure
farm property. The assistant-secretary of one of the largest
fire-offices, speaking broadly, informed us that the introduction
of the lucifer-match caused them an annual loss of ten thousand
pounds ! In the foregoing list we see in how many ways they
have given rise to fires.
Lucifers going off probably from heat ... 80
Children playing with lucifers . . . .45
Rat gnawing lucifers ...... 1
Jackdaw playing with lucifers .... 1
127
One hundred and twenty-seven known fires thus arise from
this single cause ; and no doubt many of the twenty-five fires
ascribed to the agency of cats and dogs were owing to their
having thrown down boxes of matches at night, which they
frequently do, and which is almost certain to produce combus-
tion. The item " rat gnawing lucifer," reminds us to give a
warning against leaving about wax lucifers where there are
either rats or mice, for these vermin constantly run away with
them to their holes behind the inflammable canvas, and eat the
wax until they reach the phosphorus, which is ignited by the
friction of their teeth. Many fires are believed to have been
produced by this singular circumstance. How much, again,
must lucifers have contributed to swell the large class of con-
flagrations whose causes are unknown ! Another cause of fire,
which is of recent date, is the use of naphtha in lamps, — a most
2 E
418 FIEE3 AXD FIRE INSURANCE.
ignitible fluid when mixed in certain proportions with common
air. " A delightful novel " figures as a proximate, if not an
immediate, cause of twenty-two fires. This might be expected ;
but what can be the meaning of a fire caused by a high tide ?
"When we asked Mr. Braid wood the question, he answered,
" Oh, we always look out for fires when there is a high tide.
They arise from the heating of lime upon the addition of water."
Thus rain, we see, has caused four conflagrations, and simple
over-heating forty-four. The lime does no harm so long as it
is merely in contact with wood ; but if iron happens to be in
juxtaposition with the two, it speedily becomes red-hot, and
barges on the river have been sunk, by reason of their bolts
and iron knees burning holes in their bottoms. Of the sin-
gular entry, " rat gnawing a gaspipe," the firemen state that it
is common for rats to gnaw leaden service-pipes, for the pur-
pose, it is supposed, of getting at the water, and in this in-
stance the grey rodent laboured under a mistake, and let out
the raw material of the opposite element. Intoxication is a
fruitful cause of fires, especially in public-houses and inns.
It is commonly imagined that the introduction of hot water,
hot air, and steam-pipes, as a means of heating buildings, cuts
off one avenue of danger from fire. This is an error. Iron
pipes, often heated up to 400°, are placed in close contact with
floors and skirting-boards, supported by slight diagonal props
of wood, which a much lower degree of heat will suffice to
ignite. The circular rim supporting a still at the .Apothecaries'
Hall, which was used in the preparation of some medicament
that required a temperature of only 300°, was found, not long
ago, to have charred a circle, at least a quarter of an inch deep,
in the wood beneath it, in less than six months. Mr. Braid-
wood, in his evidence before a Committee of the House of
Lords, in 1846, stated that it was his belief that by long ex-
posure to heat, not much exceeding that of boiling water, or
212°, timber is brought into such a condition that it will fire
without the application of a light. The time during which
this process of desiccation goes on, until it ends in spontaneous
combustion, is, he thinks, from eight to ten years ; so thai a
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 419
Jlre might be hatching in a maris premises during the whole of
his lease, without making any sign I
Mr. Hosking, in his very useful and sensible little " Guide to
the proper Regulation of Buildings in Towns," quotes the fol-
lowing case, which completely confirms Mr. Braidwood's opi-
nion, and explodes the idea that heat applied through the
medium of pipes must be safe.
" Day and Martin's well-known blacking manufactory in High Holborn
was heated by means of hot water passing through iron tubes into the
various parts of the building. In December, 1848, the wooden casing and
other woodwork about the upright main pipes were found to be on fire, and
from no other cause that could be discovered than the constant exposure
for a long time of the wood to heat from the pipes. In this case the pipes
were not in contact with the wooden casing, but they were stayed and kept
upright by cross fillets of wood, which touched them, and these it was
which appeared to have taken fire. The small circulating pipes which
conveyed the hot water throughout the several chambers were raised from
the floor to about the extent of their own diameter, and the floors showed
no signs of fire where the pipes were so removed ; but in every case where
the prop or saddle which held the pipe up from the floor had been displaced,
and the pipe had been allowed to sag and touch the floor, the boards were
charred. It was understood that the temperature of the water in the pipes
never much exceeded 300°. The practical teaching of this case clearly is,
that pipes should on no consideration be pkced nearer to wood than the
distance of their own diameters. Wood dried in the thorough manner we
have mentioned is so liable to catch fire at the momentary propinquity of
flame, that practical men imagine there must be an atmosphere of some
kind surrounding it of a highly inflammable nature. In cases of pine wood
we could well understand such a theory, as we know that a stick thrust into
the fire will emit from its free end a volatile spirit of turpentine, which
lights like a jet of gas.
" Mercers' Hall, burnt in 1853, was the victim of its hot- water pipes,
which had not been in work more than four or five years. The vaulted
room in the British Museum, which contains some of the Nineveh marbles,
was fired — or rather the carpenters' work about — in a similar manner ; and
if report tells the truth, the new Houses of Parliament have been on fire
several times already from a similar cause."
Under the heads " Incendiarism," " Doubtful," and " Un-
kown," are included all the cases of wilful firing. The return,
" Incendiarism," is never made unless there has been a convic-
tion, which rarely takes place, as the offices are only anxious
to protect themselves against fraud, and do not like the trouble
or bad odour of being prosecutors on public grounds. If the
evidence of wilful firing, however, is conclusive, the insured,
when he applies for his money, is significantly informed by the
secretary that unless he leaves the oflice, he will hang him.
2 e 2
420 FIRES AXD FIRE INSURANCE.
Though arson is no loDger punished by death, the hint is
usually taken. Now and then, such flagrant offenders are met
with, that the office cannot avoid pursuing them with the
utmost rigour of the law. Such, in 18-51, was the case of a
" respectable " solicitor, living in Lime-street, Catling- street,
who had insured his house and furniture for a sum much larger
than they were worth. The means he adopted for the com-
mission of his crime without discovery were apparently sure ;
but it was the very pains he took to accomplish his end which
led to his detection. He had specially made to order a deep
tray of iron, in the centre of which was placed a socket. The
tray he filled with naphtha, and in the socket he put a candle,
the light of which was shaded by a funnel. The candle was
one of the kind w-hich he used for his gig-lamp, — for he kept a
sisr. — and was calculated to last a stated time before it reached
the naphtha. He furtively deposited the whole machine in the
cellar, within eight inches of the wooden floor, in a place con-
structed to conceal it. The attorney went out, and on coming
back again found, as he expected, that his house was on fire.
Unfortunately, however, for him — if it is ever a misfortune to
a scoundrel to be detected, — it was put out at a very early
stage, and the firemen, whilst in the act of extinguishing it,
discovered this infernal machine. The order to make it was
traced to the delinquent : a female servant, irritated at the
idea of his having left her in the house to be burnt to death,
gave evidence against him. He was tried and convicted, and
is now expiating his crime at Norfolk Island. Plans for re-
building this villain's house, and estimates of the expense, were
found afterwards among his papers.
The class "doubtful" includes all those cases in which the
offices have no moral doubt that the fire has been wilful, but
are not in possession of legal evidence sufficient to substantiate
a charge against the offender. In most of these instances, how-
ever, the insured has his reasons for taking a much smaller sum
than he originally demanded. Lastly, we have the "unknown,"
to which 1,323 cases are put down, one of the largest numbers
in the entire list, though decreasing year by year. Even of
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 421
these, a certain percentage are supposed to be wilful. There is
no denying that the crime of arson owes its origin entirely to
the introduction of fire insurance ; and there can be as little
doubt that, of late years, it has been very much increased by
the pernicious competition for business among the younger
offices, which leads them to deal too leniently with their cus-
tomers ; or, in other words, to pay the money, and ask no ques-
tions. It is calculated that one fire in seven which occur among
the small class of shopkeepers in London is an incendiary fire.
Mr. Braidwood, whose experience is larger than that of any
person, tells us that the greatest ingenuity is sometimes exer-
cised to deceive the officers of the insurance company as to the
value of the insured stock. In one instance, when the Brigade
had succeeded in extinguishing the fire, he discovered a string
stretched across one of the rooms in the basement of the house,
on which ringlets of shavings dipped in turpentine were tied at
regular intervals. On extending his investigations, he ascertained
that a vast pile of what he thought were pounds of moist
sugar consisted of parcels of brown paper, and that the
loaves of white sugar were made of plaster of Paris. Ten to
one but the " artful dodge," which some scoundrel flatters him-
self is peculiarly his own, has been put in practice by hundreds
of others before him. For this reason, fires that are wilful
generally betray themselves to the practised eye of the Brigade.
When an event of the kind " is going to happen " at home, a
common circumstance is to find that the fond parent has treated
the whole of his family to the theatre.
There is another class of incendiary fires which arise from a
species of monomania in boys and girls. Not many years ago,
the men of the Brigade were occupied for hours in putting out
no less than half a dozen fires which broke out one after another
in a house in West Smithfield ; and it was at last discovered
that they were occasioned by a youth who went about with
lucifers and slily ignited everything that would burn. He was
caught in the act of firing a curtain in the very room in which
a fireman was occupied in putting out a blaze. A still more
extraordinary case took place in the year 1848, at Torluck
422 FIEES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
House, in the Isle of Mull. On Sunday, the 11th of November,
the curtains of a bed were ignited, as was supposed by lightning ;
a window-blind followed ; and immediately afterwards the cur-
tains of five rooms broke out one after another into a flame ;
even the towels hanging up in the kitchen were burnt. The
next day a bed took fire, and it being thought advisable to carry
the bed-linen into the coach-house for safety, it caught fire three
or four times during the process of removal. In a few days the
phenomenon was renewed. The furniture, books, and every-
thing else of an inflammable nature, were, with much labour,
taken from the mansion, and again some body-linen burst into
a flame on the way. Even after these precautions had been
taken, and persons had been set to watch in every part of the
house, the mysterious fires continued to haunt it until the 22nd
of February, 1849. It was suspected from the first that they
were the act of an incendiary, and upon a rigid examination of
the household before the Fiscal-General and the Sheriff, the
mischief was traced to the daughter of the housekeeper, a
young girl, who was on a visit to her mother. She had effected
her purpose, which was perfectly motiveless, by concealing
combustibles in different parts of the house.
The most ludicrous conflagration that perhaps ever occurred
was that at Mr. Phillips's workshops, when the whole of his
stock of instruments for extinguishing flame were at one fell
swoop destroyed. " 'Tis rare to see the engineer hoist with his
own petard," says the poet ; and certainly it was a most laugh-
able contre-temps to see the fire-engines arrive at the manufac-
tory just in time to witness the fire-annihilators annihilated
by the fire. A similar mishap occurred to these unfortunate
implements at Paris. In juxtaposition with this case, we are
tempted to put another, in which the attempt at extinction
was followed by exactly the opposite effects. A tradesman was
about to light his gas, when, finding the cock stiff, he took a
candle to see what was the matter ; whilst attempting to turn
it, the screw came out, and with it a jet of gas, which was
instantly fired by the candle. The blaze igniting the shop, a
passer-by seized a wooden pail and threw its conteuts upon the
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 423
flames, which flared up immediately with tenfold power. It is
scarcely necessary to state that the water was whisky, and that
the country was Old Ireland.
Spontaneous combustion is at present very little understood,
though chemists have of late turned their attention to the
subject. It forms, however, no inconsiderable item in the list
of causes of fires. There can be no question that many of those
that occur at railway stations and buildings are due to the
fermentation which arises among oiled rags. Over-heating of
waste, which includes shoddy, sawdust, cotton, &c, is a fearful
source of conflagrations. The cause of most fires which have
arisen from spontaneous combustion is lost in the consequence.
Cases now and then occur where the firemen have been able to
detect it, as, for instance, at Hibernia Wharf in 1846, one of
Alderman Humphery's warehouses. It happened that a porter
had swept the sawdust from the floor into a heap, upon which a
broken flask of olive-oil that was placed above dripped its
contents. To these elements of combustion the sun added
its power, and sixteen hours afterwards the fire broke out.
Happily, it was instantly extinguished ; and the agents that
produced it were caught, red-handed as it were, in the act.
The chances are that such a particular combination of circum-
stances might not occur again in a thousand years. The saw-
dust will not be swept again into such a position under the oil,
or the bottle will not break over the sawdust, or the sun will
not shine in on them to complete the fatal sum. It is an im-
portant fact, however, to know that oiled sawdust, warmed by
the sun, will fire in sixteen hours, as it accounts for a number of
conflagrations in saw-mills, which never could be traced to any
probable cause.
By means of direct experiment we are also learning something
on the question of explosions. It used to be assumed that
gunpowder was answerable for all such terrible effects in ware-
houses where no gas or steam was employed ; and as policies
are vitiated by the fact of its presence, unless declared, many
squabbles have ensued between insurers and insured upon thi>.
head alone. At the late great fire at Gateshead, a report
424 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
Laving spread that the awful explosion which did so much
damage arose from the illicit stowage of seven tons of gun-
powder in the Messrs. Sisson's warehouse, the interested
insurance companies offered a reward of 100?. to elicit informa-
tion. The experiments instituted, however, by Mr. Pattinson,
in the presence of Captain Du Cane, of the Royal Engineers,
and the coroner's jury impanelled to inquire into the matter,
showed that the water from the fire-engine falling upon the
mineral and chemical substances in store, was sufficient to
account for the result. The following were the experiments
tried at Mr. Pattin son's works at Felling, about three miles
from Gateshead : —
" Mr. Pattinson first caused a metal pot to be inserted in the ground until
its top was level with the surface ; and having put into it 9 lbs. of nitrate
of soda and 6 lbs. of sulphur, he ignited the mass ; and then, heating it to
the highest possible degree of which it was susceptible, he poured into it
about a quart of water. The effect was an immediate explosion (accom-
panied by a loud clap), which would have been exceedingly perilous to any
person in its immediate vicinity. The experiment was next made under
different conditions. The pot into which the sulphur and nitrate of soda
were put was covered over the top with a large piece of thick metal of
considerable weight ; and above that again were placed several large pieces
of clay and earth. It was deemed necessary to try this experiment in an
open field, away from any dwelling-house, and which admitted of the
spectators placing themselves at a safe distance from the spot. The
materials were then ignited as before ; and when in the incandescent state,
water was poured upon the mass down a spout. The result was but a
comparatively slight explosion, and which scarcely disturbed the iron and
clods placed over the mouth of the vessel. Another experiment of the
kind was made with the same result. At length, a trial having been made
for the third time, but with this difference, that the vessel was covered
over the top with another similar vessel, and that the water was poured
upon the burning sulphur and nitrate of soda with greater rapidity than
before, by slightly elevating the spout, the effect was to blow up the pot on
the top into the air to a height of upwards of seventy feet, accompanied by
a loud detonation. With this the coroner and jury became convinced that,
whether or not the premises in Hillgate contained gunpowder, they con-
tained elements as certainly explosive, and perhaps far more destruc-
tive."
We may here mention, as a curious result of the Gateshead
fire, that several tons of lead, whilst flowing in a molten
state, came in contact with a quantity of volatilized sulphur.
Thus the lead became re-converted into lead-ore, or a sulphuret
of lead, which, as it required to be re-smelted, was thereby
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 425
debased in value from some # twenty-two to fifteen shillings a
ton.
The great fire, again, which occurred in Liverpool in October
last, was occasioned by the explosion of spirits of turpentine,
which blew out, one after another, seven of the walls of the
vaults underneath the warehouse, and in some cases destroyed
the vaulting itself and exposed to the flames the stores of
cotton above. Surely some law is called for to prevent the
juxtaposition of such inflammable materials. The turpentine is
said to have been fired by a workman who snuffed the candle
with his fingers, and accidentally threw the snuff down the
bunghole of one of the barrels of turpentine. The warehouses
burnt were built upon Mr. Fairbairn's new fireproof plan, which
the Liverpool people introduced some years ago, at a great
expense to the town.
Water alone brought into sudden contact with red-hot iron
is capable of giving rise to a gas of the most destructive nature
— witness the extraordinary explosions that are continually
taking place in steam-vessels, especially in America, which
mostly arise from the lurching of the vessel when waiting for
passengers, causing the water to withdraw from one side of the
boiler, which rapidly becomes red hot. The next lurch in an
opposite direction precipitates the water upon the highly-heated
surface, and thus the explosive gas, in addition to the steam, is
generated faster than the safety-valves can get rid of it.
A very interesting inquiry, and one of vital importance to
the actuaries of fire-insurance companies, is the relative liability
to fire of different classes of occupations and residences. We
already know accurately the number of fires which occur yearly
in every trade and kind of occupation. What we do not know,
and what we want to know, is the proportion the tenements in
which such trades and occupations are carried on, bear to the
total number of houses in the metropolis. The last census
gives us no information of this kind, and we trust the omission
will be supplied the next time it is taken. According to Mr.
Braidwood's returns, for the last twenty-one years, the number of
fires in each trade, and in private houses, has been as follows : —
426
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
Private Houses 4,
Lodgings 1,
Victuallers
Sale-shops and Offices
Carpenters and Workers in
Wood
Drapers, of Woollen and Linen
Bakers
Stables
Cabinet-makers
Oil and Colour-men
Chandlers
Grocers
Tinmen, Braziers, and Smiths
Houses under Eepair and
Building
Beershops ,
Coffee-shops and Chophouses
Brokers and Dealers in Old )
Clothes j
Hatmakers
638
304
715
701
621
372
311
277
233
230
178
162
158
150
142
139
134
127
Lucifer-match makers
Wine and Spirit Merchants.
Tailors
Hotels and Club-houses . . .
Tobacconists
Eating-houses
Booksellers and Binders . . .
Ships
Priuters and Engravers . . .
Builders
Houses unoccupied
Tallow-chandlers
Marine Store Dealers
Saw-mills
Pirework-makers
Warehouses
Chemists
Coachmakers
Warehouses (Manchester) .
Public Buildings
120
118
113
107
105
104
103
102
102
91
89
87
75
67
66
63
62
50
49
46
If we look at the mere number of fires, irrespective of the
size of the industrial group upon which they committed their
ravages, houses would appear to be hazardous according to the
order in which we have placed them. Now, this is manifestly-
absurd, inasmuch as private houses stand at the head of the list,
and it is well known that they are the safest from fire of all
kinds of tenements. Mr. Brown, of the Society of Actuaries,
who has taken the trouble to compare the number of fires
in each industrial group, with the number of houses devoted to
it, as far as he could find any data in the Post-office Directory,
gives the following average annual percentage of conflagrations,
calculated on a period of fifteen years : —
Lucifer-match makers 30-00
Lodging-houses 16*51
Hatmakers 774
Chandlers 3*88
Drapers 2'67
Tinmen, Braziers, and Smiths 2 - 42
Carpenters 2*27
Cabinet-makers 2 - 12
Oil and Colour-men l - 56
Beershops 1*31
Booksellers 1*18
Coffee-shops and Coffee-houses 1*2
Cabinet-makers PI 2
Licensed Victuallers '86
Bakers *75
Wine Merchants -61
Grocers *34
It will be seen that this estimate in a great measure inverts
the order of " dangerous." as we have ranged them in the pre-
vious table, making those which from their aggregate number
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 427
seemed to be the most hazardous trades, appear the least so, and
vice versd. Thus lucifer-match makers have a bad pre-eminence ;
indeed they are supposed to be subject to a conflagration every
third year ; while the terrible victuallers, carpenters, mercers,
and bakers, at the top of the column, shrink to the bottom of
the list. These conclusions, nevertheless, are only an approxi-
mation to the truth, since it is impossible to procure a correct
return of the houses occupied by different trades. Even if a
certain class of tenements is particularly liable to fire, it does
not follow that it will be held to be very hazardous to the
insurers. Such considerations are influenced by another ques-
tion, — Are the contents of houses forming the group, of that
nature that, in cases of their taking fire, they are likely to be
totally destroyed, seriously, or only slightly damaged 1 For
instance, lodging-houses are very liable to fire ; but they are
very seldom burnt down or much injured. Out of 81 that
suffered in 1853, not one was totally destroyed ; only 4 were
extensively affected ; the very large majority, 77, were slightly
scathed from the burning of window and bed curtains, &c.
Among the trades which are too hazardous to be insured at
any price are — we quote from the tariff of the County Fire-
office — floor-cloth manufacturers, gunpowder dealers, hatters'
" stock in the stove," lampblack makers, lucifer-match makers,
varnish makers, and wadding manufacturers; whilst the following
are considered highly hazardous; — bone-crushers, coffee-roasters,
composition-ornament makers, curriers, dyers, feather-stovers,
flambeau makers, heckling-houses, hemp and flax dressers,
ivory-black makers, japanners and japan makers, laboratory-
chemists, patent japan-leather manufacturers, lint-mills, rough- fat
melters, musical-instrument makers, oil and colour men, leather
dressers, oiled-silk and linen makers, oil of vitriol manufac-
turers, pitch makers, rag dealers, resin dealers, saw-mills, seed
crushers, ship-buiscuit bakers, soap makers, spermaceti and wax
refiners, sugar refiners, tar dealers and boilers, thatched houses
in towns, and turpentine makers.
The great mass of these trades bear " hazardous " upon the
very face of them ; but it is not equally apparent why that ot
428 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
a hatter should be so very dangerous, and particular portions of
his stock uninsurable. We are given to understand that the
stoves at which their manufacture is carried on, and the shell-
lac and willow, are the causes of this proneness to conflagra-
tions. The memorable fire at Fenning's Wharf, which burnt
with a fury to which that at the Royal Exchange and at the
Houses of Parliament was a mere bonfire, originated at a
hatter's on London Bridge, from which place it speedily spread
to Alderman Humph ery's warehouses in the rear, leaped
across Tooley Street — at this spot 60 feet wide — and thus
invaded the great river-side wharf. The two floating-engines
belonging to the brigade were brought into service on the-
occasion, and although they threw between them fourteen
hundred gallons of water a minute to the height of a hundred
feet, they had not the slightest effect upon the burning mass.
Nothing shows better the relative degrees of hazard than
the different rates charged for insurance. Thus an ordinary
dwelling-house pays but Is. 6d. per cent., while a sugar-
refinery pays at least two, and sometimes three guineas per
cent., or from 30 to 40 times as much. The same class of
houses pay different rates according to their locality. The
residence which is charged Is. 6d. in London, is, in St. John's,
Newfoundland — a town famous, or rather infamous, for fires —
charged by our English offices 11. lis. 6d. per cent. Probably
the heaviest loss the Phoenix Office ever sustained was by the
fire of St. John's, in 1846.
It is a notable fact, that the city of London, which is perhaps
the most densely inhabited spot the world has ever seen, has
long been exempt from conflagrations involving a considerable
number of houses. " The devouring element," it is true, has
made many meals from time to time of huge warehouses and
public buildings ; but since the great fire of 1666 it has ceased
to gorge upon whole quarters of the town. We have never
had, since that memorable occasion, to record the destruction
of a thousand houses at a time, a matter of frequent occurrence
in the United States and Canada — indeed in all parts of Con-
tinental Europe. The fires which have proved fatal to large
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 429
plots of buildings in the metropolis have in every instance
taken place without the sound of Bow bells. A comparison
between the number of tires which occurred between the years
1838 and 1843, in 20,000 houses situate on either side of the
Thames, shows at once the superior safety of its northern bank,
the annual average of fires on the latter being only 20 against
36 on the southern side. For this exemption we have to thank
the great disaster, if we might so term what has turned out a
blessing. At one fell swoop it cleared the city, and swept
away for ever the dangerous congregation of wooden buildings
and narrow streets which were always affording material for the
flame.
Mr. Peter Cunningham, in his " Handbook of London,"*
gives the following curious information respecting its supposed
"The fire of London, commonly called the Great Fire, commenced on
the east side of this lane (Pudding-lane) about one or two in the morning
of Sunday, September 2nd, 1666, in the house of Farryner, the king's
baker.
"It was the fashion of the true blue Protestants of the period to attri-
bute the fire to the Roman Catholics ; and when, in 1681, Oates and his
plot strengthened this belief, the following inscription was affixed on the
front of this house (No. 25, I believe), erected on the site of Farryner, the
baker's : —
" 'Here, by the permission of Heaven, hell broke loose upon this Pro-
testant city, from the malicious hearts of barbarous priests, by the hand of
their agent, Hubert, who confessed, and on the ruins of this place declared
the fact for which he was hanged, viz., that here began that dreadful fire
which is described on and perpetuated by the neigbouring pillar, erected
anno 1681, in the mayoralty of Sir Peter Ward, knight.'
" This celebrated inscription, set up pui-suant to an order of the Court
of Common Council, June 17th, 1681, was removed in the reign of
James II., replaced in the reign of William III., and finally taken down
1 on account of the stoppage of passengers to read it.' Entick, who makes
addition to Maitland in 1756, speaks of it 'as lately taken away.' The
house was 'rebuilt in a very handsome manner.'
"The inscribed stone is still preserved, it is said, in a cellar in Pudding-
lane. Hubert was a French papist, of six-and-twenty years of age, the son
of a watchmaker at Eouen, in Normandy. He was seized in Essex, con-
fessed he began the fire, and, persisting in his confession, was hanged, upon
no other evidence than his own. He stated in his examination that he had
been ' suborned in Paris to this action,' and that three more 'combined to
* Repeated reference to this valuable work has more than confirmed the
opinion we originally expressed of it. There are few books of greater
utility than what is in fact a " History of London, Past and Present.,"
430 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
do the same thing. They asked him if he knew the place where he first
put fire. He answered he knew it very well, and would show it to any-
body.' He was then ordered to be blindfolded, and carried to several places
of the City, that he might point out the house. They first led him to a
place at some distance from it, opened his eyes, and asked him if that was
it ; to which he answered, 'No, it was nearer the Thames.' 'The house
and all which were near it,' says Clarendon, 'were so covered and buried in
ruins, that the owners themselves, without some infallible mark, could very
hardly have said where their own house had stood ; but this man led them
directly to the place, described how it stood, the shape of the little yard,
the fashion of the doors and windows, and where he first put the fire ; and all
this with such exactness, that they who had dwelt long near it could not so
perfectly have described all particulars.' Tillotson told Burnet that Howell
(the then Recorder of London) accompanied Hubert on this occasion, 'was
with him and had much discourse with him, and that he concluded it was
impossible it could be a melancholy dream.' This, however, was not the
opinion of the judges who tried him. ' Neither the judges,' says Clarendon,
' nor any present at the trial, did believe him guilty, but that he was a
poor distracted wretch, weary of his life, and chose to part with it in this
way.' We may attribute the fire with safety to another cause than a
Roman conspiracy. We are to remember that the flames originated in the
house of a baker ; that the season had been unusually dry ; that the houses
were of wood, overhanging the road-way (penthouses they were called), so
fiat the lane was even narrower than it is now, and that a strong east wind
was blowing at the time. It was thought very little of at first. Pepys put
out his head from his bedroom window in Seething-lane, a few hours after
it broke out, and returned to bed again, as if it were nothing more than an
ordinary fire, a common occurrence, and likely to be soon subdued. The
Lord Mayor (Sir Thomas Bludworth) seems to have thought as little of it
till it was too late. People appear to have been paralyzed, and no attempt
of any consequence was made to check its progress. For four successive
days it raged and gained ground, leaping after a prodigious manner from
house to house and street to street, at great distances from one another.
Houses were at length pulled down, and the flames, still spreading west-
ward, were at length stopped at the Temple Church in Fleet-street, and
Pie-Corner in Smithfield. In these four days 13,200 houses, 400 streets,
and 89 churches, including the cathedral church of St. Paul, were destroyed,
and London lay litei-allyin ruins. The loss was so enormous, that we may
be said still to suffer from its effects. Yet the advantages were not few.
London was freed from the plague ever after ; and we owe St. Paul's, St.
Bride's, St. Stephen's Walbrook, and all the architectural glories of Sir
Christopher Wren, to the desolation it occasioned."
In addition to these advantages we acquired another, that of
party-walls — a safeguard which has prevented fires from
spreading in the City, when whole streets have been swept away
iu a few hours in other parts of the metropolis, and especially
in what might be termed the water-side suburbs of London —
Kotherhithe, Greenwich, and Gravesend. The Act by which
party-walls were enforced came into operation immediately
prior to the rebuilding of the town, and has been rendered more
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. # 431
stringent and effective from time to time by various amendments.
The Building Act of the 7th and 8th of Queen Victoria contains
the important enactment, that " no warehouse shall exceed
200,000 cubic feet in contents." Fire becomes unmanageable
when it has access to large stores of combustible matter ; under
such conditions it acquires a {i fortified position," and cannot,
in the vast majority of cases, be reduced unless by an early
surprise.
As the very heart of London is largely occupied with Manches-
ter warehouses full of the most inflammable materials, the safety
of the capital depends upon this restrictive law. The Manchester
warehousemen, nevertheless, have managed to set that part of the
Act at defiance. Let us take, as the latest and most flagrant
example, Cook's warehouses. This structure, which within these
last two years has raised its enormous bulk in St. Paul's Church-
yard, and actually dwarfed the metropolitan cathedral by the
propinquity of its monotonous mass, contains 1,100,000 cubic
feet of space open from end to end, or nine hundred thousand feet
more than it is entitled to possess. If we were to take twenty-five
ordinary-sized dwelling-houses, and pull down their party-walls,
we should have just the state of things which is here presented
to us. But it will be asked, if it is against the law, why do
not the proper officers interfere ? Where are the City surveyors ?
The reason, good reader, is this : the Manchester warehousemen
of late years have adopted a new reading of the law — a reading
which we believe no judge would allow, but which the surveyors
have not yet ventured to dispute. " We escape altogether," say
these gentlemen, " the provisions of the Building Act relative to
warehouses, as, by reason of our breaking bulk, our places of
business are not mere storehouses." That this reading is a viola-
tion of the spirit of the statute there can be no doubt : that it is
also a violation of its letter we also believe ; if not, it is high
time that the law be amended upon this point ; for we affirm, on
the very best authority, that London has never since the great
fire been in such danger of an overwhelming conflagration as it
is now by the presence and rapid spreading of these huge ware-
houses, filled with the elements of destruction, and placed side
432 , FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
by side, as though for the very purpose of producing the utmost
mischief by contagion.
Let us suppose, for instance, that a fire had once established
itself in Cook's warehouses ; to extinguish it would be out of the
question. Fire-engines would be perfectly useless against a
body of flame which would speedily become like a blast-furnace,
and burn with a white heat. Who knows what would come
after ? Supposing the wind to be blowing from the south, we
tremble for the cathedral. The huge dome is constructed
entirely of oak, dried by the seasoning of 150 years, and the
combustible framework is only lined on the exterior by sheet
lead. It may be imagined that this would be protection enough
against the enormous masses of burning cotton and linen cloth
which would speedily be blown upon it ; but Mr. Cottam not
long since stated, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, that,
" when the Princess's Theatre was on fire, part of his premises
also caught. On examination, he found that it arose from a
piece of blazing wood being thrown over from the theatre,
which, falling into the leaden gutter, had melted it, and the
liquid metal passed through the ceiling on to a workman's bench,
where there was some oil, which it immediately set fire to." The
great dome would be in quite as much danger as Mr. Cottam's
workshop. Engines would be useless at such a height even as
the stone gallery, the place where large bodies of burning mate-
rial would most likely make a lodgment. Irreparable as would
be the disaster with which we are threatened in this direction,
one quite as great lies in another. Eastward of Cook's ware-
houses, and in the neighbourhood of a vitriol or some other
chemical manufactory, is situated Doctors' Commons, the reposi-
tory of the great mass of English wills. The roofs of this pile
of buildings* are continuous ; the buildings themselves are nearly
as dry as the law itself. If one portion of the structure were to
catch fire, nothing could save the whole from destruction. It
may be urged that the block of buildings, which commands, like
* The roof of the pile of buildings composing Somerset-House is also
continuous, thereby greatly increasing the risk of the entire building, if one
portion of it were to catch.
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 433
a battery, two such important points in the metropolis, is, after
all, fire-proof, and, as far as danger from without is concerned,
this is true enough ; but as cotton bales are not fire-proof, it is
an impossibility to insure safety from within. Iron columns in
such instances melt before the white heat like sticks of sealins:-
wax ; stone flies into a thousand pieces with the celerity of a
Prince Rupert's drop ; slate becomes transformed into a pumice
light enough to float upon water ; the iron girders and beams, by
reason of their lateral expansion, thrust out the walls ; and the
very elements, which seem calculated under ordinary circum-
stances to give an almost exhaustless durability to the structure,
produce its most rapid destruction. The great fire at Messrs.
Cubitt's so-called fire-proof works at Pimlico is one of the latest
proofs we have had of the entire fallacy of supposing stone and
iron can withstand the action of a large body of fierce flame.
We saw the other day portions of columns from this building
fused as though they had been composed of so much pewter.
Again, when the Armoury of the Tower was destroyed, the
barrels of the muskets were found reduced to the most fantastic
shapes, and some of the largest pieces of ordnance were doubled
up. A stronger instance still was exhibited at Davis's wharf
in 1837, when a cast-iron pipe outside the building was melted
like an icicle. But such a fierce furnace is not at all necessary
to destroy cast-iron supports, as it appears from the experiments
of Mr. Fairbairn, that, at a temperature of 600° the cohesive
power of the metal rapidly decreases with every increment of
heat. Mr. Braid wood, in his paper on fire-proof buildings, read
before the Institute of Civil Engineers on February 29th, 1849,
was the first, we believe, to draw attention to this serious
defect in a material used so extensively in modern buildings;
Since that paper was read, a case has come under his notice
which clearly testifies to the truth of his position : —
"A chapel in Liverpool-road, Islington, 70 feet in length and 52 feet in
breadth, took fire in the cellar, on the 2nd October, 1848, and was com-
pletely burned down. After the fire it was ascertained that, of thirteen
cast-iron pillars used to support the galleries, only two remained perfect ;
the greater part of the others were broken into small pieces, the metal
appearing to have lost all power of cohesion, and some parts were melted,
2 F
434: FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
of which specimens are now shown. It should be observed that these
pillars were of ample strength to support the galleries when filled by the
congregation, but when the fire reached them, they crumbled under the
weight of the timber only, lightened as it must have been by the progress
of the fire."
But when we are considering the safety of Manchester ware-
houses, we are also considering the lives of the young men who
are employed in them, and are in most cases located in the
upper stories. In several of the wholesale warehouses in the
City, as Mr. Braidwood informs us, —
" The cast-iron pillars are much less in proportion to the weight to be
carried than those referred to, and would be completely in the draught of a
fire. If a fire should unfortunately take place under such circumstances,
the loss of human life might be very great, as the chance of fifty, eighty, or
one hundred people escaping, in the confusion of a sudden night alarm, by
one or two ladders to the roof, could scarcely be calculated on, and the time
such escape might necessarily occupy, independent of all chance of accidents,
would be considerable.'"
The application of water would only aggravate the difficulty,
for, if it touched the red-hot iron, in all probability it would
cause it to fracture and render it useless as a support. It is
well known that furnace-bars are very speedily destroyed by a
leakage of the boiler, the effect of the steam on the under side
of the bars being to curve and twist them. To insure a per-
fectly fire-proof building, we must resort to one of two courses
— either we must divide large warehouses into compartments by
solid brick divisions, and thus confine any fire that sLould
happen to break out within manageable limits, just as we save
an iron ship from foundering, on account of a circumscribed
fracture, by having her built in compartments ; or we must
resort to the old Roman plan of building — that is, support the
floors upon brick piers and groined arches well laid in cement,
for mortar will pulverize under a great heat. The former plan
has the great advantage that it insures the safety of the prin-
cipal contents, as well as of the building itself. The new
Record Office in Fetter Lane, is a perfect specimen of the kind,
and is, perhaps, the only • absolutely fire- proof structure in
England, being constructed of iron and stone, and having no
room larger than 17 feet by 25, and 17 feet high, with a
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 435
cubical contents of only 8,000 feet. None of the rooms open
into each other, but into a vaulted passage by means of iron
doors ; and if the documents were to take fire in any one of
them, they would burn out as innocuously to the rest of the
building as coals in a grate.
It must not be supposed that we disparage altogether the use
of iron and stone in the erection of warehouses, even where
they are built on the ordinary plan ; for the outside structure
they are invaluable, and render it safe from most extraneous
danger. No better proof of this could be given than the
experience of Liverpool, whose fires during the last half-century
have been on the most gigantic scale. The larger bonded and
other warehouses were generally built with continuous roofs,
and with wooden doors and penthouses to the different stories,
which always kindled when there was a fire on the opposite
side of the narrow streets in which they were ordinarily placed.
To such a lamentable extent had conflagrations increased about
the year 1841, that the rate of insurance, which had been eight
shillings per cent., ran up to thirty-six shillings. This was
about the time of the Formby Street fire, when 379.000J. worth
of property was destroyed, and the total losses from the begin-
ning of the century had not been less than three millions and
a quarter sterling. The magnitude of the evil called for a
corresponding remedy. A Bill was obtained in 1843 for the
amendment of the Building Act ; party-walls were run up five
feet high between each warehouse, doors and penthouses were
constructed of iron, the cubical contents of the buildings them-
selves were limited, &c. ; and the effect of these improvements
was so to diminish the risk that insurances fell to their normal
rate. It cannot be said, however, that Liverpool has yet purged
herself of the calamity of fire.
In ordinary dwellings and in public offices the use of iron
and stone, again, cannot be too much commended : in such
buildings the rooms are comparatively small, and their contents
are not sufficiently inflammable either in quantity or quality to
injure these materials. A marked diminution in the ii umber
cf fires in the metropolis may be expected, from the almost
2 f 2
436 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
universal use of iron and stone in new structures of this kind.
The houses in Victoria Street, Westminster, built upon the
" flat " system, are, we should say, entirely fireproof, as the
floors are either vaulted or filled in with concrete, which will
not allow the passage of fire. Nearly all Paris is built in this
manner, and hence its freedom from large conflagrations.*
"Were it not for this, no city would be more likely to suffer, as
the houses are very high, and the supply of water extremely
bad. To Londoners it seems little better than a farce to watch
the sapeurs-pompiers hurrying to a fire with an engine not
much bigger than a garden squirt, followed by a water-barrel —
resources which are found sufficient to cope with the enemy,
confined as it is within such narrow limits.
Without going to the expense of stone and iron, we might, by
taking a hint from the Parisians, make the rooms of our private
houses fireproof, by abandoning the absurd custom of separating
rooms by hollow wooden floors and hollow wooden partitions
thinly coated with plaster — a method which has the effect of
circulating the fire from the bottom to the top of the house in
the quickest possible space of time. If a fire breaks out in a
room, the ceiling will, it is true, stop the flames for a consider-
able time ; but the hollow partitions full of air act as conductors,
and the firemen have often found that the flames have spread
from a lower to an upper apartment by this secret channel,
without injuring the intermediate rooms, and without even
its progress being suspected. As we understand that the
Building Act is to be amended, we trust its emendators
will extend the clause relating to party-walls to rooms as
well as to houses. The expense need be but trifling, as will
be seen by consulting the little work of Mr. Hosking, who was
the first, we believe, to instruct the English public in the
admirable methods of the Parisian builders. Instead of using
flimsy laths for their partitions, they employ stout oaken pieces
of wood, as thick as garden palings ; these they nail firmly on
* In Nottingham, where they have gypsum in the neighbourhood, as they
have in Paris, they form their floors and partitions in the same solid manner,
and the consequence is, that a building is rarely burned down in that town.
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 437
each side of the framing of the partition, fill the space between
with rubble and plaster of Paris, and thickly coat the whole of
the wall with the latter. The floors are managed in the same
manner, as well as the under side of the stairs, which are thus
rendered almost as fire-proof as a stone flight. Very many
lives would be saved in Great Britain if this simple expedient
were adopted by our builders, instead of making the stairs of
ill-fitted wood, full of air-crevices, and covering their under
side with a thin film of plaster ; for fire always makes for the
stairs, which form the funnel of the house ; and hence the
necessity for rendering them as secure as possible, in order to
provide a line of retreat for the inmates.
We have said that London is growing upwards to the sky —
no house in any valuable portion of the metropolis being now
rebuilt without the addition of at least one story. Eighty and
ninety feet is getting a common height for our great offices and
warehouses, which is tantamount to saying that a certain portion
of the metropolis, and that a constantly increasing one, is out-
growing the power of the Fire Brigade, as no engine built upon
the present plan can throw water for many minutes to such an
elevation. Mr. Braidwood foresees that he must call in the aid of
the common drudge, steam. In America they have already in-
troduced this- new agent with some success, and in London we
have proved its power in the floating engine. Steam fire-engines,
it is evident, will soon be brought into use, unless we do away
with the necessity for engines at all by fixing the hose directly
on the mains, as is done at Hamburg. But to effect this it
will be necessary to relay the whole metropolis with much
larger pipes, to increase their number, and at the same time
adopt the constant-service system. At present, even if we had
the water always on, the mains are often so small as to preclude
the use of more than two or three hose — for, if the collective
diameters of the areas of the latter exceed that of the pipe
which feeds them, the pressure will cease, and no water will be
propelled to any height through the jet. It cannot be denied,
however, that if the streets of London were all supplied with
capacious mains, and the different companies plugged them
438 FIHES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
profusely (a thing they are very chary of doing, for fear of
their being injured by the wear and tear of the fire-engines),
London would be rendered far more secure than it is at present,
as scarcely any fire could withstand the full force of constant
streams of thousands of gallons of water per minute. At
present the greater portion of the water is wasted ; at the
destruction of the Houses of Parliament, a body of this element
equal to an acre in area, and twelve feet deep, flowed from the
mains, a tenth part of which could not have been used by the
twenty-three jets that were playing simultaneously.
It will not here be out of place to say a few words upon"the
method of extinguishing flame by means of the gaseous mixture
contained in Phillips's fire-annihilators. According to a writer
in the " Household Words," the ordinary-sized annihilator is
less than that of a small upright iron coalscuttle, and its weight
not greater than can be easily carried by man or woman to any
part of the house. It is charged with a compound of charcoal,
nitre, and gypsum, moulded into the form of a large brick : the
igniter is a glass tube inserted into the top of this brick : in-
closing two phials — one filled with the mixture of chlorate of
potassa and sugar, the other containing a few drops of sulphuric
acid. A slight blow upon a knob drives down a pin which
breaks the phials, and the different mixtures coming in contact
ignite the mass, the gas arising from which, acting upon a
water-chamber contained in the machine, produces a steam, and
the whole escapes forth in a dense expanding cloud.
Mr. Phillips made some public experiments with his fire-
annihilator three or four years ago, in which its power to put
out the fiercest flame was fully proved. The timber framework
of a three storied-house smeared with pitch and tar, upon being
fired, was instantly extinguished : quantities of pitch, tar, and
oil of turpentine, which only burn the stronger for the presence
of water, were dealt with still more expeditiously. The valuable
quality of rendering an atmosphere of dense smoke, in which
no living thing could exist, perfectly respirable, was also shown
in the most satisfactory manner. Since that time the machine
has been brought into action at Leeds, where it put out a fire
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 439
in an attic ; and in a very serious conflagration, which took
place in the spirit-room, and afterwards extended to the main
hatchway of the mail steamer the City of Manchester, in the
autumn of 1852, it was applied with the most perfect success.
There can be no doubt that in all confined places the control of
the annihilator over flame is omnipotent — acting much more
speedily than water, and, unlike that element, doing no damage.
When the flames are unconfined, the annihilator will prove of
little use, because, the gaseous cloud that issues from it not
being heavier than the air, it cannot be projected to any dis-
tance. As an auxiliary to the engine, it will be invaluable in
many cases, as it will enable the fireman to go into places where
at present he dares not enter, unless protected by the unwieldy
smoke-jacket, the supply of air to which might at any time be
cut off* by rubbish falling upon the hose through which it is
pumped to him by the engine.
Although it is foreign to our design to speak at length of
agricultural fires, and incendiarism among farming stock, the
subject is too important to be entirely omitted. One of the
largest London insurance- offices, interested in farming stock,
posts up bills about premises they have insured, which, after
stating that no lucifers are to be used, or pipes are to be
smoked, goes on to say, " This farm is insured ; the fire office
will be the only sufferer in the event of afire." The inference is,
that the labourer will feel more inclined to pay respect to the
property of an insurance company than to that of the farmer.
Yet it is far from being the case that the crime is always
prompted by personal ill-will. One of the largest agricultural
incendiaries upon record was a city weaver, who acted from a
general spirit of discontent, without any hatred or knowledge
of the owners. In other instances the sole motive is the "jolli-
fication " which generally follows a fire upon a farm : this fact
came to light at a trial in Cambridge, eight or nine years since,
when a man who was sentenced to death for setting fire to a
homestead confessed to having caused twelve different fires, his
only object being the desire to obtain the few shillings, and the
refreshment of bread, cheese, and ale, which are given to
440
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
labourers on these occasions. On the other hand, if the farmer
determines to give no recompense, the hangers-on have been
known to put their hands in their pockets and watch his
property burn with the utmost indifference, if not with glee.
The cause of fire which the farmer has mainly to guard
against may be at one seen by the following table, for which
we are indebted to the manager of the County Fire Office : —
Losses on Farming Stock between January the 1st and November the BQth,
1853.
Number
of Fires.
49
17
22
9
128
Cause.
Incendiary .....
Lightning . . . . .
Children and others playing with lucifers
Steam thrashing-machines
General ......
Amount.
£. s. d.
5214 6 11
181 5 10
1211 18 10
430
1781 19 9
8819 11 4
These losses are upon a total insurance of eight millions.
Incendiarism and children playing with lucifers are the two
grand elements of destruction ; and the former, we are given
to understand, is below the general average. Kind treatment
and better education are the only shields that can protect the
farmer against incendiarism. The nuisance arising from chil-
dren playing with lucifers may be abated by the absolute denial
of matches to young boys about a farm, who, to cook their
dinners, generally cause conflagrations near the ricks in the
winter, and among the standing corn whilst " keeping birds "
in the summer. The following excellent suggestions are by
Mr. Beaumont, the secretary of the County Fire Office.
Precautions to be taken against a Fire.
Forbid your men to use lucifer matches, smoke, or light pipes or cigars,
destroy wasps' nests, or fire off guns, in or near the rickyard, or to throw
hot cinders into or against any wooden out-building on the farm, on pain
of instant dismissal.
Place your ricks in a single line, and as far distant from eacb other as
you conveniently can.
Place hay -ricks and corn-stacks alternately ; the hay- rick will check the
progress of the fire.
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 441
» Keep the rickyard, and especially the spaces between the stacks and
ricks, clear of all loose straw ; and in all respects in a neat and clean
state. The loose straw is more frequently the means of firing than the
stack itself.
Have a pond close to the rickyard, although there may be but a bad
supply of water.
When a steam thrashing-machine is to be used, place it on the lee side of
the stack or barn, so that the wind may blow the sparks away from the
stacks. Let the engine be placed as far from the machine as the length
of the strap will allow. Have the loose straw continually cleared away
from the engine ; see that two or three pails of water are constantly close
to the ash-pan, and that the pan itself is kept constantly full of water.
How to act when a Fire has broken out in a Bichyard.
Do not wait for the engines, nor for the assistance of the labourers from
a distance. Depend entirely upon the immediate and energetic exertions of
yourself and your own men.
Do not allow the rick or stack on fire to be disturbed — let it burn itself
out — but let every exertion be made to press it compactly together, and,
as far as is practicable, prevent any lighted particles flying about.
Get together all your blankets, carpets, sacks, rugs, and other similar
articles, soak them thoroughly in water, and place them over and against
the adjoining ricks and stacks, towards which the wind blows.
Having thus covered the sides of the ricks adjoining that on fire, devote
all your attention to the latter. Press it together by every available means.
If water is at hand, throw upon it as much as possible.
If engines arrive, let the water be thrown upon the blankets, &c,
covering the adjoining stacks, and then upon the stack on fire.
Among the numerous hands who flock to assist upon these occasions, many
do mischief by their want of knowledge, and especially by opening the
fired stack and scattering the embers. In order to obviate this evil, place
your best man in command over the stack on fire, desire him to make it
his sole duty to prevent it being disturbed, and to keep it pressed and
watered.
Place other men, in whose steadiness you have confidence, to watch the
adjoining ricks, to keep the coverings over them, and to extinguish any
embers flying from the stack on fire. In order to effect this, it is most
desirable that there should be ladders at hand to enable one or two of the
labourers to mount upon each staGk.
If the ricks are separated from each other, and there is no danger of
the fire extending to a second, it is of course desirable to save as much of
the one on fire as may be possible. That, however, is not unfrequently
accomplished by keeping the rick compactly together rather than by
opening it.
Send for all the neighbours' blanket? and tarpaulins : these are invaluable,
they are near at hand, and can be immediately applied.
The companies are always very willing to pay for any damage
done in attempting to save their property.
The business of the Fire Brigade is to protect property and
not life from fire, though the men of course use every exertion
to save the inmates, and are always provided with a "jumping-
442 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
sheet M to catch those who precipitate themselves from the
roofs and windows of houses. As the danger to life generally
arises at a very early stage of a fire, when the freshly aroused
inhabitants fly distracted into very dangerous places, and often
destroy themselves by needless haste, it is highly necessary to
have help at hand before the engines can possibly arrive.
There are, it is true, ladders placed against all the parish
churches, but they are always locked up, often rotten, and
never in charge of trained individuals : accordingly, they may
be classed for inefficiency with the parish engines. A proof of
this was given at the calamitous fire which occurred in Dover
Street, at Raggett's Hotel, on which occasion Mrs. Round and
several other persons were lost through the conduct of the
keeper of one of the fire-escapes of the parish of St. James
being absent when called, and drunk when, upon his arrival,
he attempted to put his machine in action : the keeper of a
second escape belonging to this parish, and stationed in
Golden Square, refused to go to a fire in Soho, which occurred
in 1852, because it was out of his district : the consequence
was, than seven persons threw themselves from the windows and
were all more or less dangerously injured.
In 1833 the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from
Fire, which had been imperfectly organized a year or two
before, was fully established, and has continued to. increase the
sphere of its influence year by year. The committee of manage-
ment, appreciating the value of celerity in attending fires, have
marked the metropolis out into fifty-five squares of half a mile
each : in forty-two of these they have established a station,* in
* The following are the stations of the fire-escapes : —
Western District. — 1. Edgeware Eoad, near Cambridge Terrace ; 2. Baker
Street, corner of King Street ; 3. Great Portland Street, by the chapel ;
4. New Road , corner of Albany Street ; 5. New Road, Euston Square,
in front of St. Pancras Church; 6. Camden Town, in front of "The
Sotxthampton Arms ; " 7. Battle-bridge, King's Cross ; 8. Guildford
Street, Foundling Hospital ; 9. Bedford Row, south end ; 10. Hart Street,
Bloomsbury, by St. George's Church ; 11. Tottenham Court Road, by the
chapel ; 12. Oxford Street, corner of Dean Street, Soho ; 13. Oxford
Street, corner of Marylebone Lane; 14. Oxford Street west, corner of
Connaught Place ; 15. South Audley Street, by the chapel ; 16. Brompton,
near Knightsbridge Green ; 17. Eaton Square, by St. Peter's Church ;
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 443
its most central part, at which, a fire-escape and trained con-
ductor are to be found from. 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. from Lady-day to
Michaelmas, and from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. from Michaelmas to
Lady-day. When the remaining thirteen squares are furnished,
there will be means of rescue from fire within a quarter of a
mile of every house in London : thus the nightly watch for
this purpose is better organized with respect to number of
stations than even the fire brigade, and, like this force, it is
under the general management of a single director. We are
all familiar with the sight of these strange-looking machines as
they come towering along in the dusk of the evening towards
their appointed stations ; but few perhaps have seen them in
action or have examined the manner in which they are con-
structed. There are several methods of building them, but the
one chiefly used is WiveH's, a very simple machine and speedily
put in action, a description of which we take from the society's
report : —
"The main ladder reaches from thirty to thirty -five feet, and can
instantly be applied to most second-floor windows, by means of the carriage
lever. The upper ladder folds over the main ladder, and is raised easily
in the position represented, by a rope attached to its lever-irons on either
side of the main ladder ; or, as recently adopted in one or two of the
escapes, by an arrangement of pulleys in lieu of the lever-irons. The short
ladder, for first floors, fits in under the carriage, and is often of the greatest
service. Under the whole length of the main ladder is a canvas trough or
bagging, made of stout sailcloth, protected by an outer trough of copper-
wire net, leaving sufficient room between for the yielding of the canvas in
18. Westminster, No. 1, Broad Sanctuary ; 19. Westminster, No. 2,
Horseferry Road ; 20. West Strand, Trafalgar Square, by St. Martin's
Church ; 21. Strand, by St. Clement's Church.
Eastern District. — 22. New Bridge Street, by the Obelisk ; 23. Holborn
Hill, corner of Hatton Garden ; 24. Aldersgate Street, opposite Carthusian
Street;, 25. Clerkenwell, St. John Street, opposite Corporation Row;
26. Islington, No. 1, on the Green ; 27. Islington, No. 2, Compton Ter-
race, Highbury End ; 28. Old Street, St. Luke's, corner of Bath Street ;
29. Shoreditch, in front of the church ; 30. Bishopsgate Street, near Wide-
gate Street ; 31. Whitechapel, High Street, in froot of the church ;
32. Aldgate, corner of Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street ; 33. The
Royal Exchange, by the Wellington Statue; 34. Cheapside, by the Western
Obelisk ; 35. Southwark, in front of St. George's Church ; 36. Newington,
Obelisk, facing " The Elephant and Castle ; " 37. Kennington Cross ;
38. Lambeth, by the Female Orphan Asylum ; 39. Blackfriars Road,
oorner of Great Charlotte Street ; 40. Finsbury Circus, corner of West
Street ; 41. St. Mary-at-Hill, corner of Rood Lane ; 42. Conduit Street,
corner of Great George Street.
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
a person's descent. The addition of the copper-wire is a great improve-
ment, as, although not affording an entire protection against the canvas
burning, it in most cases avails, and prevents the possibility of any one
falling through. The soaking of the canvas in alum and other solutions is
attended to ; but this, while preventing its flaming, cannot avoid the risk
of accident from the fire charring the canvas."
When we remember that the fire-escapes often have to be
raised above windows from which the flames are pouring forth,
it will be seen how valuable is this double protection against
the destruction of the canvas. The necessity for it was shown
at a fire in Crawford Street, Marylebone, where an explosion
took place which fired the canvas and let the conductor fall
through just as he was rescuing an inmate, — an accident by
which he was dreadfully injured. When people look up at
these fire-escapes, they generally shudder at the idea of having
to enter the bag, suspended at a height of forty feet from the
ground ; but in the hour of danger the terrified inmates never
exhibit the slightest reluctance. Once in, they slide down the
bulging canvas in the gentlest manner, without any of the
rapidity that would be imagined from the almost perpendicular
position in which it hangs.
The fire-escape which is stationed near the New Koad is
constructed so that it can be taken off its wheels, in order to
allow it to enter the long gardens which here extend before so
many of the houses. The height attainable by these escapes
varies from 43^ feet to 45 feet. A supplemental short ladder
is now carried by most of them, which can be quickly fitted
on an emergency into the upper ladder, and increases the height
to 50 feet.
The intrepidity of the conductors of these machines is quite
astonishing. Familiarity with danger begets a coolness which
enables them to place themselves in positions which would
prove destructive to unpractised persons. As in most cases
they are the prominent actors in a drama witnessed by a whole
street-full of excited spectators, they are perhaps tempted by
the cheers to risk themselves in a manner they would little
dream of doing under other circumstances. In addition to
such a stimulus they are rewarded with a silver medal, and
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 445
with sums of money, for any extraordinary act of gallantry.
Every instance of a daring rescue is entered in the society's
books, from which we have extracted a few examples, to show
what enterprising fellows they are. At a fire which broke out
in November, 1844, in a house in Hatton Garden, Conductor
Sunshine on his arrival found the following state of things.
On the second floor a man was sitting on the sill of one of the
windows (there were four windows abreast), and on the third
floor a man was hanging by his hands to the window-sill at the
other extremity of the house-front. After having rescued the
man on the second floor, he did not dare to raise his third-floor
ladder, for fear of hitting the hanging man's hands, and causing
him to fall ; accordingly, he stood upon the top rung of the
second-floor ladder, and by so doing could just touch with his
upstrained arms the poor fellow's depending feet. In this
position, having himself but a precarious hold of the window-
frame beneath, his only footing being the topmost rung, he
called to the man to drop when he told him, and discovered
from his silence that he was deaf and dumb. Upon being
tapped upon the foot, however, he let go, and the conductor
managed, incredible as it may appear, to slip him down between
himself and the wall on to the top of the ladder, and brought
him safely to the ground. In the next case, Conductor Chap-
man was the hero of the scene, although the indomitable Sun-
shine was present. Having crossed the roofs of two adjoining
out-buildings, Chapman managed to place his ladder against
the second back floor of the house on fire. Having rescued a
lady, he was obliged to retrace his steps over the roofs, as the
fire was coming through the tiling. He could only cross by
making a bridge of the short ladder ; and scarcely had they
cleared the premises when it fell in with a tremendous crash.
On another occasion this intrepid man having made an
entrance into the second-floor window of a house in Tottenham-
court Road, he was obliged to retreat twice, by reason of his
lamp going out in the dense smoke. On the third trial it re-
mained in, and enabled him to search the place. " I called out
loud," he says in his report, " and was answered by a kind of
446 FIRES AND FIUE INSURANCE.
stifled cry. I rushed across the landing to the back room, and
encountered a man, who groaned out, " O save my wife !" I
groped about, and laid hold of a female, who feM with me,
clasping two children in her arms. I took them up, and
brought them to the escape, guiding the man to follow me, and
placed them all safely in the canvas, from whence they reached
the ground without any injury ; and, finally, I came down
myself, quite exhausted." " We thought," said a bystander,
" when he jumped into the second-floor window, that we should
not see him again alive ; and I cannot teM you how he was
cheered when he appeared with the woman and her two
children."
We shall content ourselves by quoting one more exploit from
the Reports of the Society, the hero of which was Conductor
Wood, who received a testimonial on vellum for the following
service at a fire in Colchester-street, Whitechapel, on the 29th
of April, 1854 :—
" On his arrival, the fire was raging throughout the back of the house,
and smoke issuing from every window ; upon entering the first-floor room,
part of which was on fire, he discovered five persons almost insensible
from the excessive heat : he immediately descended the ladder with a
woman on his shoulders, and holding a child by its night-clothes in his mouth;
again ascended, re-entered the room, and having enabled the father to
escape, had scarcely descended, with a child under each arm, when the
whole building became enveloped in flames, rendering it impossible to
attempt a rescue of the remainder of the unfortunate inmates."
The rewards of the Society are not always won by their own
men. William Trafford, police constable 344, for instance, had
one of the Society's medals presented to him, for " allowing
two persons to drop upon him from the top windows of a house
in College-street, Camden-town, and thereby enabling them
to escape without material injury.'"' Nothing is said as to
the damage done to poor Trafford by this act of self-devo-
tion.
The real working value of the fire-escapes may be judged
from the fact that, during the twenty years they have been on
duty, they have attended no less than 2,041 fires, and rescued
214 human beings from destruction. To make this excellent
scheme complete, only thirteen stations have now to be esta-
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
447
blished, at a first cost of about eighty pounds each ; the cha-
ritable could not give their money in a more worthy cause than
in furnishing these districts, in which many thousands of inha-
bitants are still exposed to the most horrible of all deaths. To
show that the usefulness of the Society has progressed with the
number of their escapes, we need only adduce the evidence of
the table in the next page, made up to the 25th of March of
each year.
The fire-escapes, in addition to their own particular duty, are
also of the greatest service to the firemen of the Brigade, as,
by the use of their ladders, they are enabled to ascend to any
window of a house, and to direct the jet directly upon the
burning mass, instead of throwing it wild, — a matter of the
greatest importance in extinguishing a fire : for unless you play
upon the burning material, and thus cut off the flame at its
root, you only uselessly deluge the building with water, which
is, we believe, in many cases quite as destructive to stock and
furniture as the fire it is intended to extinguish.
Year.
Number of
Fires
Lives
Stations.
attended.
saved.
1845
8 increased to 11
116
13
1846
11 „ 15
96
7
1847
15
, 21
139
11
1848
21
25
197
17
1S49
25
26
223
31
1850
26
, 28
198
10
1851
28
30
226
36
1852
30
34
253
25
1853
34
, 40
265
46
1854
40
40
328
28
Two since added.
Much may be done by the inmates to help themselves when
a house is on fire, in case neither the engine nor the escape should
arrive in time to assist them. Mr. Braidwood, in his little
work on the method of proceeding at fires, advises his readers
to rehearse to themselves his recommendations, otherwise when
the danger comes, they are thrown, according to his experience,
into " a state of temporary derangement, and seem to be
448 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
actuated only by a desire of muscular movement, 1 ' throwing
chairs and tables from the tops of houses that are scarcely on
fire, and, to wind up the absurdity, he says, " on one occasion
I saw crockery-ware thrown from a window on the third
floor."
The means to be adopted to prevent the flames spreading,
resolve themselves into taking care not to open doors or
windows, which create a draught. The same rule should be
observed by those outside ; no door or glass should be smashed
in before the means are at hand to put out the fire.
Directions for aiding persons to escape from premises on fire.
1. Be careful to acquaint yourself with the best means of exit from the
house both at the top and bottom.
2. On the first alarm, reflect before you act. If in bed at the time, wrap
yourself in a blanket, or bedside carpet ; open no more doors or windows
than are absolutely necessary, and shut every door after you.
3. There is always from eight to twelve iuches of pure air close to the
ground : if you cannot therefore walk upright through the smoke, drop
on your hands and knees, and thus progress. A wetted silk handkerchief,
a piece of flannel, or a worsted stocking drawn over the face, permits
breathing, and, to a great extent, excludes the smoke.
4. If you can neither make your way upwards nor downwards, get into
a front room : if there is a family, see that they are all collected here, and
keep the door closed as much as possible, for remember that smoke always
follows a draught, and fire always rushes after smoke.
5. On no account throw yourself, or allow others to throw themselves,
from the window. If no assistance is at hand, and you are in extremity,
tie the sheets together, and, having fastened one end to some heavy piece
of furniture, let down the women and children one by one, by tying the
end of the line of sheets round the waist and lowering them through the
window that is over the door, rather than through one that is over the area.
You can easily let yourself down when the helpless are saved.
6. If a woman's clothes should catch fire, let her instantly roll herself
over and over on the ground ; if a man be present, let him throw her down
and do the like, and then wrap her in a rug, coat, or the first woollen thing
that is at hand.
7. Bystanders, the instant they see a fire, should run for the fire-escape,
or to the police station if that is nearer, where a "jumping-sheet"is always
to be found.
Dancers, and those that are accustomed to wear light muslins
and other inflammable articles of clothing, when they are
likely to come in contact with the gas, would do well to
remember, that by steeping them in a solution of alum they
would not be liable to catch fire. If the rule were enforced at
theatres, we might avoid any possible recurrence of such a
FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE. 449
catastrophe as happened at Drury Lane in 1844, when poor
Clara Webster was so burnt before the eyes of the audience,
that she died in a few days.
During the twenty-one years that the Brigade has been in
existence the firemen have been called out needlessly no less than
1,695 times, often indeed mischievously; for there are some idle
people who think it amusing to send the men and engines miles
away to imaginary fires. In most cases, however, these false
alarms have originated in the over-anxiety of persons, who have
hastened to the station for assistance, deceived by lights which
they fancied to be of a suspicious character. Nature herself now
and then gives a false alarm, and puts the Brigade to infinite
trouble by her vagaries. Not only the men at one station, but
nearly half of the entire force, were employed in November,
1835, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on the succeeding morning, in
running after the aurora borealis. Some of the dozen engines
out on that occasion reached as far as Kilburn and Hampstead
in search of those evanescent lights, which exactly simulated
extensive fires. In the succeeding year the red rays of the
rising sun took in some credulous members of the Brigade, and
led them with their engines full swing along the Commercial
and Mile-End Boads. Whilst on this false scent they came
upon a real fire, which, although inferior to great Sol himself
in grandeur, was far more remunerative, as the God of
Morning knows nothing about rewards to first, second, and
third engines.
The most remarkable and universal false alarm caused by
the play of the northern lights was in. the autumn of this same
year, when the whole north-eastern horizon seemed possessed by
an angry conflagration, from which huge clouds of smoke
appeared to roll away. On this occasion the public, as well as
the firemen, were deceived : crowds poured forth from the
West-end on foot and in carriages to see what they imagined to
be a grand effect of the " devouring element ;" and thirteen
engines turned out with the full impression that a whole suburb
of the metropolis was in flames.
The alarms from chimneys on fire have called the engines
450 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
out no less than 1,982 times during the years the Brigade has
been established, or on an average twice a week. Let us hope
that, as we are setting about clearing the atmosphere by Act
of Parliament, accidents of this kind will gradually cease. We
may now watch with satisfaction many a tall shaft, as we steam
down the river, that seems to stand idle in the air ; the great
rolling clouds of smoke that used to obscure the sky on the
southern bank of the Thames are no longer seen, and the air is
growing appreciably purer. It is evident that our manufac-
turers, where they have not become alive to the saving it would
effect, have been coerced by the vigorous manner in which the
Home Secretary has put the law in force against these black
offenders ; and we may hope that Dr. Arnott's smoke-consuming
grate, or some modification of it, will ere long find its way into
every house to complete the work.
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
Most men who have arrived at that age when the last one or
two buttons of the waistcoat are allowed to be unloosened after
dinner, can remember the time when the safety of life and
property in the metropolis depended on the efforts of the
parochial watchman, a species of animal after the model of the
old hackney coachman, encumbered with the self same drab
greatcoat, with countless capes, with the self same Belcher
handkerchief, or comforter, speaking in the same husky voice,
and just as sottish, stupid, and uncivil. At night — for it was
not thought worth while to set a watch in the day-time — the
authorities provided him with a watch-box in order that he
might enjoy his snooze in comfort, and furnished him with
a huge lantern in order that its rays might enable the thief to
get out of his way in time. As if these aids to escape were not
sufficient for the midnight marauder, the watchman was pro-
vided with a staff with which he thundered on the pavement
as he walked, a noise which he alternated with crying the hour
and the state of the weather in a loud singing voice, and which
told of his whereabouts when he himself was far out of sight.
Up to the year 1828, and indeed for ten years later, in the
city these men were the sole defence by night of the first
metropolis in the world. The Charlies, as they were familiarly
termed, had very little fight in them at any time ; but it is well
known that they " winked hard," when required to do so by
people who could afford to pay them for it. It is not astonish-
ing that crimes under such a police flourished apace, or that
robberies increased to an extent which alarmed all thoughtful
2 g 2
452 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
people. Mr. Colquhoun, a magistrate, whose work on the police,
written at the beginning of the century, gave the first ideas of
the reforms which have been since adopted ; estimates that the
annual value of the property stolen at the time at which he
wrote, was at least l,o00,000£. ; and that the evil was gaining
ground may be judged from the fact that the number of
receivers of stolen goods had increased, between 1780 and 1800,
from 300 to 3,000 !
In addition to the nightly watch there was another class of
persons who, if more active, were calculated in a still greater
degree to defeat justice, but in a totally opposite direction : we
allude to those men who made their bread out of the blood of
the criminal population. The Government of the country was
mainly to blame for the sins committed by these loathsome
creatures. Since the time of Jonathan "Wild thief-catchers had
been stimulated to make criminals by what was termed Par-
liamentary rewards, or sums of forty pounds given by the
Home Office to persons affording such information as would
lead to the conviction of felons. The object of the officers was
to secure blood-money, not to suppress crime ; and it was their
deliberate practice to allow robberies to proceed, which they
might have prevented, in order to obtain the reward. To use
their own language, they were accustomed " to let the matter
ripen " until the fee was secure, and the work was cut out for
the hangman. These men must not be confounded with the
Bow Street runners, or detective police, some of whom were
able and perhaps honest men ; but they chiefly occupied them-
selves with thief-catching in private preserves, where the pay
was ample, and contributed little if anything to the suppression
of general crime.
With a class of watchmen totally inoperative as a preventive
police, with a class of informers stimulated by unwise enact-
ments to lure men into villany, and with a code savage almost
beyond belief — as late as 1800 there were 160 capital crimes,
and to break the dam of a fish-pond, or to cut down an
apple-tree in a garden, were offences punishable with death ;
it is not to be wondered at that " the deadly never-green," as
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 453
the gallows was called in the slang language of the day, bore
fruit all the year round. Old Townsend, the Bow Street officer,
who gave evidence before the committee which sat in 1816 to
inquire into the police of the metropolis, said, u I remember in
1783, when Serjeant Adair was recorder, there were forty hung
at two executions ; the unfortunate people themselves laugh at
it now, they call it a bagatelle." Among the more serious
offences were the robberies committed by mounted highway-
men ; and, in order to give an idea of their frequency, we
again quote the racy evidence of Townsend : — " Formerly there
were two, three, or four highwaymen — some on Hounslow
Heath, some on Wimbledon Common, some on Finchley Com-
mon, some on the Romford Road. I have actually come to
Bow Street in the morning, and while I have been leaning
over the desk had three or four people come in and say, ' I was
robbed by two highwaymen in such a place ;' ' I was robbed by
a single highwayman in such a place.' People travel safe now
by means of the horse-patrol, which was planned by Sir Richard
Ford." This horse-patrol, established in 1805, was the first
innovation on the old system of watching ; and it succeeded so
admirably, that in a few years the highwaymen were entirely
banished from the metropolitan counties, and the great roads
in the neighbourhood of London, which were once as unsafe as
those in the vicinity of Rome, became as orderly as Fleet
Street. It does indeed seem strange that while the outskirts
of the metropolis were thus provided with a new force which
proved itself to be perfectly capable of clearing away the
ruffians, no means should have been taken until 1829 to
supersede the old parish constables who had flourished from
the time of the Saxons, and appear to have been in full bloom
in Elizabeth's reign, since Dogberry is a finished portrait of the
race. No means existed by which the watchmen of different
parishes could be made to co-operate against their common
enemy, the thief. In the city they were under the direction
of no less than thirty different authorities. There were the
street-keepers, the patrol, the ward-constables, &c, all acting
, under separate masters ; and so complete was the division that
454 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
the constable of one ward -would not interfere to prevent a
robbery going on on the opposite side of the street, if it was
out of his bounds.
Mr. J. Elliot, in his evidence, given in 1838, before the Com-
mittee on " The Metropolis Police Offices, " mentions a glaring
instance of the perfect paralysis of the executive which arose out
of this absurd system. " Two years ago," he said, " a neighbour
of mine had his warehouse broken open, and a hundred pounds'
worth of tea was taken away ; a watchman at the top of the street
saw a cart going away from the warehouse ; but he said it was
not in his ward, and therefore he did not interfere." The public
indisposition to get rid of the old watchmen most certainly did
not arise from any ignorance of their inefficiency ; they had long,
in fact, been bywords of feebleness and imbecility. To thrash
a Charlie was a pet pastime of the young bloods of that day.
The determined propensity to doze of these worthy functiona-
ries was a standing topic for witticism. " A friend of mine," said
Erskine, " was suffering from a continual wakefulness, and
various methods were taken to send him to sleep, but in vain.
At last his physicians resorted to an experiment which succeeded
perfectly. They dressed him in a watchman's coat, put a lantern
in his hand, and placed him in a sentry-box, and he was asleep
in ten minutes." It might be imagined that tokens like these
indicated pretty clearly that a reform would have been hailed
with delight. The result proved, however, that to abuse a thing
and to amend it are widely different. Mr. Peel, who had been
feeling his way to his grand experiment by the establishment
of a Bow-street day patrol, obtained in 1828 the appointment of
a committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the expe-
diency of establishing a uniform system of police in the metro-
polis ; and the committee having reported to the House in favour
of the scheme, it was immediately adopted. This salutary change
was not made without creating a deep sensation. That stalking-
horse, u the liberty of the subject," which in truth meant the
liberty of rogues to plunder, was immediately paraded before the
public ; and we have no doubt whatever that in the tavern
debating -clubs of the day it was reported that with the fall of
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 455
the Charlies "the sun of England's glory had set for ever." And
indeed to Englishmen, jealous of their personal liberty, the
establishment of this new force might at first have created some
well-founded alarm. It was no longer a question of a few con-
stables, but of a standing army of nearly six thousand men,
drilled like soldiers, taught to act in masses, and entirely inde-
pendent of the control of the ratepayers. The very fact of the
appointment, as one of the Commissioners, of Colonel Rowan,
who had been employed in that quasi-military force the Irish
constabulary, favoured the idea that the new police were to be
a veritable gendarmerie. That such was the popular idea was
clearly indicated by the numerous prints which appeared at the
time of a fierce-looking "Peeler," armed with a belt full of
pistols and a formidable sword.
Those accustomed only to the slow pace of the constitutional
watchman, as he waddled out to his post, beholding with astonish-
ment the sergeant's party as it marched along the kerb in close
file, and keeping quick military step, believed that so powerful
a force, concentrated under a single head, might be turned to
political purposes. The constables never appeared in the streets
without being followed by crowds hooting at them, and calling
them by the obnoxious names of " Peelers," " Raw Lobsters "
"Crushers," "Bobbies," &c. At last, in 1833, an actual col-
lision took place between them and the great unwashed in
Coldbath Fields. A meeting of Chartists was appointed to be
held there, from which serious consequences were expected to
arise. Directions were given to disperse it ; but whilst in the
performance of their duty three of the police were stabbed, and
one of them mortally. It might have been thought that the
very fact of a mob coming thus armed, with the express purpose
of resisting a constituted authority, would have excited the
indignation of the more respectable classes of the citizens. The
contrary was the effect. A coroner's jury brought in a verdict
of justifiable homicide — a pretty significant sign of the feeling
towards the new force of the class from which the jury was
selected. Such was the ferment that a commission was held to
inquire into the conduct of the police, and they were exonerated
456 THE POLICE AXD THE THIEVES.
from the charge of having, as a body, acted with greater violence
than was necessary. From that period, with the exception of the
investigation during the Beer Bill commotion into the charge of
having dispersed a gathering in Hyde Park with undue severity
— a charge which was not at all substantiated — their conduct
has been so exemplary as completely to have removed the
original dislike. Experience has served to teach the men the
virtue of moderation and patience ; and' they are now looked
upon as a constitutional force, simply because we have got
accustomed to them.
At the present time the [Metropolitan Police Force consists
of — a, Chief Commissioner, Sir Richard Mayne ; 2 Assistant-
Commissioners, Captain Labalmondiere and Captain Harris ; 18
Superintendents, 133 Inspectors, 625 Sergeants, and 4,954
Constables ; making a total of all ranks of 5,734. The machinery
by which this comparatively small force is enabled to watch
by night and day every alley, street, and square of this vast
metropolis, nay, tries every accessible door and window of its
400,000 houses, patrols 90 square miles of country, exercises a
surveillance over the 8,000 reputed thieves who prey upon its
inhabitants, and keeps in awe the 40,000 or 50,000 people who
form " the uneasy classes " of the metropolis, is not very com-
plicated. The metropolitan police district extends from Charing
Cross 15 miles in every direction, and includes the whole of
Middlesex and large portions ot Surrey, Hertfordshire, Essex,
Kent, Buckinghamshire, and Berkshire, for which seven counties
the Commissioners are magistrates and the police are sworn
constables. The river Thames is also under its jurisdiction
from Chelsea to Barking Creek, including all its wharves, docks,
landing-places, and dockyards. The entire district has a cir-
cumference of 90 miles, and extends over an area of 700 square
miles, 100 of which, forming what is called the interior area, is
covered with our great Babel of brick and mortar. This wide
extent of ground is mapped out into 18 divisions, each of which
is watched by a detachment of men, varying in number accord-
ing to the extent of the area, the exposed nature of the property,
or the density of the population. : —
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 457
Letters of Local Names of Strength of each
Divisions. Divisions. Division.
A Whitehall 380
B Westmister 324
C St. James's 265
D St. Mary-le-bone 371
E Holborn 175
P Covent Garden 165
G Finsbury 317
H Whitechapel 233
K Stepney 482
L Lambeth 208
M Southwark 350
N Islington 513
P Camberwell 408
P Greenwich 454
S Hampstead 410
T Kensington 288
V Wandsworth 381
Thames Police 103
Thus it will be seen that policeman X, who figures so often
in the pages of " Punch," is a myth of our facetious contem-
porary.
Each division is separated into subdivisions, the subdivisions
into sections, and, last of all the sections into beats. Of the
main divisions, A, although one of the smallest in area, is by far
the most important ; it is the seat of the central authority-
located at Scotland Yard. Its police are mueh finer men
(taller on the average than the Guards), and their duties are
more responsible than those of any other division. They attend
upon the Sovereign, the Parliament, the theatres, the parks,
and all other places of public resort, such as Epsom and Ascot
races, the flower shows, Crystal Palace, &c. The A division is,
in fact, to the general body of Metropolitan Police what the
Guards are to the army. To enable it to perform these extra
duties, it has a reserve force of 250 men, drafted off on ordinary
occasions in companies of fifty each to the B, C, D, G, and M
divisions ; upon this reserve force it draws when necessary.
The other divisions are pretty much alike in the nature of
their duties, which are simply those of watching. Certain
modifications, however, arise from the character of their
districts ; thus a constable on duty at Whitechapel, if suddenly
removed to Westminster or Mary-le-bone, would find himself
458 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
considerably at fault, inasmuch as a familiarity with fights in
courts, disputes with tramps, and the coarse language of low-
lodging-houses, is not a good school for the amenities required
among a more fashionable population. In all the divisions
exactly the same organization is maintained, and the same
amount of arduous work is performed. Two-thirds of the
entire force is on duty from nine or ten in the evening till five
or six in the morning. Not long since the night-police were
condemned to patrol the streets for nine hours, without sitting
down, or even leaning their weary limbs against any support.
This severe labour was found incompatible with the mainte-
nance of due vigilance towards the end of the watch ; the men
are, therefore, now kept on duty only eight hours. Day work
is divided into reliefs, and extends from six a.m. to nine p.m.
Notwithstanding its greater severity, there are men who prefer
the stolid unimpeded walk in the night, in which they go
through their work like machines, to the more bustling and
exciting day-patrol. The sergeants or inspectors make the
round of the districts to see that the constables are duly parad-
ing their beats.
If a door or window is discovered in an unsafe condition, its
insecurity is immediately made known to the inmates ; and if
the constable fails to detect the circumstance during his tour,
and it is afterwards observed by his sergeant or the succeeding
constable, he is reported, and fined for his neglect. Continued
inattention is visited by dismissal. Offences of every kind are
severely punished, as appears from the fact that, between the
years 1850 and 1856, 1,276 policemen were turned out of the
force. Of these, sixty-eight were criminally convicted. Thus
the men are kept up to their work, and' collusions with thieves
are rendered exceedingly difficult. Every morning a sheet of
" Occurrences " is forwarded to the Chief Commissioner at Scot-
land Yard, which contains the full particulars of all matters
worthy of notice which have taken place during the night
throughout the metropolis, and a record of all property lost
or stolen, from a gold pin to a chest of plate, is kept at the
same central establishment.
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 459
In case any affair of unusual importance occurs, a murder or
a great robbery, the intelligence is conveyed by the constable
who first becomes cognizant of it, to the central station of his
division ; from this point the news is radiated by policemen
carrying what are termed route -papers, or papers of particulars
of the offence, on the backs of which are marked the hour
at which they were received at the different divisions through
which they passed. In this manner information can be circula-
ted in two hours to all the stations, excepting those belonging
to the exterior or suburban districts. In these reports are
given the names of the constables who were on the beats in
which the offence took place, the sergeants in charge of the
sections, and the names of the constables whose particular
business it was to trace the offenders as far as possible. We
understand, however, that the electric telegraph is now shoot-
ing its nerve-like threads to all the divisional stations in the
metropolis, and, when the new agent is brought to bear, the
communication will be almost instantaneous. Thus, in case of
robbery, every constable will be made acquainted with the par-
ticulars without a moment's delay, and the police-net will be
thrown at one cast over the entire metropolis. Thieves will no
longer be able to get away with their plunder, ere a hue and
cry has been raised after the property. Had the telegraph
been in existence, in all probability Her Majesty's plate-chest
would have been intercepted before it reached the field where
it was ransacked in Shoreditch. In cases of riot of a formid-
able nature, the telegraph will be able to concentrate 5,000
men in a couple of hours upon any spot within five miles of
Charing Cross.
Towards the outskirts of the metropolis, in the exterior or
suburban districts, the wideiy-scattered constables chiefly per-
form the duties of a rural police. The great distances they
have to traverse necessitates the use of horses ; here, ac-
cordingly, we find the mounted police, the successors of the
old horse-patrol established in 1805. The strength of this
force, men and officers included, is only 120 ; they are fur-
nished with powerful nags, and are armed with swords and
?HE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
pistols. Indeed the foot-police, whose beats lie in unfrequeni
rural districts, are allowed side-arms — a precaution which
fate of the policeman, who was brutally murdered in a field at
Dagenham, in Essex, some years since, proved to be by no
means unnecessary.
In the middle of the metropolitan police district is the City
police, under the management of the corporation. The area of
this peculiar, to borrow an ecclesiastical term, is only one square
mile and a quarter ; but forming as it does the very centre of
business, it is by far the richest part of London, for, while it
contains only one-twentieth portion of its inhabitants, it pos-
sesses a fourteenth part of its wealth. This small space is, in
fact, the great heart not only of the metropolis, but of the com-
mercial world. Through its principal thoroughfares a vaster
flood of traffic is poured for several hours than is to be found in
any other streets in the world. In the year 1850 it was ascer-
tained that no less than 67,510 foot-passengers, and 13,796
vehicles, containing no fewer than 52,092 persons, passed Bow
Church, Cheapside, in one day. By another channel of com-
munication, Aldgate, near the Minories, 58,430 foot-passengers,
and 9,332 vehicles, containing 20,804 persons, passed in the
same time ; and it is estimated that altogether no less than
400,000 persons are poured into this one square mile and a
quarter in the course of the twelve hours. The congregation
in so confined a space of so vast a number of people, many of
whom are forced to carry about with them considerable sums of
money, must prove a great source of attraction to thieves of all
kinds, and demands the constant vigilance of a comparatively
large body of police. It was not until ten years after the suc-
cessful experiment of the metropolitan police, however, that
the corporation of London, wedded to its old system of ward-
beadles, street-keepers, and imbecile constables, could be brought
to adopt the new system ; but it must be admitted that the
'present force, consisting of 1 superintendent, 13 inspectors*
12 station-sergeants, 47 sergeants, and 492 policemen, making
a total of 565, do the duty well ; and the City, with all its
stored wealth, is now as safe as the rest of the metropolis. At
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 461
all the banks plain-clothes men are constantly in attendance to
keep out the swell-mob, who buzz about such places as wasps clo
about a peach wall ; and in the great thoroughfares, such as
Cheapside, six or seven policemen are always to be found.
The peculiarities of the City, which produce its characteristic
robberies, are the number of its uninhabited warehouses, the
perfect labyrinth of lanes which traverse and intersect its streets
in all directions, and the vast number of carts and vans always
standing full of valuable goods at the warehouse doors. The
greatest precautions are taken to mark the fastenings on the
warehouse doors, so as to betray any attempt to force them ;
and these devices are generally successful. The reticulation of
lanes will always prove a trouble to the police and a security to
pickpockets. Not many years ago a bank clerk was attacked
at mid-day in one of these passages in the very heart of the
City, but luckily he retained hold of his case, which held most
valuable property, and it is now the custom to chain these bill-
cases to the person, just as they used to chain books in the
olden time to the library shelves. It is also customary for bank
clerks to tear the corners off all Bank of England notes, so as
to render them unnegotiable, unless to persons who can produce
the corresponding piece, — a contrivance which, no doubt, put a
stop to audacious attacks upon these money-carriers in the middle
of the day. The most common robberies are those from vehicles
loading and discharging valuable silk and other goods at the
warehouse doors. For the protection of such goods a small dog
is the best policeman ; and carts are rarely seen in the City
without one of these nimble guardians. The old restriction
which prevented the metropolitan police from entering the City,
and the City force from entering the metropolitan districts, is
now abandoned. Nevertheless, the fact of their being under a
distinct jurisdiction prevents that unity of action which ought
to prevail. Not long since, a City policeman patrolling one of
the streets which extended into the metropolitan department,
was informed by a passer-by that they were killing a constable
at the top of the street, to which the policeman replied that it
was out of his beat and he could not interfere ! When next
462 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
the Sibyl presents her leaves to the city corporation, in all pro-
bability the present isolated system of police will not be found
inscribed on any one of them.
Scotland Yard, as we have said, is the brain or central
ganglion which directs the system of metropolitan police.
Here the commissioners sit daily, and are ready to receive
the complaints or other communications of the public. Its
rooms are full of clerks, but all in the uniform of the police ;
in one office may be seen the constables wielding the pen in-
stead of the truncheon, preparing daily returns and reports ;
in another, reading the morning and country papers, to learn
what is doing that may require their presence, and to know
what thieves have turned up in the police courts ; in a third
room an inspector is reading to the clerks from the different
divisions any particulars it may be advisable to communicate to
the entire force ; in a fourth we see the secret chamber of the
detective police — those human moles who work without casting
up the earth lest their course should be discovered. In an office
apart from the rest are the foreign detectives, who watch over
miauvais sujets from abroad. The entire floating foreign popu-
lation in the metropolis is well known to the police, and no
plots against allied governments could well be hatched in London
without their cognizance. All articles lost in public conveyances
are here taken charge of. The "Lost Property Office" contains
piles of umbrellas, parasols, and walking-sticks, together with a
curious assemblage of articles of jewellery and wearing apparel,
brought by honest cabmen. On one occasion a parcel with cash
to the amount of 1,6001. was deposited ; and on another a
thousand-pound note. Valuable property is always claimed
immediately; but sticks, parasols, and umbrellas accumulate
in a manner which proves that their loss is due to the careless-
ness of their owners and not to the loose morality of others.
The offices for the inspectors of dangerous structures and for
licensing common lodging-houses and the drivers and conductors
of public conveyances, all of which departments are managed
by the police, are close at hand.
In the drilling-ground of the force — an open space surrounded
TI1E POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 463
by a hoarding close to the State Paper Office — there are gene-
rally from thirty to forty men in course of training, to fill up
the gaps caused by dismissals, resignations, &c. On the occa-
sion of our visit the yard was occupied by two bodies — the
raw material, in the shape of some twenty individuals dressed
in every variety of costume ; and another batch of the finished
article, buttoned up in blue and resplendent with plated
buttons. The eye had only to run along the "gammut of
men," if we may so term the fresh recruits drawn up before us,
in order to see from how many ranks of society the police
brigade is reinforced ; smock-frocks, shooting-coats, frock-coats,
tail-coats, some seedy and worn, some still good and fresh,
denoted the condition in life of their owners, and the neces-
sities to which some of them were reduced. Young men
flushed with hope come from the provinces to push their
fortunes, after a brief struggle find themselves stranded, and
accept this, the most readily-obtained respectable service.
As every policeman must be able to read and write, have a
good character, and be of sound body and mind, the mere over-
flowings of the labour-market are excluded from the force ;
moreover, persons can always leave the service by giving a
month's notice. For these reasons a much more intelligent
class of men recruit the police than the army, and it is singular
to note how this intelligence tells. The drill of constables and
soldiers is nearly alike, yet the former learn all their move-
ments in a fortnight, whilst the latter require at least two
months. Intelligence of a certain kind, however, may be
carried too far; your sharp Londoner makes a very bad police-
man; he is too volatile and conceited to submit himself to
discipline, and is oftener rejected than the persons from other
parts, with whom eight-tenths of the force are recruited. The
best constables come from the provincial cities and towns.
They are both quicker and more "plucky" than the mere
countryman fresh from the village — a singular fact, which
proves that manly vigour, both physical and mental, is to be
found in populations neither too aggregated nor entirely
isolated.
464
The policemen, perfect in their material dri]l, next undergo
a mental one. Drawn up in line, a sergeant or inspector ques-
tions them as to their duties. " Supposing you see two men
fighting, what would you do ? " or, " If you were to discover
a house on fire, how would you act 1 " Sometimes the constable
addressed answers the question, but more generally his interro-
gator does it for him. When drilled and catechized to the full
pitch, he doffs his plain clothes for a uniform, and comes out
in the full bloom of a policeman. But he is still a neophyte,
and before he is intrusted with a beat he attends at a police-
court in order to watch the manner in which trained constables
comport themselves in the witness-box. Having learned to
give evidence clearly and briefly, to listen to ludicrous scenes
without smiling, and to bear bad language with imperturbable
patience, he is marched off to the division in which he has
elected to serve (the policeman is always if possible allowed
this privilege), and with his armlet on his wrist, his staff in one
pocket, and his rattle in the other, he patrols his beat.
Two especial injunctions are given to him — never to show
his staff except to protect himself, and never to spring his
rattle at night except in a case of great urgency. The care
taken to hide his offensive weapon is one of the best points of
our police arrangements. The officers sent over here to gain
information, prior to the introduction of the English police
system in Paris, were astonished at this forbearance : the
Frenchmen could not understand why a man should carry a
deadly weapon, unless to make a demonstration with it ! In
this little incident we see the essential difference between the
French and English character. In six months' time it is ex-
pected that the young hand will prove a steady officer • that a
wild young fellow, who perhaps only a few months before knew
no restraint,- should become a machine, moving, thinking, and
speaking only as his instruction-book directs ; and so wonderful
are the powers of organization that such an officer he generally
becomes. We all know him, for we see him day by day as we
promenade the streets. Stiff, calm, and inexorable, he seems to
take no interest in any mortal thing ; to have neither hopes
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 4:65
nor fears. Amid the bustle of Piccadilly or the roar of Oxford
Street, P. C. X 59 stalks along, an institution rather than a
man. We seem to have no more hold of his personality than
we could possibly get of his coat, buttoned up to the throttling-
point. Go, however, to the section- house, an establishment
generally attached to the chief station of each division, in
which the unmarried policemen are lodged, and enter the
common hall or reading-room, and you no longer see policemen,
but men ; they have cast off their tight coats, as certain other
unboiled lobsters, at fixed intervals, cast off their shells. They
are absolutely laughing with each other ! Some are writing,
some are reading the morning papers, a group are grinning at
the caricature of P. C. X 202 in " Punch ; " some are deep in
the horrors of a romance, extended at full length along a bench,
with their trowsers tucked up ; all are at their ease, taking
rational amusement. In the common room of every section-
house there is a library.* That in King Street, Westminster,
contains 1,200 volumes, a well-selected medley of subjects, grave
and gay. Some of the volumes, indeed, surprised us, as they
seemed to indicate an erudite taste which we did not give
police constables credit for possessing. We give a few of their
titles as they came under our notice :—
Taylor's Holy Living. James's Naval History.
The Annals ot the English Lane's Modern Egyptians.
Bible. Life of Mohammud, by Mohun
Macauiay's Essays. Lai.
Alison's Europe. Tom Cringle's Log.
Paley's Works. Bishop Heber's Journal.
Byron's Works. Washington Irving's Works.
The Waverley Novels. Colonial and Home Library.
What do you think of the list, good reader 1 ? Policemen
reading Paley ! Can we wonder that they are so very blue ?
But we must not misrepresent the force. If volumes such as
these are thumbed sufficiently to show that some Scotch ser-
geant has a taste for theological reading and " fee-lo-so-phy," the
* Mr. Walker, the superintendent of the A Division, we believe, selected
the works in these libraries. The love of books evinced by this gentleman
sufficiently proves that literary tastes are not incompatible with the
energetic performance of police duties.
2 H
4:65 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
prevalent inquiry is after good English literature ; and, al-
though the " Wandering Jew " and the "Mysteries of Paris"
are in the library, we are told that the men do not like, and
apparently do not understand, French romances. The library
is only open on Thursdays, and then but for two hours. For
this there is a philosophical reason. "What we can always see,"
said the superintendent who kindly showed us over the Section,
" we never see ; it is only strangers that know all the sights of
the metropolis." On the same principle, the issue of books is
limited in the manner we have stated, and we are told that the
plan answers admirably. The dormitories at King-street ac-
commodate about ninety persons, the great portion of whom,
having done night-duty, we saw fast asleep, on a fine tempting
afternoon. It takes full three months for the men to acquire
the habit of sleeping in the day ; but, once acquired, they never
lose it afterwards, although they return at stated intervals to-
day-duty again. They find their own breakfasts and suppers,
but they mess together at dinner. They take it in turns to
cater for the week ; and the emulation thus created proves to
the advantage of the mess, as we hear that early peas, and
other delicacies of the season, find their way to the policemen's
table.'"" It would be an immense boon to the Benedicts of
the force if accommodation could also be found for them in
the section-houses. In these days of model lodging-houses
such an injustice to family men should scarcely be allowed to
exist.
One of the strongest reasons which weighed with Mr. Peel
in proposing the establishment of the new police in 1829 was
the expediency of instituting a force powerful enough to cope
with mobs, and to repress those incipient commotions which,
if too roughly dealt with by the military, are apt to leave an
abiding sense of irritation in the public mind. The massacre of
" Peterloo," as it was vulgarly called, without doubt proved to
the reflective mind of Peel that civil disturbances could no
* The partiality for the cook ascribed to the policeman is, we are assured,
a slander upon the force. The commissariat at home is too good to justify
any suspicion of this ignoble sort of cupboard love.
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 467
longer be dealt with by the sharp edge of the sword, and that
a knock-down blow of a truncheon was far more congenial to
the English skull than the sabre of the yeoman or the bullet
of the " sodger." That view was undoubtedly correct. The
new police have not, it is true, come in contact with excited
mobs on more than three occasions, — the affair of Coldbath
Fields, in the year 1833, the Chartist gathering in 1848, and
the skirmish in the Park, of July, 1855. On each of these
occasions the crowd was immediately dispersed, and whatever
irritation might have existed at the time, it quickly died away.
There seems to be no fear that a London mob will ever prove
a serious thing in the face of our present corps of policemen.
A repetition of the Lord George Gordon riots would be an
impossibility. Those who shudder at the idea of an outbreak
in the metropolis, containing two millions and a half of people
and at least fifty thousand of the " dangerous classes," forget
that the capital is so wide that its different sections are totally
unknown to each other. A mob in London is wholly without
cohesion, and the individuals composing it have but few feel-
ings, thoughts, or pursuits in common. They would immedi-
ately break up before the determined attack of a band of well-
trained men who know and have confidence in each other.
The genuine Londoner, moreover, is no fighter; he will "slang"
and "chaff" wittily with his tongue, but he will not come to
blows. Those who have any experience in the gamins of the
great towns in England must have observed the vast difference
between the want of pugnacity in the cockney-bred boy, and
the love of fisticuffs among the youths of Bristol, Birmingham,
or Manchester, which are the nurseries of prize-fighters. The
great town has sharpened the brain of the Londoner, but un-
strung his sinews and cowed his courage, and he is a pigmy in
the hands of the vigorous provincials. The middle classes are
an exception, and we doubt not that the same spirit which
i marched with the trained-bands from London to Gloucester, in
the civil war, is still to be found among them.
We believe that the only quarter in which any formidable
riot could take place would be eastward, in the neighbourhood
2 h 2
468 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
of the Docks, where there are at least tweve thousand sailors
in the river or on shore, ready for a spree, fearless and powerful,
and acting with an undoubted esprit de corps. These, if asso-
ciated with the seven or eight thousand dock-labourers and
lightermen, would certainly produce a force difficult to cope
with. For such emergencies the police are provided with side-
arms, but we fear they are not well trained to their use, and it
would take at least fourteen days to perfect them. If in any
civil disturbance, however, it should come to cold steel, we think
that the soldiers would prove far more effective, and their in-
terference would be less galling than that of the police armed
with murderous weapons. Prevention is the true duty of the
civil force. One of the simplest methods for breaking up a
crowd, in order that it may have no unity of action, is to
march sections of constables, in double files of say fifty each ;
these sections moving a few yards apart speedily cleave by their
weight the densest mob in twain. "When once this division is
made, the order is given to face right and left and march ; by
this means the mass is riven into a dozen helpless portions. If
the mounted police can be brought into action, it is customary
to march them in every direction through the crowd. Those
who were in Hyde Park on the evening of the great Sunday
gathering in July 1855, witnessed how effectually this singular
manoeuvre was executed under the orders of Captain Labal-
mondiere. The horsemen, circulating among -the immense
crowd, entirely disintegrated the mass, and rendered it helpless
for a common movement, and this without any altercation ; for
what use could there be in arguing with horses' heels ? A police-
man's staff thrust in your chest, accompanied by a peremptory
order to stand back, would probably " rile " the best of us ;
but what is to be said against the push of a horse's flank or
the descent of a heavy hoof? Everybody is glad to get as
quickly as possible out of the way, and thus the whole com-
pany break as it were of their own accord.
Let us now revert to the Detective Police. "When the
Metropolitan force was established in 1829, the old Bow-street
officers, not caring to work with the new system, retired from
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 469
public life, and set up a private practice in hunting out of-
fenders, in which occupation some of them continue to this
day. For fifteen years there was no establishment of detec-
tives connected with the police ; but the inconvenience of not
possessing so necessary a wheel in the constabulary machinery
induced Sir James Graham, who had, perhaps, a leaning towards
this branch of the profession, to revive the fraternity. The
force consists of three inspectors, nine sergeants, and a body of
police termed "plain-clothes men," whose services can be had
at any moment. There are about six policemen in each divi-
sion, who take upon themselves the duty of detectives when
wanted, which affords a total number of 108 auxiliaries, upon
whom the inspectors and sergeants can rely to carry out their
orders with silence and address. In all great gatherings, these
men are distributed among the crowd, dressed according to the
character of the assembly. Thus, at an agricultural meeting,
smock-frocks are worn, or the dress of a small farmer ; at a
review, the habiliments of a decent mechanic in his Sunday
best. In this respect they follow the principle of Nature, who
protects her creatures from observation by giving them coats
of a colour somewhat similar to that of the soil they inhabit, —
to the arctic fox, a fur white as the surrounding snow ; and to
the hare, a coat scarcely distinguishable from the brown heath
in which she makes her form. It is the general rule to station
these plain-clothes men as near as possible to the policemen of
their own division, in order that they may be assisted in
capturing prisoners.
Man is eminently a hunting animal, but there is no prey
which he follows with such zest and perseverance as his fellow-
man. Some policemen, directly they enter the force, show the
taste so strongly that they are at once marked off for this
special service. Others, on the contrary, will remain years
without detecting a single crime. From among the 6,000 per-
sons composing the force, a splendid field is afforded for select-
ing good men ; and Bow-street, great as was its fame, did not
turn out more intelligent detectives than we now possess. The
! officers, although they are not hail-fellow-well-met with every
470 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
thief, as in the last century, still find it necessary to keep up a
personal knowledge of the criminal population, especially with
that portion of it whose members they may at one time or
other be likely to " want." The detectives, as well as thieves,
are generally famous for some particular line of business. One
is good at housebreakers, another knows how to follow up the
swell-mob, and a third is a crack hand at forgers. By confining
themselves to distinct branches ot the art, they acquire an
especial sense, as it were, for the work ; and it is remarkable
how much their trouble is lightened by the division of labour.
The detective stands in a very different position from the
ordinary policeman ; his work, long and laborious though it
may be, must, to succeed, never see the light. Although he
may have followed a case for years, all the public knows of it
is summed up in the four words used by the constable who
states the charge at the police court — " from information I
received," &c. The detective lays the foundation which, from
the shifting soil he has to deal with, is frequently far more
extensive than the superstructure. His duty is to pursue the
criminal through all his shiftings and turnings, until the case is
clear against him ; and then fearlessly to draw him forth from
his hiding-place, as a ferret would a rabbit, and hand him over
to an ordinary constable to bring to the judgment-seat.
Much of the information by which the perpetrators of crimes
are discovered comes from their own body : thus two thieves
fall out, and one, prompted by revenge, and stimulated by the
hope of a reward, splits upon his confederate ; or some aban-
doned woman, jealous of another, gives information which leads
to her paramour's apprehension. The revenge taken by mem-
bers of the fraternity upon a " pal" whose treachery has been
discovered, is often so signal, that the utmost cantion is exer-
cised in communicating with the police, lest suspicion should
be excited. The constable, whose aim is to encourage these
revelations, must never, by his want of address, give any hint
of the source from which he receives his information ; nay, he
finds it necessary sometimes to pursue keenly a false scent in
order to divert attention from the betrayer.
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 471
Between the detective and the thief there is no ill blood :
when they meet they give an odd wink o± recognition to each
other — the thief smiling, as much as to say, " I am quite safe,
you know;" and the detective replying with a look, of which
the interpretation is, " "We shall be better acquainted by-and-
by." They both feel, in short, that they are using their wits
to get their living, and there is a sort of tacit understanding
between them that each is entitled to play his game as well as
he can.
In pursuing the track of an offender, the officers often come
across other crimes of which they were not aware, and for a
time are thrown off the scent, just as a pack of fox-hounds by
a hare which crosses their path. In such cases the only way is
to try back until the original trail is found. It is not uncom-
mon in this manner to stumble upon a regular network of
roguery, and to discover the whereabouts of parties who have
long been " wanting." The most trivial hint will suffice to put
the detective on the right track : for, like men accustomed to
work in the dark, things which to other persons are invisible,
to them appear clear as noon-day. The gossiping tendency of
neighbours is especially useful to them in worming out secrets.
To obtain a single link in a chain of facts, they will often hang
about a house for months, interrogating the newspaper lad,
waylaying the servant girl as she is going for her supper beer,
and picking all he wants to know out of her as easily as a
locksmith picks a lock, and with quite as little consciousness on
the part of the person operated upon.
Mr. Dickens published some excellent papers in the early
numbers of " Household Words," which illustrate admirably the
habits of these officers. From these we select the following
story, not that it is the most dramatic, but because it shows the
vast number of dodges by which the detectives accomplish their
ends : —
"'Tally-ho Thompson,' says Sergeant Witchem, after merely wetting
his lips with his brandy-and-watei*, ' Tally-ho Thompson was a famous
horse-stealer, couper, and magsmau. Thompson, in conjunction with a pal
that occasionally worked with him, gammoned a countryman out of a good
round sum of money, under pretence of getting him a situation — the regular
472 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
old dodge — and afterwards in tbe ' ' Hue and Cry" for a horse — a horse that he
stole down in Hertfordshire. I had to look after Thompson, and I applied
myself, of course, in the first instance, to discovering where he was. Now,
Thompson's wife lived, along with a little daughter, at Chelsea. Knowing
that Thompson was somewhere in the country, I watched the house —
especially at post-time in the morning — thinking Thompson was pretty
likely to write to her. Sure enough, one morning the postman comes up,,
and delivers a letter at Mrs. Thompson's door. Little girl opens the door,
and takes it in. We're not always sure of postmen, though the people at
the post-offices are always very obliging. A postman may help U3, or he
may not, — just as it happens. However, I go across the road, and I say to
the postman, after he has left the letter, " Good morning ! how are you V
"How are you?" says he. "You've just delivered a letter for Mrs.
Thompson." "Yes I have." "You didn't happen to remark what the
post-mark was, perhaps ?" "No," says he, " I didn't." " Come," says I,
"I'll be plain with you. I'm in a small way of business, and I have given
Thompson credit, and I can't afford to lose what he owes me. I know he's
got money, and I know he's in the country, and if you could tell me what
the post-mark was, I should be very much obliged to you, and you'd do a
service to a tradesman in a small way of business that can't afford a loss."
"Well," he said, "I do assure you that I did not observe what the post-
mark was ; all I know is, that there was money in the letter — T should say
a sovereign." This was enough for me, because of course I knew that
Thompson, having sent his wife money, it was probable she'd write to
Thompson by return of post to acknowledge the receipt. So I said
"Thankee" to the postman, and I kept on the watch. In the afternoon I
saw the little girl come out. Of course I followed her. She went into a
stationer's shop, and I needn't say to you that I looked in at the window.
She bought some writing-paper and envelopes, and a pen. I think to
myself, "That'll do ! " — watch her home again, anddon't go away, you may
be sure, knowing that Mrs. Thompson was writing her letter to 'Tally-ho,'
and that the letter would be posted presently. In about an hour or so, out
came the little girl again, with the letter in her hand. I went up, and said
something to the child, whatever it might have been ; but I couldn't see
the direction of the letter, because she held it with the seal upwards. How-
ever, I observed that on the back of the letter there was what we call a
kiss — a drop of wax by the side of the seal — and again, you understand,
that was enough for me. I saw her post the letter, waited till she was gone,
then went into the shop, and asked to see the master. When he came out,
I told him, " Now, I'm an officer in the Detective Force ; there's a letter
with a kiss been posted here just now, for a man that I'm in search of ; and
what I have to ask of you is, that you will let me look at the direction of
that letter." He was very civil — took a lot of letters from the box in the
window — shook 'em out on the counter with the faces downwards — and
there among 'em was the identical letter with the kiss. It was directed,
"Mr. Thomas Pigeon, Post-Office, B , to be left till called for." Down
I went to B (a hundred and twenty miles or so) that night. Early
next morning I went to the post-office ; saw the gentleman in charge of
that department ; told him who I was ; and that my object was to see and
track the party that should come for the letter for Mr. Thomas Pigeon. He
was very polite, and said, "You shall have every assistance we can give
you ; you can wait inside the office ; and we'll take care to let you know
when anybody comes for the letter." Well, I waited there three days, and
began to think that nobody ever would come. At last the clerk whispered
to me, "Here ! Detective ! Somebody's come for the letter ! " " Keep him a
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 473
minute, "said I, and I ran round to the outside of the office. There T saw a
young chap with the appearance of an ostler holding a horse by the bridle,
stretching the bridle across the pavement while he waited at the post-office
window for the letter. I began to pat the horse, and that; and I said to the
boy, "Why, this is Mr. Jones's mare !" "No, it a'nt." "No?" said I :
"she's very like Mr. Jones's mare !" "She a'nt Mr. Jones's mare, anyhow,"
says he: "it's Mr. So-and-So's, of the Warwick Arms.' And up he
jumped, and off he went — letter and all. I got a cab, followed on the box,
and was so quick after him, that I came into the stableyard of the Warwick
Arms by one gate just as he came in by another. I went into the bar,
where there was a young woman serving, and called for a glass of brandy-
and-water. He came in directly, and handed her the letter. She casually
looked at it without saying anything, and stuck it up behind the glass over
the chimney-piece. What was to be done next ?
" ' I turned it over in my mind while I drank my brandy-and-water
(looking pretty sharp at the letter the while), but I couldn't see my
way out of it at all. I tried to get lodgings in the bouse, but there had
been a horse-fair, or something of that sort, and it was full. I was obliged
to put up somewhere else, but I came backwards and forwards to the bar
for a couple of days, and there was the letter, always behind the glass. At
last I thought I'd write a letter to Mr. Pigeon myself, and see what that
would do. So I wrote one, and posted it ; but I purposely addressed it,
Mr. John Pigeon, instead of Mr. Thomas Pigeon, to see what that would
do. In the morning (a very wet morning it was) I watched the postman
down the street, and cut into the bar, just before he reached the Warwick
Arms. In he came presently with my letter. "Is there a Mr. John
Pigeon staying here?" "No! — stop a bit though," says the barmaid;
"and she took down the letter behind the glass. "No," says she, " it's
Thomas, and he is not staying here. Would you do me a favour, and post
this for me, as it is so wet ?" The postman said "Yes : " she folded it in
another envelope, directed it, and gave it him. He put it in his hat, and
away he went.
" ' I had no difficulty in finding out the direction of that letter. It was
addressed, w Mr. Thomas Pigeon, Post-Office, K, , Northamptonshire,
to be left till called for." Off I started directly for B, . I said the
same at the post-office there as I had said at B ; and again I waited
three days before anybody came. At last another chap on horseback came.
" Any letters for Mr. Thomas Pigeon ? " " Where do you come from ? "
"New Inn, near E, ." He got the letter, and away he went at a
canter.
" ' I made my inquiries ahout the New Inn, near R , and hearing it
was a solitary sort of house, a little in the horse line, about a couple of
miles from the station, I thought I'd go and have a look at it. I found it
what it had been described, and sauntered in to look about me. The land-
lady was in the bar, and I was trying to get into conversation with her ;
asked her how business was, and spoke about the wet weather, and so on ;
when I saw, through an open door, three men sitting by the fire in a sort
of parlour or kitchen, and one of those men, according to the description
I had of him, was Tally-ho Thompson !
"' I went and sat down among 'em, and tried to make things agreeable ;
but they were very shy — wouldn't talk at all — looked at me and at one
auother in a way quite the reverse of sociable. I reckoned 'em up, and
finding that they were all three bigger men than me, and considering that
their looks were ugly — that it was a lonely place— railroad station two miles
off— and night coming on — thought I couldn't do better than have a drop
474 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
of brandy and- water to keep my courage up. So I called for my brandy-
and-water ; and as I was sitting drinking it by the fire, Thompson got up
and went out.
" ' Now, the difficulty of it was that I wasn't sure it teas Thompson, because
I had never set eyes on him before; and what I bad wanted was to be quite
certain of him. However, there was nothing for it now but to follow, and
put a bold face upon it. I found him talking outside in the yard with
the landlady. It turned out afterwards that he was wanted by a
Northampton officer for something else, and that, knowing that officer to
be pock-marked (as I am myself), he mistook me for him. As I have
observed, I found him talking to the landlady outside. I put my hand
■upon his shoulder — this way — and said, 'Tally-ho Thompson, it's no use.
I know you. I'm an officer from London, and I take you into custody for
felony ! ' ' That be d — d ! ' said Tally-ho Thompson.
" ' We went back into the house, and the two friends began to cut up
rough, and their looks didn't please me at all, I assure you. ' Let the man
go. What are you going to do with him V 'I'll tell you what I'm going
to do with him. I'm going to take him to London to-night, as sure as I'm
alive. I'm not alone here, whatever you may think. You mind your own
business, and keep yourselves to yourselves. It'll be better for you, for I
know you both very well.' I'd never seen or heard of 'em in all my life,
but my bouncing cowed 'em a bit, and they kept off, while Thompson was
making ready to go. I thought to myself, however, that they might be coming
after me on the dark road to rescue Thompson ; so I said to the landladly,
' What men have you got in the house, missis ! ' ' We haven't got no men
here,' she says, sulkily. 'You have got an ostler, I suppose?' 'Yes,
we've got an ostler.' 'Let me see him.' Presently he came, and a shaggy-
headed young fellow he was. 'Now, attend to me, young man,' says I ;
'I'm a detective officer from London. This man's name is Thompson. I
have taken him into custody for felony. I'm going to take him to the
railroad station. I call upon you, in the Queen's name, to assist me ; and
mind you, my friend, you'll get yourself into more trouble than you know
of, if you don't !' You never saw a person open his eyes so wide. ' Now,
Thompson, come along ! ' says I. But when I took out the handcuffs,
Thompson cries, ' No ! None of that ! I won't stand them/ I'll go along
with you quiet, but I won't bear none of that ! ' ' Tally-ho Thompson,' I
said, 'I'm willing to behave as a man to you, if you are willing to behave
as a man to me. Give me your word that you will come peaceably along,
and I don't want to handcuff you.' 'I will,' says Thompson, 'but I'll
have a glass of brandy first.' ' I don't care if I've another,' said I. ' We'll
have two more, missis,' said the friends; 'and con-found you, constable,
you'll give your man a drop, won't you V I was agreeable to that ; so we
had it all round ; and then my man and I took Tally-ho Thompson safe to
the railroad, and I carried him to London that night. He was afterwards
acquitted on account of a defect in the evidence ; and I understand he always
praises me up to the skies, and says I'm one of the best of men.'"
The largest of all the classes of thieves, and that which em-
ploys the most extensive range of intellect, of age, and of dress,
is the pickpocket. From the first-rate thief, who " works
about the banks for six or nine months until he gets a " good
thing," to the miserable urchin who filches a pocket- handker-
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 475
chief, bow vast a descent ! Although strung together by the
common thread of crime, and pursuing, as it were, the same
line of business, a duke could not, and certainly would not,
look down upon a street-sweeper with half the hauteur that the
leading rogues do upon the Fagin-led urchin who replenishes
with bandanas the stalls of Field-lane. The popular notion of
swellmobsmen is far wide of the truth. It is supposed that
they may be at once recognized by a certain ultra-foppish man-
ner of dressing, and an excess of jewellery, whereas the aim of
a professor of the "conveying" art is to go about his occupa-
tion unobserved; for to be known to the police is to be disap-
pointed of his booty. He has his clothes built by the most
correct tailor, and gets himself up as much like a gentleman as
possible. The necessities of his art, it is true, oblige him to
carry a coat over his arm in all weathers ; but so may any
veritable man of fashion, without creating suspicion. Still,
though he may manage to pass free in a crowd, and frequent
fashionable assemblies without being suspected by the public,
the professed thief-catcher is rarely to be deceived by appear-
ances. As the hunter marks his quarry by peculiar signs
known only to his craft, so the detective can at once ascertain
whether the/fine gentleman walking carelessly along is " wrong,"
as the slang term is, or a respectable character.
The principal sign by which a thief may be distinguished in
any assembly is the wandering of his eye. "Whilst those about
him are either listening to a speaker or witnessing a spectacle,
his orbits are peering restlessly, not to say anxiously around.
When the thief-taker sees this, he knows his man. One of the
detective police who attended at the laying of the foundation-
stone of the Duke of Wellington's College, thus explained to
us the capture of a gentlemanly-looking person who was present
on that occasion : —
"If you ask me to give my reason why I thought this person a thief
the moment I saw him, I could not tell you ; I did not even know myself.
There was something about him, as about all swellmobsmen, that imme-
diately attracted my attention, and led me to bend my eye upon him.
He did not appear to notice my watching him, but passed on into the
thick of the crowd, but then he turned and looked towards the spot in
476 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
which I was— this was enough for me, although I had never seen him
before, and he had not, to my knowledge, attempted any pocket. I imme-
diately made my way towards him, and, tapping him on the shoulder,
asked him abruptly, ' What do you do here ? ' Without any hesitation, he
said, in an under tone, ' I should not have come if I had known I should
have seen any of you.' I then asked him if he was working with any
companions, and he said, 'No, upon my word, I am alone ;' upon this I
took him off to the room which we had provided for the safe-keeping of
the swellmobsmen."
This was a daring strobe, but it succeeded as it deserved. If
the man had been really honest, he would have turned in-
dignantly upon the person who questioned him; but pickpockets
are essentially cowards, both morally and physically, and they
generally come down at once to save trouble, when the officer
has his eye upon them, as the opossums were wont to do when
they espied that dead shot Colonel Crockett. There is a striking
example of this weakness of their tribe in the amusing work of
the " Englishwoman in America." The scene is an American
railway-carriage : —
"I had found it necessary to study physiognomy since leaving England,
and was horrified by the appearance of my next neighbour. His forehead
was low, his deep-set and restless eyes significant of cunning, and I at
once set him down as a swindler or pickpocket. My convictions of the
truth of my inferences were so strong, that I removed my purse — in which,
however, acting by advice, I never carried more than five dollars — from
my pocket, leaving in it only my handkerchief and the checks for my
baggage, knowing that I could not possibly keep awake the whole
morning. In spite of my endeavours to the contrary, I soon sank into an
oblivious state, from which I awoke to the consciousness that my com-
panion was withdrawing his hand from my pocket. My first impulse was
to make an exclamation ; my second, which I carried into execution, to
ascertain my loss ; which I found to be the very alarming one of my
baggage-checks ; my whole property being thereby placed at this vagabond's
disposal, for I knew perfectly well, that if I claimed my trunks without
my checks, the acute baggage-master would have set me down as a bold
swindler. The keen-eyed conductor was not in the car, and, had he been
there, the necessity for habitual suspicion, incidental to his position, would
so far have removed his original sentiments of generosity as to make him
turn a deaf ear to my request, and there was not one of my fellow-travellers
whose physiognomy would have warranted me in appealing to him. So,
recollecting that my checks were marked Chicago, and seeing that the
thief's ticket bore the same name, I resolved to wait the chapter of acci-
dents, or the reappearance of my friends With a whoop like an
Indian war-whoop the cars ran into a shed — they stopped — the pickpocket
got up — I got up too — the baggage-master came to the door : ' This gen-
tleman has the checks for my baggage,' said I, pointing to the thief.
Bewildered, he took them from his waistcoat-pocket, gave them to the
baggage master, and went hastily away. I had no inclination to cry 'Stop
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 477
thief ! ' and had barely time to congratulate myself on the fortunate impulse
which had led me to say what I did, when my friends appeared from the
next car. They were too highly amused with my recital to sympathize at
all with my feelings of annoyance ; and one of them, a gentleman filling a
high situation in the East, laughed heartily, saying, in a thoroughly
American tone, ' The English ladies must be 'cute customers if they can
outwit Yankee pickpockets.' "
The quickness and presence of mind of this lady was worthy of
the practised skill of the detective who marked his man at the
Wellington College ceremonial. That same gathering afforded
another example of the cowardice of the swell mob. Imme-
diately they came upon the ground, fourteen of them were
netted before they had time to try the lightness of their
fingers. They were confined in a single room with only two
policemen to guard them, yet they never attempted to escape,
although their apprehension was illegal, but waited patiently
until the crowd had dispersed. When the doors were thrown
open, they immediately made a rush like so many rats from a
trap, and never stopped until they were well out of sight of the
police. The rapidity with which they bolted was caused by
their desire to avoid being paraded before the assembled con-
stables, a measure which is often taken by the police, in order
that they may know their men on another occasion. If, how-
ever, the swellmobsman's eye is for ever wandering in search
of his prey, so also is that of the detective ; and instances may
occur when the one may be mistaken for the other. At the
opening of the Crystal Palace, a party of detectives distributed
among the crowd, observed several foreigners looking about
them in a manner calculated to rouse their suspicions. These
individuals were immediately taken into custody, notwithstand-
ing their strong and vehement expostulations made in very good
French. When brought before the inspector, it came out that
they were Belgian police, sent over at the request of our
Government to keep a look out on the mauvais sujets of their
own nation.
The swellmobsmen proper generally work together at races,
in gangs of from three to seven ; those who " cover," as it is
termed, making a rush to create pressure, in order that the
pickpocket may use his hand without being noticed. In taking
478 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
watches it is generally supposed that the ring is cut by a pair
of wire-nippers. This is rarely the case : thieves have no time
in operating to use any other implement than their own nimble
fingers, and the ring of the watch is wrenched off with the
utmost ease, as the purchase upon it is very great. A police
magistrate, of large experience, suggests that the way to baffle
the fraternity would be to make the ring work upon a swivel.
Inferior classes of thieves work in smaller " schools," say of a
couple of women and a boy, whose little hand is capitally
adapted for the work. Whilst one woman pushes, the lad
attempts the pocket of the person nearest him, and the third
" watches it off," as it is called ; if she observes that the youth's
attentions have been noticed, she immediately draws him back
with a " Ha, Johnny, why do you push the lady so !" Look to
your pockets, good reader, when you see forward little Johnnies
about — especially at railway stations. Sucli places are the
chief resort of this class of pickpockets, and we hear that
theatres and churches, just as the people are coming out, are
favourite haunts — the women creating a stoppage at the door,
and the children taking advantage of it. "Women's pockets are
much more easily picked than men's, for the reason that the
opening through the dress to it is larger, and it hangs by its
weight free of the person. In a crowd, the operation is easy
enough, as the general pressure masks the movement of the
depredator's hand ; when the victim is walking, a more artistic
management is required. The hand is inserted at the moment
that the right leg is thrown forward, because the pocket then
hangs behind the limb, an essential condition for the thief, as
the slightest motion is otherwise felt upon the leg. The
trowser-pockets of a man are never attempted in the streets :
but in a crowd, as at a race, he can be cleaned out by a school
of mobsmen of everything in his possession, with little fear of
detection. The first step is to select their victim ; to do this
demands some caution ; and if they cannot see whether he
carries a purse, and if they have no opportunity of watching
him pull it out, they will feel all his pockets. The " spotter,"
as he is called, passes his hand across the clothes seemingly in
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 479
the most accidental manner ; sometimes twice when he is in
doubt. The fact that there is booty being ascertained, the con-
federates surround him, and wait for the coming-off of a race.
Just as the horse is at the winning-post, there is a rush forward
of the crowd : of this the mobsmen take advantage, while the
victim, perhaps, for better security, keeps his hand over his
pocket, but in vain. At a critical moment the man behind tips
his hat over his eyes, instinctively he lifts up his hand to set it
right, and the next moment his pocket is hanging inside out.
Few betting men who attend much at races have escaped being
thoroughly cleaned out. It is rarely that Londoners are robbed
in the streets ; they are too busy, and move on too fast.
Country people form the chief game of the light-fingered
gentry : as they stare about, they instantly betray themselves
to their watchful enemy, and in the midst of their admiration
at everything about them, fall an easy prey. The thief in
search of purses or handkerchiefs always makes his way trout-
like against the stream. There are places, which, to carry out
our piscatorial analogy, seem "ground-baited" for these fishers.
Temple Bar, St. Paul's Churchyard, the Shoreditch end of
Bishopsgate, Holborn, Cheapside, and other crowded thorough-
fares, all afford excellent sport for the pickpockets, and any one
acquainted with their " manners and customs " may occasionally
3ee them exercising their craft at these localities, if he watches
narrowly. They look out for a temporary stoppage in the
stream of people, and a horse fallen in the highway, an alter-
cation between a cabman and his fare, a fight, a crowd round a
picture-shop, are all excellent opportunities, of which they
instantly take advantage.
The May meetings at Exeter Hall, however, form the most
splendid harvests for the pickpocket. If the members of the
various religious denominations who flock thither escape the
hustle on the hall stairs, they are waited upon with due at-
tention in the omnibus. Ladies and gentlemen who attend
these May meetings are well known to be " omnibus people :"
they lodge or visit, for the short period of their sojourn in
town, either at Islington, Clapham, or Camberwell, and the
480 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
" Waterloos " and the " Yictorias " are followed by the frater-
nity as certainly as a sick ship in the tropics is followed by the
sharks. Omnibuses are generally " worked " by a man and a
woman ; the woman seats herself on the right-hand side of the
most respectable-looking female passenger she can see, and the
man if possible takes a place opposite the individual to be
operated upon. If she be a young person, the man " stares her
cut of countenance," and, whilst confused by his impertinence,
the " pal," by the aid of a cloak throwa over her arm, or, if a
man, by passing his hand through the pocket of his cloak made
open on the inside for the purpose, is. able to rifle her pockets
at leisure. If the victim be a middle-aged or elderly lady, her
attention is engaged in conversation whilst the clearing-out
process is going on. The trick done, the confederates get out
at the first convenient opportunity. It is very rarely that a
pickpocket pursues his avocation alone ; but a case has been
reported lately in the newspapers, which proves that a clever
artist can work single-handed. A man named William Henry
Barber was charged at the Worship-street court with robbing
a lady of her portemonnaie in a Stoke Newington omnibus : he
was well known to the police, but had generally escaped by his
adroitness. His manoeuvres were thus described by a lady, a
resident of Stoke Newington, who had been robbed by him on
a previous occasion : —
" She had got into an omnibus," she said, "at Kingsland, several weeks
back, to convey her to town, and found herself next to a gentlemanly-
looking stout man, who was dressed iu sober black, with a white necker-
chief, and apparently a dissenting minister. The gentleman gradually
encroached upon her, and pressed upon her ; but she thought nothing of
it, as he was very intent upon reading a newspaper the whole way — so
intent, indeed, that she did not see his face, and he did not seem to notice
that his newspaper several times partially covered her dress. The stranger
shortly afterwards got out, and she did so also in a few minutes, and upon
then placing her hand in her pocket to make some purchase, she found that
her purse had been stolen, and with it seven sovereigns and a quantity of
silver."
The " Dissenting Minister " had evidently worked the Stoke
Newington road regularly, and no doubt the " sober black" and
the white handkerchief were assumed with a perfect knowledge
of the " serious " class of passenger he was likely to encounter in
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES* 481
•omnibuses running to that suburb. Hobberies of this kind
have enormously increased of late. The security with which
pickpockets can work, withdrawn as they are from the surveil-
lance of the police, is a great incentive to thieves to take to this
particular line of business.
The earnings of what is called a " school " of boys, who pick
pockets in concert, under the eye of a master, must be consider-
able ; for we were shown, some time since, a bill made out by
one of those Fagins for the board and lodging of his hopeful
youths, from which it appeared that the regular charge for each
was two guineas a week ! This person was well known some
years since on the Surrey side of the water as Mo Clarke.
He attended races, dressed in the deepest black, with his young
assistants in jackets and turned-down collars ; and the whole
group, to the eye of the general observer, presented the sad
spectacle of a widower left with a family of young children to
lament the loss of an attached mother. Their appearance
disarmed suspicion, and enabled them to empty the pockets of
those around them at their leisure. The subsequent fate of two
of the children, though nursed in hypocrisy and vice, proves
that the old saying, " once a thief always a thief," is not in-
variably correct, for they are at the present moment flourishing
cab and omnibus proprietors.
The advantage of working out of sight of the police has lately
led some of the swell mob to go to church, prayer-book in hand,
and pick pockets either in the pews or while the congregation
is coming down the aisle. "Women are the greatest adepts at
this kind of thieving, and they are constant attendants at con-
firmations, plundering in sight of the most touching rite of the
Church. The dress of these females is perfect enough ; but with
them, as with most other members of the swell mob, the finish
is entirely on the outside ', they scarcely ever have any education,
and the moment they open their mouths they betray themselves.
This fact is of especial service in detecting another large class
of thieves— the shoplifters. A lady cannot go into the shop of
any silkmercer or linendraper without being struck with the rude
manner in which the shopman clears the counter immediately
2 I
482 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
the purchaser takes her seat. The plundering to which they are
subjected is some excuse for their suspicions, for the assistants
cannot tell at first who the customer may be, and if expensive
goods were left exposed while their backs were turned, serious
robberies would inevitably occur. The value of the manner
of speech, as diagnostic of character, was exemplified not long
since at Messrs. Swan and Edgar's, where a lady-like person
asked to look at some " wallenciens." A watch was kept upon
the " lady," and she was speedily detected secreting a card of
valuable lace.
The extent of pilfering carried on even by ladies of rank and
position is very great ; there are persons possessing a mania of
this kind so well known among the shopkeeping community,
that their addresses and descriptions are passed from hand to
hand for mutual security. The attendants allow them to secrete
what they like without seeming to observe them, and afterwards
send a bill with the prices of the goods purloined to their
houses. Jewellers' shops are especially open to a class of
thieving termed " palming," One of the gang goes in first, and
engages the attention of the assistant ; then another drops in,
and makes inquiries for some article which is on the other side
of the shop ; then perhaps a third, without recognizing his
companions, follows, and asks for something, saying he is in a
hurry, as he has to be off by a certain train, and at the same
time pulls out his watch to show his eagerness to be served.
The shopkeeper's attention is thus diverted from the confede-
rates, who rob the trays before them of their valuable contents.
Some of these fellows are so dexterous that, if they perceive any
person watching them, they can ' '• palm " back the goods they
have secreted, and, on being accused, put on an appearance of
injured innocence, which makes the tradesman believe that his
own eyes must have deceived him. The higher order of thieves
will sometimes " ring the changes," as it is called. This must
be ranked among the fine arts of swindling. They will call on
first-rate houses, and request to be shown valuable pieces of
jeMelleiy, such as diamonds, necklaces, and bracelets, which are
kept in cases. Having noted the case, they go away, promising
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 483
to call with " a lady." A case exactly similar is then made,
with which they call a second time, and ask to see the identical
bracelet they before admired, and substituting the empty case
for that containing the jewels, depart with an apparent inability
to decide upon the purchase. Many robberies to a heavy
amount have taken place in this manner. Jewellers are liable
to be attacked from without as well as from within. From the
narration communicated by a prisoner to Captain Chesterton,
when governor of Coldbath-fielcls prison, we extract the following
method of procedure in what is termed " starring the glaze ;" —
" One or two parties divert attention while another ' stars.' This is either
doue by a diamond, or by inserting a small penknife through the putty,
near the corner of a pane, and cracking it ; the wet finger carries the crack
in any direction ; an angle is generally formed. The piece is wrought to
and through, and then removed • if necessary, another piece is 'starred' to
allow of the free ingress of the hand. In a retired neighbourhood an oppor-
tunity is taken of tying the door, in order to prevent any one coming out,
and on passing of a heavy carriage the hand is driven through a square of
glass, upon which has been laid a piece of strong paper, coated with treacle,
to prevent noise from the glass falling, and then articles of value are
removed. This is termed spanking the glaze. At other times the parties
intending to star go a night or two before and break one of the lower squares
of glass, a watch is then put upon the shop to know when the square is
renewed, which, of course, the putty being soft, can be removed at pleasure ;
a piece of leather, upon which is spread some pitch, being applied to the
square to prevent it falling when pushed in. Much time is saved this way."
We often hear of the march of intellect in thieving, and the
height to which its professors have carried it in these latter
days. There could be no greater delusion ; all the tricks of
card-sharpers, ring-droppers, purse-cutters, &c, are centuries
old, and it does not appear that they are performed a bit more
adroitly now than in the days of Elizabeth. Mr. Charles
Knight, in his charming paper on London rogueries, gives
examples of the tricks of the Shakspearian era, which prove,
as he observes, that pickpocketing in all its forms was taught as
cleverly in the days of the Tudors as by Fagin and his boys in
"Oliver Twist." His account of a school of thieves discovered
in 1585 is an instance : —
"Among the rest they found one Wolton, a gentleman born, and some-
times a merchant of good credit, but fallen by time into decay. This man
kept an alehouse at Smart's Key, near Billingsgate, and after, for some
2 i 2
481 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
misdemeanour, put down, he reared up a new trade of life ; and in the same
house he procured all the cut-purses in the city to repair to his house. There
was a schoolhouse set up to learn young boys to cut purses. Two devices
were hung up — one was a pocket and another was a purse. The pocket
had in it certain counters, and was hung about with hawk's bells, and over
the top did hang a little scaring bell ; the purse had silver iu it, aod he
that could take out a counter without any noise was allowed to be a public
F oyster ; and he that could take a piece of silver out of the purse without
noise of any of the bells, was adjudged a judicial nypper, according to
their terms of art."
The tricks we have enumerated all require cunning, lightness
of hand, and address, rather than strength and courage. As the
swellmobsnian stands at the head of this school, so the cracks-
man or housebreaker stands on the highest pinnacle of the other
great division of crime which attains its ends by force and
courage. Since the ticket-of-leave system has been in action, this
department has nourished to an alarming degree. The released
convict re-enters the community with the enlarged experience
of the hulks and wiirh a brutal disregard of danger. Suddenly
thrown upon his resources, with a blasted character, society
leaves him no better means of livelihood than his old course of
crime. One fellow who was brought up to Bow-street had
committed no less than four burglaries within three weeks after
he had been liberated ! Bands of ruffians, with crape masks and
with deadly arms, stand by the bed at dead of night, and, after
robbing and terrifying their victims, leave them gagged and
bound in a manner that would disgrace banditti. It is true
these burglaries are confined to lonely houses situated in the
country ; but housebreaking has been on the increase of late
even in the metropolis. Some of the craftsmen have become so
expert, that no system of bolts or bars is capable of keeping
them out. It may be as well to state, however, that a sheet of
iron, on the inside of a panel, will often foil the most expert
burglars ; and all operators of this class who have opened their
minds upon the subject to the prison authorities admit that it
is totally impossible, without alarming the inmates, to force a
window that is lightly barred with a thin iron bar and supplied
with a bell. A shutter thus protected, and which gives a little
with pressure, will not allow the centrebit to work without
creating a motion which is sure to ring the alarum.
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 485
Most burglaries of any importance, especially those in which
much plate is stolen, are what is termed " put up ; " that is, the
thieves are in correspondence with servants in the house, or
with those that have been discarded. Many robberies that
appear to have been accomplished in a most wonderful manner
from without, are committed from within. In "put up" rob-
beries, however, the thieves seldom allow the confederate in the
house to know when the robbery is to come off, for fear of what
is termed a " double plant;" that is, lest the person who originally
" put up " the robbery should, from the stings of conscience, or
for other reasons, have officers in waiting to apprehend them.
It is quite sufficient for adroit burglars to know where the
valuables are kept, and the general arrangements of the house.
We are indebted to the Yankees for an extremely clever method
of gaining entrance to hotel bed-chambers, even when the in-
mate has fastened the door. The end of the key which projects
through the lock is seized by a pair of steel pliers, and the door
is unlocked whilst the traveller sleeps in fancied security. Several
robberies of this kind have lately taken place. The most in-
genious pilfering of the " put up" kind we ever heard of occurred
many years ago in a large town in Hampshire. A gang of first-
rate cracksmen, having heard that a certain banker in a country
town was in the habit of keeping large sums of money in the
strong box of the banking-house in which he himself dwelt, deter-
mined to carry it off. For this purpose the most astute and re-
spectable-looking middle-aged man of the gang was despatched
to the town, to reconnoitre the premises and get an insight into
the character of their victim. The banker, lie ascertained,
belonged to the sect of Primitive Methodists, and held what is
termed " love-feasts." The cracksman accordingly got himself
up as a preacher, studied the peculiar method of holding forth in
favour with the sect, wore a white neckerchief, assumed the
nasal whine, and laid in a powerful stock of scripture phrases.
Thus armed, he took occasion to hold forth, and that so
"movingly," that the rumour of his "discourses" soon came
to the ears of the banker, and he was admitted as a guest. His
foot once inside the doors, he rapidly " improved the occasion"
486 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
in his own peculiar manner. The intimacy grew, and he was
speedily on such terms of friendship with every one in the
house, that he came and went without notice. He acquainted
himself with the position of the strong box, and took impres-
sions in wax of the wards of the locks. These he sent up to
his pals in town, and in due course was supplied with false keys.
With these he opened the strong box, made exact notes of the
value and nature of its contents, and replaced everything as he
found it. A plan of the street, the house, and of the particular
chamber in which the treasure was kept, was then prepared and
forwarded to the confederates in London. He persuaded his
kind friend the banker to hold a love-feast on the evening fixed
for the final stroke. A few minutes before the time appointed
for the robbery, he proposed that the whole assembly should join
with him in raising their voices to the glory of the Lord. The
cracksman laboured hard and long to keep up the hymn, and
noise enough was made to cover the designs of less adroit con-
federates than his own. The pseudo-preacher, to disarm sus-
picion, remained with his friend for a fortnight after the theft,
and on his departure all the women of the * persuasion " wept
that so good a man should go away from among them !
In a large number of cases the servants are only the uncon-
scious instrument in the hands of the housebreaker. We will
venture to say that more house robberies are committed through
the vanity of servant girls than from any other cause. A smart
young fellow, having heard that plunder is to be obtained in a
certain house, manages to pick up an acquaintance with one of
the female domestics, and makes violent love to her. We all
know how communicative young women are to their sweethearts,
and the consequence is, that in a short time he gets from her
every particular that he requires, — the habits of the family, the
times of their going out, the position of the plate-chest, and
the fastenings of the doors. Where only a servant of all-work
is kept, the process is more simple. The lover calls in the
absence of the family at church, proposes a walk, and takes
charge of the street-door key, which, unseen to the girl, is
passed to a confederate ; and whilst the polite lover and his
THE TOLICE AND THE THIEVES. 487
lass are enjoying the cool of the evening the house is being
ransacked. An investigation took place at the Lambeth Police
Court a few months ago, where the poor girl who had been
made the tool of the housebreaker attempted to commit
suicide in order to prevent the consequences of her folly.
Her account of the manner in which the " plant " was made
upon her, affords a good example of the style of " putting up "
a house robbery : —
"The young man with whom she had casually become acquainted called
after the family had gone out, and she asked him into the back parlour. He
then asked her to dress and go out with him, and he remained in the back
parlour while she dressed. While in the back parlour he asked her if she
could get a glass of wine, and she told him that she could not, as the wine
was locked up. He said it did not matter, as they should have one when
they went out, and tnat he expected to meet his sister at the Elephant and
Castle. They then left the house and went for a walk, and on reaching the
Elephant and Castle remained there for some time, waiting for the young
man's sister, but did not see her. They next proceeded to a public-house,
where they had a glass of brandy-and-water, and the young man accom-
panied her to the end of the street, where they parted, with the intention
that they should meet at one o'clock on the following day and spend
the afternoon together. On going to unlock the door, she found it ajar, and
on going in, found that the house had been robbed. On discovering this,
she did not know what to do, but thought she would make up a story about
thieves having got into the house, and took up the knife and chopped her
hand ; but after tin's, not knowing how to face her master or mistress after
being so wicked, she took up the knife again, intending to kill herself, and
inflicted the wound on her throat."
This confession was enough for the officers, and her " young
man," with his confederates, were caught and convicted. The
frequency of these robberies should put housekeepers on their
guard as to what followers are allowed, lest the " young man "
should turn out to be a regular cracksman in disguise. We bid
the housekeeper also beware of another danger that sometimes
threatens him when he has an empty house for a neighbour.
Thieves always, if possible, make use of it as a basis of opera-
tions against the others. They creep towards the dusk of even-
ing, when the inmates are generally down stairs, along the
parapet, and enter successively the bedrooms of the adjoining
tenements. As many as half a dozen houses have thus been
robbed on the same occasion. Police-constables always keep a
careful watch upon these untenanted houses, by placing private
marks on some part of the premises ; and if any of these signs
488 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
are disturbed, they suspect that something is wrong, and make
a further examination. In the City, where an immense amount
of valuable property is stored in warehouses, the private marks
are much more used than in other portions of the metropolis,
and are continually changed, lest they should become known to
thieves and be turned to their advantage.
Professional beggars are almost without exception thieves ;
but as they are generally recruited from the lowest portion of
the population, they never attain any of the higher ranks, but
confine themselves to petty acts of filching, or to cunning
methods of circumventing the honest. The half-naked wretch
that appears to be addressing the basement floor in piteous
terms, has a fine eye for the spoons he may see cleaning below ;
and the shipwrecked sailor just cast ashore from St. Giles's
would be an awkward person to meet with in a dark suburban
lane. Professional beggars are migratory in their habits. They
travel from town to town, not in the filthy rags we are accus-
tomed to see them in, but in good clothing ; the rags are car-
ried by their women, and are only donned when they are nearing
the place in which they intend to beg.
There is an audacious class of thieves, termed " dragsmen,"
who plunder vehicles. At the West End they chiefly operate
upon cabs going to or coming from the railway stations. As this
kind of thieving is carried on under the very eyes of the foot-
passengers, it is rarely attempted except in the dusk of the
evening. The dragsman manages to hang on behind, as though
he were merely taking a surreptitious ride, but in reality to cut
leather thongs and undo fastenings, and be able at any convenient
moment to slip off a box or parcel unobserved. The carelessness
of the public is the best confederate of this sort of thief. In
the case of Lady Ellesmere's jewels, the box was put not inside,
but outside, the cab in which the valet rode, and not in the
middle of other boxes, but the hindermost of all — just the place
in which the dragsman would have planted it. It is now known
that the robbery was effected between Berkeley Square and
Grosvenor Square, as a man was seen with the package standing
at the corner of Mount Street, Davies Street, bargaining with
TIIE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 489
a cabman to take him to the City. The man and his booty
were driven to a public-house, but the box mnst have been
shifted immediately, for in two hours from the time it was lost
it was found rifled of its contents in a waste piece of ground in
Shoreditch. It might perhaps for a moment be suspected that
this was a " put up " robbery, but we are precluded from adopt-
ing this view of the case, as it is, we believe, suspected that the
man sold the jewels, which were worth perhaps 25,0001., for a
very trifling sum. He must have been entirely ignorant of
their value, and having by a chance stroke obtained a magnifi-
cent booty, threw it away for an old song. Not many weeks
after this extraordinary robbery, a plate-chest of her Majesty
was stolen from a van between Buckingham Palace and the
Great Western Railway. There were persons walking along-
side the vehicle, and it seems marvellous how it could be pos-
sible to remove unseen a heavy chest under such conditions ;
but every facility was given in this case, as in the former, for
the plunderers to do their work unmolested. In the first place
the box was put in such a position that its bottom came flush
with the ledge of the van. Next, the journey from Bucking-
ham Palace to Paddington was, in the driver's idea, too far to
go without baiting on the way ; therefore bait he did at a little
public-house, and every person in charge of the property went
inside to drink. According to their own account, they did not
stop more than a minute ; this minute was enough : like Laertes,
the thief might have said, " ' Twill serve." In this instance also
the box was found empty in a field at Shoreditch, and it is be-
lieved that a ticket-of-leave man had a hand in both robberies.
The habits of thieves have been somewhat modified since the
institution of the new police, and the adoption of the principle
of prevention instead of detection, in dealing with the criminal
population. In the time of the old Bow-street Runners the
different classes of thieves had their houses of call, in which
they regularly assembled. The arrangement was winked at by
the magistrates, and approved by the officers, as useful to them
in looking after offenders that were wanted. John Townsend,
when speaking of the supposed advantage of these flash houses,
490 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
said, " I know five -and-t wen ty, or six-and-twenty years ago,
there were four houses where we could pop in, and I have
taken three or four, or five or six of them at a time, and three
or four of them have been convicted, and yet the public-house
was tolerably well conducted too,." Perhaps officers who lived
upon the capture of thieves had good reason for maintaining
these flash houses, in which most robberies were concocted ;
the case is far different now that the police are paid by day
rather than by piece-work, by weekly salary rather than
by blood-money, and all known flash houses have long been
discontinued. Some fifteen years since a few remained in
the Borough, but Superintendent Haynes broke them up, and
rooted them out. Thieves cannot meet now in respectable
houses, for if they did, the constables would become aware of
the fact, and the landlord would speedily lose his license. The
passing of the Common Lodging-house Act has also assisted in
dispersing the desperate gangs, one of which, known under the
name of " The Forty Thieves," infested the town a few years
since. It may be a^ked, what sort of mutual fellowship exists
among these outcasts who live below the surface of "society " ?
Of the seven or eight thousand thieves in the metropolis,
very few are acquainted with each other ; they are, in fact,
divided into as many sections as are to be found among honest
men. Beyond their own peculiar set they do not associate
with their kind. The swell-mobsman is as distinct a being
from the cracksman as a Bond- street dandy from a South-Sea
islander ; they do not even talk the same' slang, and could no
more practise each other's art, than a shoemaker could make a
table. These natural divisions of the underground world of
rogues immensely facilitate the operations of the police. The
manner in which they do their work is also in some cases a
pretty good guide to the detectives. Skill and individuality is
evinced in unlawful as well as in lawful pursuits — in the manner
in which a door is forced, as much as in the style a picture is
painted ; and a clever officer, after carefully examining a door or a
window, will sometimes say, " This looks like 'Whiteheaded Bob's
work,' " or " ' Billy-go-Fast/ must have had a hand in this job."
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 491
The leading swell-mobsmen are the only class of thieves who
■ touch," if we may term it, the ordinary society of better men.
The practitioner in this line must dress and be as much like a
gentleman as possible, in order to pursue his avocation without
suspicion. Accordingly, he lives with a woman, who passes for
his wife, in genteel lodgings, and generally in the drawing-room
floor. As his earnings are often very large, he has everything
about him of the most expensive kind ; his style of living is
luxurious, and he drinks nothing less than hock and champagne.
He sometimes keeps a banking account, and one man named
Brown, lately apprehended, had a balance at his banker's of
8001. ! As the members of this fraternity work wholly in the
daytime, going out in the morning and returning in the
evening, the landlady believes that they are engaged in mer-
cantile pursuits, and have business in the City ; and, as it is part
of their game to pay their way liberally, she esteems them to
be model lodgers S
The domestic habits of thieves are all pretty much alike ;
fluctuating between the prison and the hulks, they exhibit the
usual characteristics of men engaged in dangerous enterprises.
They mainly pass their time, when not at "work," in gambling,
smoking, and drinking, and in listening to the adventures of
their companions. It must be remembered, however, that the
jDrofessed thief, even if he drinks, is never drunk; he is em-
ployed in desperate undertakings which require him to have his
wits about him quite as much, if not more than the honest man.
When a pickpocket is flush of money, he spends it in the most
lavish manner, — takes a tour with his female companion to the
Isle of Wight, or to any other place he has a wish to see, and
puts up at the best hotels. In some of these trips he thinks
nothing of spending ZOl. in a fortnight, and when the money
is gone he comes back again " to work." Thieves are generally
faithful to each other ; indeed the community of danger in
which they live develops this virtue to an unusual extent. If
a " pal " is apprehended, they cheerfully put down their guinea
apiece to provide him with counsel for his trial ; and if he
should be imprisoned, they make a collection for him when he
492 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
comes out A curious circumstance is the rapidity with which
news of any of the body having been arrested travels among
his companions. We are assured that no sooner is a young"
thief captured and taken to the station-house, although he may
have been plundering far away from his home, than some asso-
ciate brings him his dinner or tea, as a matter of course.
The best class of swell-mobsmen sometimes act upon the joint-
stock principle " with limited liabilities." When a good thing
is in prospect — a gold-dust robbery or a bank robbery — it is
not unusual for several of them to "post" as much as 501
apiece in order to provide the sinews of war to carry on the
plan in a business-like manner. If in the end the job succeeds,
the money advanced is carefully paid back to the persons
advancing it — several of whom have lived for years on plunder
thus obtained, without the police being able to detect them.
Often the receivers make these adventures in crime, and plot
the robbery of a jeweller's shop with as much coolness and
shrewdness as though it were an ordinary mercantile specu-
lation, and the produce is disposed of in the same business-
like manner. Watches are what is termed "re-christened,"
that is, the maker's names and numbers are taken out and
fresh ones put in ; they are then exported in large quantities
to America. All articles of plate are immediately thrown
into the crucible and melted down, so as to place them
beyond the hope of identification. In many cases, when the
receiver cannot thoroughly depend upon the thief, it is, we
believe, customary to employ intermediate receivers so as to
render it impossible to trace the property to its ultimate desti-
nation. It must not be supposed that the passion for gain is
always the sole incentive to robbery. ' " Oh, how I do love
thieving ! If I had thousands, I'd still be thief/' such were
the words uttered by a youth in Coldbath-fields Prison, and
overheard by the governor.*
If the machinery for preventing and detecting crime has so
vastly improved within this present century, the same may be
* We have extracted this anecdote from the very interesting work pub-
lished by Captain Chesterton, entitled " Eevelations of Prison Life."
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 493
said for the method of dispensing justice. Up to as late as
1792, the magistrates of Bow-street — the first " police-office,''
as it was then termed — were paid in that most obnoxious of all
modes, by fees, which were often obtained in a manner so dis-
graceful that the magistrates got the name of "trading justices"
and " basket justices." Our old friend John Townsend, whom
we must summon once more to our aid, gives an insight into
their proceedings, and he knew them well. He said, " The
plan used to be to issue warrants, and to take up all the poor
devils in the streets, and then there was the bailing them,
2s. Aid., which the magistrate had. In taking up a hundred
girls, that would make, at 2s. id., 111. 13s. id. They sent none
to i&\\,for the bailing them was so much better I " The old Bow-
street worthy then draws a picture of the magistrate settling
the amount of these ill-gotten fees with his clerk on the Monday
morning. The "basket justices " were so called, because they
allowed themselves to be bought over by £>resents of baskets of
game. These enormities were so glaring, that, according to
Townsend, " they at last led to the Police Bill, and it was a
great blessing to the public to do away with these men, for they
were nothing better than the encouragers of blacklegs, vice, and
plunderers. There is no doubt about it." In 1792 seven other
"offices" were established, namely, Queen-square, Great Marl-
borough-street, Hatton Garden, Worship- street, Lambeth,
Sh a dwell, and Union-street, each office having three magis-
trates, who did the duties alternately. These, by the addition
of the suburban courts, have since been augmented to eleven.
They form the judgment-seats to which all offenders in this
great capital of 2,500,000 inhabitants are brought, either to be
punished summarily, or to be remanded to the sessions to take
their trial.
The police-courts may be likened to so many shafts sunk in
the smooth surface of society, through which the seething mass
of debauchery, violence, and crime, are daily bubbling up before
the public eye. A spectator cannot sit beside the magistrate
on the bench for a couple of hours without feeling that there
are currents of wickedness flowing among the population as
494 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
fixedly as the trade- winds in the tropics. A panorama of sin
passes before his eye which he shudders to think is only like a
single thread drawn from the fabric of vice which underlies the
whole system of elegant, punctilious, and accomplished metro-
politan life. On every case that comes before him the magis-
trate unassisted has to decide rapidly and justly, unless he
desires to call down upon his head the thunders of an ever-
watchful press. In addition to his judicial duties, he has to
answer numberless questions, and to give advice upon law
points to distressed persons : and all this amid a pestilential
atmosphere which is calculated to depress both body and mind.
Nevertheless, the work is done admirably, and justice, as speedy
as that dispensed by cadis in Eastern tales, and much more
impartial, is dealt to the throng brought before him.
From an analysis of the Criminal Returns of the Metropo-
litan Police, it is apparent that crimes have their peculiar
seasons. Thus attempts to commit suicide generally occur in
the months of June, July, and August, and rarely in November,
according to the commonly accepted notion ; comfort, it is evi-
dent, is considered even in the accomplishment of this desperate
act. Common assaults and drunkenness also multiply wonder-
fully in the dog-days. In the winter, on the contrary, burgla-
ries increase, and, for some unknown reason, the uttering of
counterfeit coin.
The character of the cases brought before the police-courts
varies, in some degree, according to the neighbourhood and
other causes. Bow-street still maintains the pre-eminence over
the other courts which it exercised in the old days, when the
horse-patrol and the detective police, known as the Bow-street
runners, were in existence ; and this it does in consequence of
its special jurisdiction over persons who are amenable to foreign
law. The cases of this class — arson, murder, or bankruptcy —
are heard in private, generally by the chief magistrate, and the
depositions are forwarded direct to the Foreign Office. Ticket-
of-leave men who have committed fresh offences, are here
deprived of their tickets and apprehended by a warrant from
the Home-Office. All Inland Revenue and Post-Office cases,
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 495
such as stealing from letters, are adjudicated upon exclusively
at Bow-street, which is, in fact, the Government office.
The Thames police deals with mutinies and murders com-
mitted on the high seas, and all disputes under the Mercantile
Marine Act come as a matter of course to this court, together
with the major portion of the criminals, the scene of whose
offences is in the docks and on the river. Drunkenness, the
vice of the sailors, and the insubordination arising out of it,
form a very large portion of the charges of the district.
Worship-street is famous, or rather infamous, for wife-beaters.
The reason is curious, and supplies a hint to philanthropists to
reform the dwellings of the poor, rather than pass harsh acts of
parliament against the husbands, which in many cases only
serve to aggravate the evils arising from their brutality. The
majority of the wife-beaters come from Bethnal-green, where
there are a great number of large old mansions let out to the
working- classes in floors or flats. Sometimes as many as twenty
families live in the same house. The children play about in
the passages as a neutral ground, disputes arise, and the mothers
take the parts of their respective offspring with discordant
fierceness. This drives the men to the public-houses, where
they drink their porter iced and listen to more pleasant sounds
in the shape of gratuitous concerts. The wives in turn are
driven to the tavern doors to seek their mates, with words not
too conciliatory, and are brutally assaulted by the drunken
husbands, who are taken up the next day and get six months'
imprisonment, the family being in most instances irretrievably
broken up and ruined thereby. Some of the magistrates, seeing
the baleful working of the system, have attempted a solution
of the difficulty by making the husband promise to allow the
wife to receive his weekly wages from his master, whose consent
to the arrangement has been given. In many instances this
plan has worked well, since the husband knows that on the
slightest infringement of the agreement his spouse may give
him six months' imprisonment, judgment in the case having
been only suspended. But this power, again, is often abused by
the woman, and it is a common thing for them on the least
496 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
threat of their mates to say, " Mind what you are about, or I
will give you l a sixer/ "
Cases of beggiDg are principally heard at the Marlborough-
street police-court, as the rich streets in its neighbourhood are
the main scenes of the nuisance. Blind beggars especially
affect Regent-street, Oxford-street, and Piccadilly, the most
thronged thoroughfares in the "West End. "We warn our
readers against their charitable tendencies for these people. If
the truth was known, the cry, " Pity the poor blind !" far from
exciting their pity, would arouse their disgust. Blind beggars,
as a class, are the most profligate scoundrels in the metropolis,
thinking of nothing but their grosser appetites, and plundering
the charitable for their satisfaction. One of these men lately
taken into custody was discovered seated at the breakfast-table
with ham and fourteen poached eggs before him ! At the
Westminster police-court the foot-guards are continually visitors
against their will ; but it is remarked as extraordinary that
not one of the horse-guards has been charged here for years.
A custom has grown up of making the police magistrates
the almoners of the public in cases which have attracted the
attention of the charitable through the medium of the press.
Many a poor forsaken creature has suddenly found himself not
only famous, but comparatively rich, by the simple process of
telling his tale in one of these courts. The news of it flies
through the country in the pages of the Times, and in the
course of two or three mornings the magistrate is oppressed
with post-office orders for the benefit of the sufferer, the donors
simply requesting that their gifts should be acknowledged in
the public journals. The annual receipts at the different courts
for special cases must amount to a large sum ; and there is in
addition a constant flow of small sums towards the poor-box,
the contents of which are distributed at the discretion of the
magistrate. The annual income from this latter source is about
3001. per annum at Marlborough-street, and at Bow-street
respectively, the greater portion of which is given to deserving
objects whose cases have come before the court, and the re-
mainder is dispensed at Christmas to the poor of the neighbour-
THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES. 497
hood in the shape of coals and candles. We are particularly
anxious to make this fact known, in order that the charitable
may be aware that their gifts are well bestowed. The magis-
trates do not, we believe, encourage these donations, as they
consider that the distribution of alms is incompatible with their
office ; but, on the other hand, it cannot be denied that a vast
amount of temporary aid is thus given to persons whose needs
cannot be satisfied by the union workhouse. Deserving people
are often furnished with the means of obtaining a livelihood,
workmen whose tools have been burned in a conflagration sup-
plied with new ones, and in some cases women left behind by
their husbands, under circumstances of peculiar hardship, have
been provided with a passage to Australia. The thousands in
England who only want to know where genuine misfortune
exists to hasten to its relief, have a greater guarantee that they
will not be imposed upon by these cases at the police-courts
than by private solicitations, as the magistrates have the means
of sifting the statements of applicants. Nevertheless, even
these astute public servants are now and then deceived, and
comparatively large sums have been received by them for
persons who have afterwards been ascertained to be unworthy
of relief; and in instances where the discovery took place in
time, the money, by the direction of the donors, has been trans-
ferred to truer objects of charity.
The fees, penalties, and forfeitures received at the eleven
metropolitan police-courts and by the justices of the exterior
police districts are very considerable ; in 1855 they amounted
to 11,3151. 16s. 6d. This sum goes towards defraying the
expenses of the courts, which, together with the salaries of the
officers, and other items, amounted in the same year to
63.021Z. Os. 5d. The expenditure may be considered reasonable,
when it is remembered that 60,000 cases are annually disposed
of, many of which require a minute knowledge of statute and
of common law. The chief improvement required is the im-
provement of the buildings. The Thames police-court is the
only one at all suitable for its purpose. An enclosed yard is
attached to it, in which the police- van can draw up and discharge
2 K
498 THE POLICE AXD THE THIEVES.
its prisoners without exposing them to the public gaze, an
important point in times of public excitement. Clerkenwell
and Westminster are the next best-arranged courts, but both
want space and air ; Lambeth, though lately built, is a com-
plete failure ; many of the other courts are held in small private
houses ; and in those of Marlborough Street and Hammer-
smith, the business is transacted up stairs. In the latter court
it is a common thing to hear it said of persons who have been
taken before the magistrates — " he has been up the forty steps."
With the common people, with whom these institutions have
mainly to deal, justice should be dispensed with regard to ap-
pearances j there should be the formality of the superior courts,
and somewhat of their show. A magistrate sitting in a plain
black dress like an ordinary gentleman, and a lawyer dispensing
justice in his wig and gown, are two very different things to the
lower classes, whatever they may be to educated persons ; and
the want of all official costume, and the huddled style of doing
business, inseparable from the present confined space, is not
calculated to inspire the people with much respect. The
police should at least be put upon a level with the county-
courts. The latter have to deal with less momentous interests.
Questions of paltry debt cannot be put in comparison with
questions involving the liberty of the subject ; the power of
committing to prison for six months with hard labour is far
more important than that of adjudicating in money disputes
under five pounds. It is not enough that justice is admi-
nistered ; it is the opinion which the people have of it that
produces the effect, and until the judgment-seat is rendered
dignified, and those who sit on it are clothed with the habili-
ments which distinguish the magistrate from the man, the law,
by losing most of its impressiveness, will lose its moral power
over delinquents. The vulgar terror of punishment may
remain, but the lesson which is conveyed to the feelings by the
solemn stateliness of the tribunal is entirely gone.
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND
PROFESSIONS.
It is but natural to suppose, that in such a busy hive of
industry as England, where so large a proportion of the popu-
lation — at least one-half — is engaged in the prosecution of arts
and manufactures, that the effects of unceasing toil, and the
debilitating influences of many employments, will have a
certain effect upon the health and longevity - of the artisan.
"We cannot pit the tender muscles of the child against the
senseless energy of steam, without producing a strain upon the
vital principle of the workers which must be highly injurious
to it. We cannot consign a population as large as that of
many German States to live perpetually in the bowels of the
earth, without being prepared for an increased death-rate.
The hundreds of diverse manufactures and handicrafts, which
make the land hum with labour, must all be prosecuted under
circumstances more or less inimical to perfect health. If we
take the agricultural labourer of the better class, whose daily
toil is performed under the roof of heaven, it must be clear
that all trades which pursue their monotonous vocations in the
crowded workshops of crowded cities, in constrained attitudes,
and subject to debilitating emanations, must, to a certain
extent, fall short of his standard of health. Nevertheless, we
do not think the public are prepared for the state of things
which a close examination of the sanitary condition of certain
portions of the working population divulges. Accustomed to
be furnished with all the appliances of easy life and luxury, the
great middle and upper classes have never perhaps given a
2 K 2
500 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
thought as to the manner in which these wants and appliances
are supplied. Accustomed to sip the honey, it never strikes us
that perhaps its product involves in some cases the life of the
working-bee. Yet the lady, who, from the silken ease of her
fauteuil, surveys her drawing-room, may learn a lesson of com-
passion for the poor workman in nearly every article that lies
before her. Those glazed visiting cards, if they could speak,
possibly could tell of the paralyzed hand that made them ;
tli at splendid mirror, which lights up the stately room, has,
without doubt, reflected the trembling form of the emaciated
Italian artificer poisoned with mercurial fumes ; those hangings,
so soft and delicate, may have produced permanent disease to
the weaver, whose stomach has been injured by its constant
pressure against the beam ; the porcelain vase on the bracket
has dragged the " dipper's " hand into a poison that, sooner or
later, will destroy its power, and, may-be, produce in him mania
and death ; nay, the very paper on the w T alls, tinted with all
the vernal brightness of spring, has, for all we know, ulcerated
with its poisonous dust the fingers of the hanger. The history
of the manufacture of almost every article of elegance or virtu
would disclose to us pictures of workmen transiently or per-
manently disabled in the production of them. All this suffer-
ing — much of it totally preventible — goes on without complaint,
the workman falls out of the ranks, and another instantly takes
his place, to be succeeded perhaps by a third. "We are con-
vinced that such a waste of health and life could not be endured,
if the public were fully alive to the magnitude of the evil ; for
this reason we shall endeavour, in the following essay, to give
a true picture of what may, perhaps, without pedantry, be
termed the pathology of industrial occupations and professions
in this country.
Foremost among those artisans who suffer from the inhala-
tion of dust and other gritty particles given off in the pursuit
of their employment are the grinders of Sheffield. Dr. J. C.
Hall, in a series of papers published lately in the British
Medical Journal, draws a picture of the condition of these
unfortunate men, which is indeed appalling, and without doubt
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 501
gives them the bad pre-eminence of pursuing the most deadly
trade in existence. Grinding is divided into dry, wet, and
mixed ; that is, the various articles of steel turned out of the
cutler's shop of Sheffield are subjected to the stone entirely
dry, revolving in water, or to processes involving both methods.
Of the three, the former is by far the most deadly : forks,
needles, brace-bits, &c, are ground entirely on the dry stone,
and the amount of finely-divided metal dust and siliceous grit
given out in the process may be imagined, when we state that
a dozen of razors, weighing 21b. 4oz. as they come from the
forge in the rough, lose in the process of " shaping " on the dry
stone, upwards of five ounces, and the stone itself, seven inches
in diameter, would be reduced one inch. To receive the
mixture of stone and steel thus rapidly given off, the position
of the grinder is but too convenient ; straddled across his
"horsing" as the frame in which the grindstone revolves is
called, with his knees bent in an acute angle, his body inclined
forwards, and his head hanging over the work, his mouth is
brought into fatal contact with the poisonous dust, and his eyes
with the rush of the sparks. Fork-grinding is performed
entirely on the dry stone, and consequently it is the most
deadly occupation pursued in Sheffield. About 500 men and
boys are at present devoting themselves to destruction during
the period of early manhood, for the benefit of the users of
steel forks. " The silver fork school " imagines perhaps that
these vile appliances have long been banished to the same
limbo as snuffers, and will be surprised to learn that more steel
forks than ever are thus fashioned in Sheffield, and the poor
grinder, as he receives into his lungs the products of the
fashioning, in his own person exemplifies the awful passage in
the burial-service — " dust to dust" — as the disease thus induced
cuts him off at the average age of twenty-nine years ! " I shall
be thirty-six years old next month," remarked a grinder, patheti-
cally, to Dr. Hall, " and you know, measter, that's getting a
very old man in our trade." Another operation, almost as
deadly as fork-grinding, is that of " racing the stone." These
grindstones are but roughly reduced to the circular form by the
D02 mortality in trades and professions.
quarrymen, and the grinder undertakes the business of reduc-
ing and removing all their asperities, which he does by revolving
them against a piece of steel — a tremendous dust being given
off in the process. In wet grinding, which is employed in the
manufacture of saws, files, sickles, table-knives, and edge-tools,
comparatively little dust is made, and in these employments
the grinders enjoy comparatively longer life ; their average age
ranging from thirty-five to forty years. In addition to the
destructive effects of these particles of metal and stone upon
the delicate membrane of the lungs, the dry- grinder is sub-
jected to serious injury of the eyes from the red-hot particles of
steel thrown off in the shape of sparks. The more careful of
the workmen protect themselves from the danger, however, by
wearing large spectacles of ordinary window glass. These
spectacles, when they have been in use a little time, give
practical evidence of their utility, for on examining them they
are found to be speckled all over with the particles of steel,
which, when red-hot, become embedded in the glass.
In the rough nomenclature of the trade, the disease which
thus early destroys the fashioner of forks and needles is termed
the grinder's rot. The lung, when examined after death, looks
as though it had been dipped in ink, and the texture, instead
of exhibiting the usual spongy character of that organ when in
health, cuts like a piece of india-rubber ! The colour and the
solidification of the dry-grinder's lung is owing to the chronic
inflammation to which it has been subjected by the presence
from an early age of irritating particles of steel and stone
within its finest air passages. But why dry- grind at all, the
reader will involuntarily exclaim, if the wages of the occupa-
tion are death ? The grinder replies, that there are certain
operations which cannot be done on the wet stone ; giving the
rounded back to razors, technically called " humping," and the
rounded side to scissors, are quoted as examples. The pressure
during the process of shaping is so great, that the rolling friction
would speedily make the stone wear, and the workman would
be unable to hold the blade upon it. Then, again, we may ask,
where is the necessity for this rounded form — would the shaver
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 503
on a cold morning care a jot whether his razor had a round or
a square back 1 Would the lady, as she manipulated her lace-
work with her scissors, hesitate to accept a three-sided scissor-
leg in place of a half-round one, if she knew that the difference
involved the life of a fellow-creature 1 Yet such trifling differ-
ences as these between round and flat, stand in the way of the
health or misery of an entire class of workers ! We give a list
of the average duration of life of artisans in steel in Sheffield: —
Dry-grinders of forks, 29 years; razors, 31 years; scissors,
32 years ; edge-tool and wool-shears, 32 years ; spring-knives,
34 years; table-knives, 35 years; files, 35 years; saws,
38 years ; sickles, 38 years — the ascending longevity being in
proportion to the amount of water used on the stone, and to
the greater amount of adult labour employed ; such articles as
saws, sickles, and tools are happily too heavy to be manipulated
by the children employed, and thus early diseased in the manu-
facture of the lighter articles.
The only relief to be gathered from this dismal picture of
wasted life, is the fact that things are not so bad as of old. By
means of greater speed being given to the stone, many articles,
such as pen and pocket-knives, are now ground with a wet
stone that formerly were ground with the dry; and happily
much of the dust has been abolished in the best shops, such as
that of Messrs. Rodgers, by the introduction of fans on the
principle of a winnowing-machine, which blows the dust and
grit as it comes from the grindstone clear away through a flue
placed in connection with the chimney. This fan is, however,
only partially used ; the grinders themselves, whom they are
intended to benefit, complaining that the " trade is bad enough
as it is, and if men lived longer, it would be so over-full that
there would be no such a thing as getting a living :" the same
spirit rejected Mr. Abraham's mask of magnetized wire, in-
vented many years ago for the same object. There can be no
doubt, however, that intelligence should rule in this matter, and
that the Legislature should make it a fineable offence to work a
dry stone without a fan, just as it is to work dangerous
machinery without guards ; for where one life is lost by neglect
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
in the latter case, thousands sink into a premature grave in the
former. Grinders, wet or dry, may also protect their lungs, in a
most remarkable manner, by simply allowing the beard and
moustache to grow. The hirsute appendages of the upper lip
and chin are Nature's respirators, and it has been observed that
those men who have allowed her in this respect to have her
way, have discovered that she is somewhat wiser than fashion
or popular usage.
Of those artisans exposed to irritating dust, probably miners
take the second place after the miserable dry grinders. If we
investigate the condition of these men, we are immediately
struck with the lamentable conditions under which they labour,
and astonished at the endurance and patience with which they
submit to toil to which that of the well-fed, well-housed felon is
pleasant pastime. There are at present upwards of 300,000
human beings acting the part of gnomes for the good of the
community at large, entering day by day into the bowels of the
earth, and emerging in the evening. Of human life they see as
little as the train of black ants we watch emerging from their
holes in the ground. Yet the miner is the industrial Atlas of
England. Were he to cease to labour, this busy hive of men
would speedily be hushed, and the giant limbs of machinery,
which now do the drudgery of the world, become as still as the
enchanted garden of the fairy tale ere the advent of the prince.
Without the coal and the iron, the copper and the tin, they
toilfully evolve from vast depths, England would be but a third-
rate power. A life so cheerless, and yet so useful — nay, essential,
to our national existence — should at least receive at the hands
of the Government every protection that can be thrown around
it ; yet, if we follow the miner into his gallery and working
cell, we are amazed at the dangers and the difficulties which
are needlessly thrust upon him in the black realm in which he
moves and has his being. Let us take the collier, for example.
In many pits in the West of England, the seams of coal are not
more than twenty or twenty-five inches thick ; and inasmuch
as the object of the worker is to remove the coal with as little
as possible of the surrounding soil, he often drives his working
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 505
to a considerable distance through an aperture not more than,
and often not so much as, two feet high. If our adult male
reader will condescend to squat himself on the floor, a la Turque,
say under the dining-table, for instance, and then picture to
himself the inconvenience of picking with an axe the under side
of the prandial mahogany for twelve hours, he will obtain some
slight idea of the muscular knot into which the poor collier has
to tie himself, for the whole term of his working life, having to
use violent exercise throughout. Can it be wondered at that,
under such circumstances, the Apollo- like form of man becomes
permanently twisted and bent, like the gnarled root of an oak
that has been doubled up in the fissure of some rock 1 If we
look at a collier, we see instantly that his back is curved, his
legs bowed, and the extensor muscles of his calves withered
through long disease. He has knotted himself so long, that the
erect position of his race becomes a punishment to him. It is
credibly related that a number of colliers, having been sentenced
to imprisonment in Wakefield jail, with hard labour, the only
complaint they made was, that they were obliged, whilst at
work, to keep the ordinary posture of rational creatures. But
confined space is only one of the many evil conditions under
which they labour. In the majority of cases the collier works
in foul air ; for, notwithstanding all the official inspection, the
ventilation of mines is still execrable. The fire-damp either
blasts him into a cinder, or the choke-damp noiselessly blots out
his life. However good, moreover, the general system of ven-
tilation in a mine, unforeseen accidents will happen at any
moment. The pick of the collier strikes into the gallery of an
old pit, where carbonic acid gas has been gathering perhaps
for a century ; and the poisoned air rushes in and does its work
in an instant ; or a sudden invasion of carburetted hydrogen,
disengaged by the fall of a mass of coal, meets the miner, who
is working, perhaps imprudently, with a naked candle ; — and an
explosion follows which crowds the pit's mouth with a wailing
multitude of newly-made widows and orphans.
Upwards of 1,500 lives are annually lost, principally through
these causes, and not less than 10,000 accidents in the same
506 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS,
period testify to the dangerous nature of the miner's occupation,
notwithstanding the strict Government inspection.* It is
humiliating to know that England is yet far behind continental
nations in her methods of preventing these dreadful catastrophes.
Mr. Mackworth, in his lecture at the Society of Arts, stated
that the mortality from accidents was, in the coal mines of
Killed Persons.
Prussia
.
1-89 per 1000 per annum,
Belgium
.
• 2-8
England
,
. 4-5
Staffordshire
,
. 7'3
This comparison, so humiliating to England, cannot be ex-
plained by the superior adventure of our countrymen, inasmuch
as the production of coal in Belgium is half as much again per
acre of the coal-field as in England. It is not, however, to the
dramatic accidents of coal mines which every now and then startle
the community, to which we wish to draw attention ; but rather
to the silent progress of disease, which makes his death so pre-
mature, and his life so miserable. In addition to his cramped
condition, whilst at work, his supply of oxygen is small ; for in
all probability the air supplied to him has to circulate many
miles through the mine, and to pass over the excrementitious
deposits of man and horse, and the decaying woodwork of the
mine, ere it finally reaches him, in enfeebled streams, in his
solitary working cell. Long deprivation of solar light, again,
tends to impoverish his blood, to blanch him, in short, like
vegetable products similarly deprived of the light of day. It is
through the lungs, however, that the health of the miner is
principally attacked. The air of a coal mine (such as it is)
holds a vast amount of coal-dust in mechanical suspension, and
this, as a matter of course, is constantly passing into the lungs
of the miner. ' The proof of this is the so-called " black spit"
of the collier, which, on being subjected to the microscope, is
found to consist of mucus, filled with finely divided particles of
* Since the ahove was written, the attention of Government has been
drawn to the condition of our mines, and a commission of inquiry will
speedily, we hear, be appointed.
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 5'n
coal. The permanent inhalation of such an atmosphere results
in what is termed the "black lung." The breathing apparatus of
the collier becomes clogged, in short, with coal-dust, and after
death it has the appearance of being dipped in ink. A writer,*
who has lately investigated this singular pathological condition,
thus gives his experience of two post-mortem examinations : —
" In each case, the black treacly fluid obtained by thus cutting the
various portions of the lung (more especially the posterior and inferior
portions of the lower lobes), and by slitting up the bronchial tubes, was
evaporated to dryness, and the residuum being broken up and subjected to
a red heat in a porcelain tube retort, behaved precisely as coal under
similar circumstances, i.e. it evolved a smoke-like gaseous product, which,
on being slightly condensed, deposited hydro-sulphide of ammonium and
coal tar, and being thus purified, burnt in all respects like the well-known
compounds of the two carbides of hydrogen (common gas)."
Dr. Gregory, of Edinburgh, many years since, by destructive
analysis, came to the same conclusion respecting the carbona-
ceous nature of this deposit. The presence of this foreign body
in the lungs leads to the whole train of pulmonary diseases.
Asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia are but too frequent, and
we are consequently not surprised to hear that the aggregate
amount of sickness experienced by this class, for the period of
life from twenty to sixty, is 95 weeks, or 67 per cent, more
than the general average.
Rheumatism, leading to heart disease, is another very common
complaint of the miner. Indeed, all the conditions of ill-
managed mines seem ready prepared for the propagation of this
disease. When mines are driven to any considerable depth, the
temperature proportionably increases, and 80 degrees of Fahren-
heit is a common temperature at the end of workings, all the
year round. After exposure to this oppressive atmosphere
during the whole day, the collier perhaps suddenly emerges into
the open air at the pit's mouth, vitally depressed by his pro-
longed exertion, when the bitter wind is shaving the surface of
the earth at a temperature much below freezing point. In the
coal-field stretching from Valenciennes to Aix-la-Chapelle, the
mines are made conspicuous a long way off by the presence of
huge buildings, which enclose the machinery and the top of the
* W. T. Cox, Esq., in British Medical Journal.
508 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
pit. In these buildings apartments are prepared in which the
colliers change their clothes before and after labour, and wash
themselves in baths filled with hot water from the steam waste-
pipe. The importance of this sanitary precaution is very great,
inasmuch as colliers, like chimney-sweeps, are subject to a skin
disease, in consequence of the begrimed condition of their skins.
Lady Bassett has established these baths, we understand, at her
mines at Camborne, in Cornwall ; but we think that the
enforcement of a sanitary act of such importance should not be
left to the philanthropic tendencies of individuals, but should
be required by the Government. If a provision of this kind
were made compulsory, and stricter legislation with respect to
ventilating mines were established, no doubt a vast amount of
disease could be eliminated. It is estimated that the worst
coal mines can be ventilated thoroughly at a cost of one penny
per man per day, and that in well-constructed furnaces the
consumption of one ton of coals per day at the bottom of an
up-cast shaft will enable each collier to cut one ton of coals
more per day with the same amount of exertion. Such being
the case, there can be no excuse for asphyxiating the miners
wholesale. Those proprietors of mines, who are only open to
these breeches-pocket appeals, should know that it is their
interest, in a pecuniary sense, to ventilate well, inasmuch as
the preservative effect of pure air upon the wood brattrices,
which form so expensive an item in mining, effects a saving of
80 per cent.
Our remarks hitherto have been directed entirely to coal
mines and colliers, as these are by far the most extensive
industrial occupations of the kind. The metalliferous mines,
such as the tin and copper mines of Cornwall, and lead mines
of Derbyshire, are in pretty much the same pestiferous condi-
tion, but in one particular they are still more destructive of
life than coal mines. In the latter the tired workman is lifted
from the depths of the mines to the surface by a rope. The
Cornwall miner, on the other hand, has to carry his exhausted
body in some cases thousands of feet up a series of steep ladders
to the mouth of the mine. It has been estimated that many
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 509
miners have thus to make an exertion every night equal to
climbing to the summit of Cader Idris, and this in an up-casfc
shaft used for the extraction of the foul air ! The disastrous
effect upon the already weary miner has long been known, yet
in only a few of the great mines of Cornwall has the tireless
arm of the steam-engine been called in to save him from this
unnecessary labour. The machinery used is called a man-
machine, and differs entirely from that employed in coal-pits.
In place of a rope, a beam of wood or iron descends through
the whole length of the shaft ; this beam, at regular intervals
of ten feet, has little platforms attached to it, sufficient to
afford standing-room to a miner ; at the sides of the shaft are
similar platforms, at the same intervals. At every stroke of
the engine the beam ascends or descends through the space of
ten feet, consequently the miner has only to step from the fixed
platform to the moving one to be lifj^d ten feet every time it
ascends. In this manner as many as a hundred men are lifted
at the same time several thousand feet in a few minutes, without
any more exertion than is necessary to make a few score steps.
This curious invention has materially benefited the miner, and
where it is used there is a manifest absence of the heart disease,
induced by the climbing of interminable ladders placed in an
almost vertical position.
Dr. Greenhow, in his report on the prevalence of certain
diseases in different districts of England and Wales, very
clearly proves the deleterious nature of the lead-miner's em-
ployment by the comparisons he makes between the death-rates
of the men and women of Reeth and Alston, which are purely
lead-mining districts. In the former, the lead-miners die at
the rate of 2,037 per 100,000 of all ages, whilst their wives,
sisters, and daughters, who are variously employed, die at the
reduced rate of 1,711 per 100,000 ; in other words, lead-mining
in this one typical district caused an excess of no less than
3*26 deaths in every 100,000 inhabitants; and if we make a
comparison relative to the prevalence of pulmonary disease
between the two sexes, above the age of twenty, we find the
death-rate of the men is double that of the women. The evil
510 MOETALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
influence of copper-mining on the male population is not quite
so marked, but still it is apparent enough. Thus, in Redruth,
in which this kind of labour is exclusively carried on, we find
that in every 100,000 of population, 220 males die from pul-
monary disease more than females ; and in Penzance, which is
exclusively a tin-mining district, the superior waste of male
over female life, in the same population, of all ages, is 104.
The mason, like the miner, is particularly liable to suffer
from the presence of irritating substances in the lungs. It has
been asserted that in Edinburgh members of the craft rarely
live more than fifty years. This is doubtless owing to the
nature of the material they work upon. There is great reason
to suppose that the degree of damage done to the delicate air-
cells of the lung is to be measured by the nature of the particles
inhaled. Thus, the ragged portions of granite detached by the
chisel are much more likejy to do harm than the less irregular
dust of the bricklayer. In this manner we can account for the
high rate of mortality said to exist among the masons of our
northern metropolis. The scourers in the potteries exercise
their fearful trade in an atmosphere loaded with pulverised
flints, a mineral dust of the most distressing character : we are
not surprised, therefore, to hear that in this process pulmonary
disease is still more rampant than among the Edinburgh masons,
and is little inferior to that of the dry grinders of Sheffield, who
receive into their lungs jagged particles of steel as well as
grindstone dust.* It will be unnecessary to consider all the
* A just appreciation of the value of life is, perhaps, of more importance
to Friendly Societies than to Insurance Offices, inasmuch, as the range of
sickness in the working classes is much more extensive than in the upper
and middle walks of life. Mr.Hardwick, in his manual on enrolled Friendly
Societies, has pointed out the fact that the vast majority of these societies
are based upon calculations which must in the end terminate in their bank-
ruptcy : and among the causes which tend to this disastrous result he
mentions the total disregard evinced in these clubs to a proper estimate of
the states of health in different occupations and localities. It must be clear
that the potter, whose average amount of illness between the ages of 20
and 70 is more than 333 weeks, obtains a very unfair advantage over clerks
or schoolmasters who may happen to be in the same club with him, and
whose average of sickness during the same period is only 48 weeks. The
dyer, again, who, under the present system of management of Friendly
Societies, may be admitted to a club on the same terras as a wheelwright,
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 511
trades which are affected by dust, inasmuch as the artisans
employed in them are similarly subjected to pulmonary affec-
tions, if not in a like degree. Thus millers are rendered con-
sumptive and asthmatic by the floating meal of their mills ;
simff-makers by the snuff which pervades the air of their places
of work ; pearl-button-makers suffer still more from the same
cause ; and the men of Sheffield who haft knives with cocoa-
wood or ebony are affected with a disease exactly like the hay-
asthma. The shoddy-grinders of the West Riding, who grind
and break up rags in a machine called " a devil," are subjected
to what they term the shoddy fever, in consequence of the
devil's dust given off in the tearing process. The dressers and
preparers of hair, especially of foreign hair, are speedily broken
in health by the dust and stench produced by their operations.
The evil effects arising from the prosecution of these trades
sink into insignificance, however, when compared with the
destruction caused by the floating fluff of flax-mills. These
mills employ children of tender years, who have to work in
an atmosphere loaded with vegetable particles to such a degree,
that in a measure it clouds the vision. The hecklers are the
chief sufferers in this department of industry, especially
the children, who are, many of them, forced to work the same
time as adults — that is, as long as human natnre can possibly
hold out. We shall have more to say, however, when we come
to consider the effects of bleaching and dyeing works, respect-
ing those trades which exhaust the youthful powers of large
portions of the working population, and thus do infinitely more
damage to the race than the more curious diseases of smaller
trades, which may be severe enough, but do not affect more
than infinitesimal portions of the population.
claims for 293 weeks of sickness against the wheelwright's 64. The healthy
country artisan is thus made to pay for the unhealthy town mechanic. If
we take the case, again, of the miner or the Sheffield grinder, and huddle
him, without inquiry, into the same Friendly Society as the agricultural
labourer, it must be clear that the latter must pay for the more than
average sickness of his fellows. Until the relative value of life and of
sickness among the working classes is thoroughly understood and acted
upon, as regards the payments of members, it is clear that the healthy
trades must be sacrificed to the unhealthy ones.
512 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
It would be supposed that workers on decomposing vegetable
and animal matter would suffer a sickness and mortality only
inferior to the artisans subjected to the emanations of poisonous
metals. A priori, we should say, for instance, that dustmen,
nightmen, and the workers in sewers, would be amongst the
most unhealthy of the working classes, and, indeed, routine
sanitarians would summarily tell us that such must be the case.
The begrimed and dusty scavenger, whose very name is a
reproach, spends the best part of his life in clearing away the
disgusting refuse of civilization ; he has yet another duty to
perform which brings him into still closer contact with unsa-
voury emanations. The lay-stall, or scavengers' yard, is of course
a huge collection of the sweepings of the streets, the refuse of
the markets, and the night-soil and dust of the houses, but it is
not allowed to remain in a fermenting and indiscriminate mass.
Almost as soon as it is deposited, men, women, and boys are
employed to sift and sort the heap ; bones, glass, woollen and
linen rags, old iron and other metals, have to be eliminated from
the mass and set aside, and the coals and great cinders are
extracted from the useless ashes by the " hill-men." It would
scarcely be possible to bring human life into closer contact with
filth of every kind than we find it to be in the workers in these
lay-stalls. Yet, strange to say, Dr. Guy, who has investigated
their sanitary condition, finds them to be among the healthiest
of our working population. " They are, with a very few ex-
ceptions," he tells us, " a healthy-looking, ruddy-complexioned
race ; " that is, they wear their natural rouge under their
artificial tint, reversing the more fashionable method of May
Fair.
" One or two boys," he tells us, u whom I saw at work, would
have been excellent models for the artist." Our London
readers will perhaps remember to have seen troops of robust
and rosy-looking young women, not perhaps in afternoon toilet,
making their way, about five o'clock, from the Marble Arch
across Hyde Park ; these are the " hill-women," chiefly Irish,
trooping home to the rookeries of Westminster ; their appear-
ance quite confirms Dr. Guy's views as to the healthful
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 513
appearance of these workers. The master scavengers, who live
with all their families amid these heaps of dusty desolation,
excite the admiration of this searcher after truth still more ; and
at last, breaking out of the calm unimpassioned manner which
the philosophical statist, who deals only with general truths,
is wont to impose upon himself, he thus fairly gives vent to his
admiration for the genus dustman : —
"To conclude this account of the health of this very useful class of men,
I will merely add that the score or so of master scavengers who were
brought together on more than one occasion by the trial already alluded to
(an indictment for nuisance against a lay-stall keeper), as the origin of
these inquiries, are the healthiest set of men I have ever seen. I do not think,
whether in town or country, such a body of men could be brought together,
except by selection ; and it is not going too far to assert of them, that if
the comparison were limited to the inhabitants of London, or our large
towns, no score of selected tradesmen could be found to match the same
number of scavengers brought casually together."
This is high praise, and doubtless deserved ; but few people,
however, would have suspected that Hygeia clasped so closely
to her bosom the grimy scavenger in his filthy frock. Dr.
Guy, however, gives us hard figures for his pleasant flourishes.
If we compare the scavenger with other workmen placed under
somewhat similar circumstances, he rises triumphant over them.
Thus whilst the bricklayer's labourer, generally a very poor
Irishman, it is true, suffers from fever, a ratio of 35 J per
cent., and the brickmaker 21 per cent., the scavenger expe-
riences only 8 per cent, of illness from the same cause. This
result does seem astonishing when we remember that sanitarians
sometimes attribute so much illness to the presence of a
neglected dust-heap ; but as Dr. Guy very justly remarks,
those emanations which may prove injurious when confined
within a small space — and our houses, like bell glasses, cover
and keep in numberless impurities — become innoxious when
fully exposed to the air. We suspect, however, that the power
of ashes to absorb noxious emanations of all kinds, is at the
bottom of the striking immunity which the scavenger exhibits
from all febrile complaints. Nightmen and sewer-men, again,
are brought into direct communication with the most disgusting,
and as the public are led to suppose, the most poisonous animal
effluvia ; they stir in the very nidus of fever, yet it has been
2 L
514 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
remarked by many observers that they are singularly exempt
from this disease. Sir Anthony Carlisle tells us that out of
fifty men employed in the sewers in his time, only three had
had fever. Thakrah declares that out of eighteen examined
by his assistant, only two had even slight disorders, and they
informed him that appetite was increased by the effluvia ; and
finally Dr. Guy tells us that out of thirty-four nightmen
examined by him, only one had had an attack of fever, and he
only through being out of work for three weeks ; he suffered,
in short, from change of air, and perhaps want of food. Dr.
Guy, in the little pamphlet we have already quoted from, states
a most remarkable fact, illustrative of the changes of opinion,
even amongst medical men, relative to the effects of snuffing
sewer emanations. He says, that a gentleman who accom-
panied him in one of his inspections over a scavenger's yard,
informed him that, " he perfectly well recollects thirty years
ago, when he was a lad, seeing as many as twelve patients
directed by the faculty of that day to walk round the shoots for
the night-soil on his father's premises ; and he appealed for
confirmation of this statement to his brother, who said that
he had seen scores of patients industriously inhaling this
curious dose of physic." Thakrah, who wrote his celebrated
" Treatise on the Effects of Trades and Professions on Health,"
about this period, tells us that the parents of consumptive
youth, in his time, brought them up to the business of a but-
cher, in the hope of averting that formidable malady. In
endeavouring to avoid Scylla, they fell into Charybdis, inas-
much as it is a well-ascertained fact that butchers, although
exempt from consumption and scrofula, are very prone to in-
flammatory diseases. They are seldom ill, but when ill, it goes
hard with them, — so much so, that, as a class, these jolly, red-
faced men, the very pictures of their own beef, are but short-
lived. The effects of animal emanations, and the contact of
animal substances with the skin in protecting workmen from
consumption, is a very remarkable circumstance. Tanners con-
stantly at work among tan-pits, are rarely, we believe, attacked
with phthisis ; and those artisans in the woollen-manufacture
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 515
termed cloth-pi ecers, whose skins are smeared with oil in the
course of the day, present a remarkable contrast to the workers
in cotton factories, — their flesh being plump and rosy, and
their mucles strong. Mr. Thompson of Perth, who has investi-
gated this subject, found the weight of one hundred young
persons, so employed, increased in three months 575 lbs., giv-
ing an average increase of 5f lbs., and in eight selected cases
the gain during the same brief period averaged no less than
17 lbs. each person. The beneficial effect of this department
of the woollen-manufacture is so well known, that in Yorkshire
the better classes frequently send the delicate members of their
families to the woollen-mills for the benefit of their health.
The application of oil, especially of cod-liver oil, to the skin,
has indeed been recommended to consumptive patients, as
thereby a greater amount of carbonaceous material can be
thrown into the system without deranging it than by any
other. After having drawn attention to so many occupations
which are positively injurious to artisans, it is at least gratify-
ing to be able to point to one large and rapidly-increasing manu-
facture which is so clearly beneficial in its operations upon
human health.
There is a class of artisans which suffers from the inhalation
of poisonous matters into the lungs, like the grinders and the
masons, &c, but the foreign matter here presents itself in the
form of a subtle vapour, rather than in that of dust. We
little think, when we strike a lucifer-match, — that incom-
parable product of civilization, whose inventor deserves a
statue in every capital in Europe, — what suffering it may pos-
sibly have caused in its manufacture. The composition at the
end of a match is composed of phosphorus combined with oxy-
muriate of potash and glue, made into a paste, and kept liquid
by being placed over a heated metal plate. Into this compo-
sition the " dipper " dips the bundle of matches, and in doing
so he is forced to inhale the vapour given off, which is
strongly charged with phosphoric acid, the effect of which upon
him is sometimes most disastrous. After a time he experiences
most excruciating pains in the bones of the jaw, but principally
2-L-2
516 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
in the lower one ; they begin to swell, a purulent discharge
takes place, and, finally, the bone dies and conies away. Mr.
Stanley, one of the surgeons of St. Bartholomew's Hospital,
had a patient who thus lost the whole of the lower jaw. There
appears to be considerable doubt whether the poison acts
locally or constitutionally. One would naturally suppose that
if the action were local, it would first take effect upon the bones
of the nose, but, as far as the experience of surgery goes, the
" dipper " always preserves his nose intact. That the poisonous
fumes have a certain constitutional effect, the aspect of the
workman at once declares ; cadaverous in complexion, ema-
ciated to a degree, and painfully nervous, he presents the
appearance of a person suffering from the presence of some
irritant poison in the blood. It certainly is very remarkable
that phosphorus, which, in the form of phosphate of lime, is a
very important constituent of .bone, should have such an extra-
ordinary effect upon it when received into the system in the
manner we have described. TTe are not aware that this drug,
when received into the stomach only, has ever produced the
local effect noticed ; but, without doubt, it is the quantity of
the poisonous agent to which the workman is subjected, as he
not only receives the fumes directly into his mouth and air-
passages in the act of " dipping," but the whole atmosphere of
the factory becomes so impregnated with phosphorus, in conse-
quence of its volatilization when the process of drying the
matches is being proceeded with, that his clothes even become
saturated to such an extent that in the dark they appear quite
luminous. In Vienna, where enormous numbers of lucifer-
matches are made, necrosis of the jaw is of common occurrence
among the workmen ; and the German physicians believe that
the disease arises principally in persons of scrofulous habit, the
periosteum or lining membrane of whose bones are peculiarly
liable to take on inflammatory action, the death of the bone
following as a matter of course. If this view of the case be
true, all scrofulous persons should be warned from the employ-
ment, as dangerous, and in all cases employers should adopt
every precaution in their power to prevent the recurrence of
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 517
such mischief to the employed. Mr. Stanley says that the oil
of turpentine, which is a solvent of phosphorous, when exposed
in saucers, absorbs the vapour which does so much mischief,
and that its employment in a large lucifer-match factory in the
neighbourhood of the London Hospital was attended with the
happiest success. Thus we have another example of the power
of the chemist to make the good elements of his craft do battle
with the evil ones in the cause of humanity.
Another and more common instance, in which the workman
is sacrificed to luxury, is the case of the water-gilder. The skill
of this artisan is employed in gilding metals, principally silver,
by the action of fire. The metal to be gilded is coated with an
amalgam of gold and mercury, and is then exposed to the fumes
of a charcoal fire, which drives off the mercury, and leaves the
gold adherent to the metal. During the process the fumes of
the mercury are inhaled by the workman, and, indeed, deposit
their metalliferous particles over the entire surface of the skin.
The result is, that he speedily becomes afflicted with mercurial
tremor, or, in the language of the workshop, he gets "a fit of
the trembles." If he proceeds with his work the tremor rapidly
increases. Dr. Watson, in describing a patient thus afflicted,
says :—
" He was led into the room, walking with uncertain steps, his limbs
trembling and dancing, as though he had been hung on wires. While sitting
on a chair he was comparatively quiet, — you would not suppose that he ailed
anything ; but, as soon as he attempted to rise and to walk, his legs began
to shake violently with a rapid movement. He could neither hold them
steadily nor direct them with precision."
Were it not painful to contemplate, the incoherent muscular
action of workmen thus afflicted would appear ludicrous. In
endeavouring to put his food into his mouth he will sometimes,
as in chorea, bob it against his eye or his cheek ; and extreme
cases have been known in which the unfortunate water-gilder
thus afflicted has been forced to take his food like a quadruped.
As the disease increases, the complexion becomes of a brown
hue, and presently delirium, and, lastly, want of consciousness
supervenes. To this complexion comes the water-gilder ; and
as the silverer of looking-glasses is exposed to the action of mer-
518 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
cury, both by touch and inhalation, the same effects are produced
upon him. If the charming belle, as she surveys her beauty in
the glass, could but for a moment see reflected this poor shattered
human creature, with trembling muscles, brown visage, and
blackened teeth., slie would doubtless start with horror ; but, as
it is, the slaves of luxury and vanity drop out of life unobserved
and uncared for, as the stream of travellers disappeared one by
one through the bridge of Mirza. Happily, the subtle finger of
electricity has in a measure emancipated the water-gilder from
the horrors of his art. The voltaic battery now deposits the
metal without the intervention of quicksilver, and science has
eliminated another of those destructive agencies which have
hitherto afflicted this class of artisans.
The silvering of mirrors and looking-glasses still remains a
dangerous operation ; but there can be no doubt that with
properly-constructed flues the floating metal would be entirely
conducted away. Indeed, it is by the chimney that much of the
metal now escapes ; for Thakrah tells us that he has been
informed by a manufacturer that from the sweepings of the
chimney on one occasion he had collected twenty pounds of
good quicksilver. Another, and a very manageable expedient,
sometimes resorted to by those exposed to the fumes and the
oxide of mercury, is to cover the mouth with a tube-like pro-
boscis, which hangs out of the way of the floating metal, and
thus conducts pure air to the operator.
Thakrah tells us that workers in brass also suffer from the
inhalation of the volatilized metal. The brass-melters of Bir-
mingham suffer from intermittent fever, which they call the
brass ague. This malady leaves them in a state of great debility.
The filers of brass, on the same authority, are subject to a most
peculiar affection, like Tittlebat Titmouse, their hair turning a
vivid green. It is supposed that the copper in the brass-dust
combines with the oil of the hair, and thus an oxide of copper
is formed. Coppersmiths are, of course, similarly affected.
Plumbers, whilst casting, are subject to the volatilized oxide of
lead, which in time produces paralysis ; and while they are sol-
dering, many deleterious fumes arise, of a sweetish taste, and of
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 519
a highly astringent nature, which often produces violent attacks
of constipation.
But poisonous metals may attack the mucous membrane in
the shape of finely-divided powder used in the arts. There is
an exceedingly beautiful paper, of an apple-green colour, which
is often selected for the coolness and cheerfulness of its appear-
ance. The writer was himself once deluded by the seductive
appearance of a paper of this description, and had his library
furnished with it. Strange to say, a violent cold seemed to seize
every one, even in the midst of summer, who stopped long in
this apartment, especially if they came much in contact with
the walls. On questioning the paper-hanger the mystery was
speedily explained. " I never hang that kind of paper," he said,
" without getting a bad sore throat and a running of the eyes.
All the trade knows it is good for a cold to have any dealings
with it." The cheerful green of the paper is nothing less deadly
than the aceto-arsenite of copper, an irritant poison of the first
class. The flock part of the paper contains a large quantity of
pigment in the form of dust, which is of course liable to be
detached from the walls on very slight occasions. It has been
erroneously supposed that the metal must be volatilized by heat
ere it can be separated from the paper ; but the action of
detachment is mechanical, and not chemical ; the poisonous dust
either falls or is brushed off the wall, and becomes mixed with
the ordinary dust of the room ; the lifting of a book, or the dis-
placement of a pile of papers, proves sufficient to set these
particles in motion, and to bring tbem in contact with the
mucous linings of the eyes, nose, and throat ; hence the violent
irritation produced, which similates so closely the effects of a
bad cold in the head. Professor Taylor, the celebrated medical
toxocologist, has moreover proved the presence of arsenic in
the dust fallen from this kind of paper. In a letter to the
Medical Times and Gazette, of January 1st, 1859, he says, —
"I procured from the shop of Messrs. Marratt and Short, opticians,
68, King William Street, London Bridge, a quantity of dust for the purpose
of analysis. The walls of this shop are covered with an unglazed arsenical
paper, and, as I am informed, they have been so covered for a period of
520 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
about three years. In collecting this dust from the tops of the cases con
taining the instruments, great care was taken not to touch the walls. The
quantity thus collected for examination amounted to about 450 grains. It
was nearly black, and, under the microscope, appeared to consist of fibres
of sooty particles. It was very light and fiocculent. One hundred and
fifty grains of the dust were examined by Reinsch's process, and enough
metallic arsenic was obtained from it to coat about ten square inches of
copper foil, in addition to a piece of copper gauze. From the latter deposit,
by the application of heat, octahedral crystals of arsenic were readily ob-
tained. The case had not been dusted for a period of nine months. Even
the dust of instruments locked up in the cases, which were lined at the back
only with the green paper, was found to be charged with this poisonous
pigment. Half a grain of the dust sufficed to cover pretty thickly with
metallic arsenic a square inch of copper gauze. These facts," says Pro-
fessor Taylor, "lead to the inevitable inference that the air of a room, of
which the walls are covered with an unglazed arsenical green paper, is
liable to be charged with the fine dust of the poisonous aceto-arsenite of
copper. Those who inhabit these rooms are exposed to breathe the dust.
The poison may thus find its way by the pulmonary membrane into the
system, or it may affect the eyes, nose, and throat by local action."
After this unimpeachable testimony to the poisonous character
of the pigment in this paper, it is not difficult to understand
that the workmen employed in its manufacture are particularly
liable to attacks of illness which exhibit all the symptoms of
acute influenza ; or that the paper-hangers, in putting it up,
are sometimes obliged to leave work for a time, in order to get rid
of the distressing symptoms to which its manipulation gives rise.
There is in Sheffield an occupation connected with tool-
making which forms, as it were, a connecting link between
the diseases produced by working in steel and those which
flow from working in lead : we allude to file-making. Unfor-
tunately, the various preparations of lead enter very largely
into the arts and manufactures of this country ; and as its
action upon the human body is very great, its pernicious in-
fluence is felt in a vast number of occupations of a diverse
nature. Thus, white-lead manufacturers, sheet-lead rollers,
painters, plumbers, potters, china manufacturers, colour-
grinders, glaziers, enamellers of cards, lead-miners, and shot-
makers, all come under the saturnine influence ; even the poor
lacemakers of Belgium do not escape, for the manufacturer,
in order to make the fibre look white, requires them to dust it
with white-lead powder, and possibly, by this means, it may
find its way into the fair skin of a duchess !
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 521
It may seem strange that a worker in steel should suffer
from the poison of lead, but it occurs in this manner : — The
file-maker, in order to hold the file securely, and, at the same
time, to protect the fine edge of the sharp chisel with which he
cuts the face of the file, places it upon a bed of lead which
rests upon an anvil. In cutting the larger three-square files,
the workman uses as much as a pound of lead a week ; this is
detached from the mass by friction and the use of the chisel, in
the form of a fine black powder. It is curious that the first
portion of the file-cutter's anatomy that is affected is the finger
that rests upon the lead ; at first it feels numb, and then be-
comes paralyzed. If the artisan will not take warning by this
fastidious touch of a digit, before long the poison grips him by
the wrist, and then some fine morning he wakes and finds that
he has what is termed in the trade " a dropped hand ; " * that
is, the extensor muscles of the wrist are paralyzed, and the hand
falls helplessly forward, like the fore-paw of a kangaroo. Here
the specific action of the poison has exerted itself through the
skin of the part affected. The same thing is observable in
painters, who are more subject to lead-paralysis than perhaps
any other workers in lead. The finger which first touches the
brush first suffers ; and the potter, who has in the course of his
trade to dip his ware in a preparation of lead and flints in order
to form the glaze, is in like manner, but still more severely,
afflicted. It is well ascertained, however, that the constitu-
tional effects which show themselves in obstinate constipation
and cholic, arise from the reception of the lead directly into the
mouth, either in the shape of finely-divided particles, or floating
in the air, or direct from the fingers to the manipulators : thus,
painters will eat their food with fingers soiled with the brush.
The mere exhalations of paint are sufficient to paralyze some
constitutions very speedily ; a single night spent in a newly-
* An ingenious Frenchman, of the name of Bernot, has just invented a
file-cutting machine which will, we trust, come generally into use, and do
away with the paralysis arising from the present handicraft. It is said that
the workmanship of the machine is more even than the hand-work : the
files cut in the morning by the artisan being superior to those cut in the
afternoon, in consequence of his muscles becoming tired.
522 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
painted house is sufficient to produce cholic, especially in young
children. And Dr. Watson, in his " Practice of Physic," relates
a case in which a person suffered from dropped hands who had,
she said, no concern with lead in any way : on cross-examining
her, however, it at last came out that her sons " had in the pre-
ceding summer occupied their leisure time with making bird-
cages and painting them green in the one room in which she
habitually lived." The dippers, as they are termed in the pot-
teries, are perhaps subjected to more frightful effects from lead-
poisoning than any other workmen : in addition to paralysis
and cholic, the subtle poison sometimes creeps into the brain,
mania comes on, and they die raving mad. The grinding and
packing of white lead is so destructive, that the men can work
at the occupation for a few hours in the day only ; the dust
that is given off penetrates the clothes, and covers the skin to
such an extent that these artisans, after taking a medicated
bath of sulphuret of potassium in water, come out like blacka-
moors.
In these works rats and mice are speedily poisoned by
the fine white-lead dust, which penetrates even to their holes.
The artisan who handles lead in its various combinations may,
however, vastly mitigate his trouble by adopting perfect cleanli-
ness. Before every meal he should wash his hands thoroughly,
and after work he should change his clothes. Medical science
has given him the means of being forewarned that lead is enter-
ing his system by a particular and rarely-failing diagnostic sign :
where the metal has entered the system a blue line will be dis-
covered near the edge of the gums • when this blue Peter is
hoisted he may know that danger is at hand, and that, unless
he is more careful, his bread-earning hand will speedily drop
powerless by his side. In all cases, however, prevention is
better than cure ; and we are glad to learn that almost perfect
exemption from painter's cholic and paralysis has been secured in
some extensive painting establishments, by causing artisans to
drink a lemonade made by adding a drop of sulphuric acid to a
gallon of water. The sulphuric acid is supposed to form, with
the lead received into the mouth and stomach, a sulphuret of
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 523
that metal, which is insoluble, and, therefore, cannot be taken
up by the absorbents into the system.
There are many important classes of workers whose sufferings
have nothing either curious or dramatic about them, who never-
theless furnish the largest contingent to the army of death. At
the head of these dismal companies march tailors, bakers, and
milliners of large cities and towns. These three classes supply
more victims to what has been erroneously termed '* the English
death," or consumption, than any other. Yet there can be no
doubt that there is but one condition wanting to render these
employments comparatively speaking healthy, and that one
want is pure air, Dr. Arnot makes the monkeys in the
Zoological Garden teach us a lesson in this particular which
should not be lost upon us. In his evidence before the Health
Commission he says ; —
" A new house was built to receive the monkeys, and no expense was
spared which, in the opinion of those intrusted with the management, could
ensure to those natives of a warm climate all attainable comfort and safety.
Unhappily, however, it was believed that the object would be best secured by
making the new room nearly what an English gentleman's drawing-room is.
For warming it, two ordinary drawing-room grates were put in as close to
the floor as possible, and with low chimney openings, that the heated air
in the room should not escape by the chimneys, while the windows and
other openings in the walls above were made as close as possible. Some
additional warm air was admitted through the openings in the floor, from
hot-water pipes placed beneath it. For ventilation in cold weather, open-
ings were made in the skirting of the room below the floor, with the erro-
neous idea that the carbonic acid produced in the respiration of these animals,
because heavier than the other air in the room, would separate from this
and escape below. When all this was done, about sixty healthy monkeys,
many of which had already borne several winters in England, were put
into the room. A month afterwards more than fifty of them were dead,
and the few remaining ones were dying. This room, only open below, was
as truly an extinguisher to the living monkeys as an inverted coffee cup
held over and around the flame of a candle is an extinguisher of the candle.
Not only the warmth of the fires and the warm air that was allowed to
enter by the openings in the floor, but the hot breath and all the impure
exhalations from the bodies of the monkeys ascended, first to the upper part
of the room to be completely incorporated with the atmosphere there, and
by no possibility could escape except as a part of that impure atmosphere,
gradually passing away by the chimneys and openings in the skirting.
Therefore, from the time the monkeys went into the room until they died,
they could not have had a single breath of fresh air."
The post-mortem examination proved that these monkeys all
died of consumption ; so that we have a practical proof that
524 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
this dread disease can be brought on at will. Now, what took
place in the monkey-house is taking place, in a milder form, in
the hundreds of workshops in which tailors and milliners work
in this metropolis. In the great majority of cases tailors work
together in rooms by no means proportioned to the number
that occupies them. In many cases they work knee to knee on
the shop-board with the thermometer ranging from 95 to 100
degrees, no ventilation whatever being present, for when it is
provided, the enfeebled workers, fearing catarrhal complaints,
stop them up. The result is, an amount of consumption among
them second only to that prevalent among the grinders of Shef-
field and bakers. The cross-legged fashion in which he works
in some measure assimilates him to the collier. It has been
suggested that instead of thus doubling himself up for the whole
time of his working life, he should work on a board having a
hole in it of the circumference of his body, with a seat fixed for
his support beneath. Such a contrivance would render his
position easy, and enable him to bring his work pretty close to
his eyes without his having to bend over it as he does at present.
As the tailor is principally employed on black and dark clothes,
his eyes are much strained, especially if he works by gas-light :
hence he is subject to great impairment of vision.
The baker is subjected to a still greater number of debili-
tating influences as regards his health than the tailor. In all
cases his place of work is in a confined basement, where the
oven and the gas contrive to keep the temperature at a tropical
point. There is generally a privy close at hand, and the drains
are not always in good order ; the air, already foul enough, has
yet to be contaminated with the floating flour-dust so irritating
to the fine air-passages of the lungs. In an atmosphere thus
deliberately poisoned with the elements of sickness, the journey-
man baker is confined ordinarily from seven o'clock at night
until four the following morning, and towards the end of the
week he is engaged nearly two entire days in succession. Is it
surprising that their rate of sickness is dreadful — greater than
even that of the tailors 1 Dr. Guy tells us that no less than thirty-
one in the hundred spit blood, and that every other journeyman
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 525
of the low-priced bakers, who work under still worse conditions,
is subjected to this most dangerous disease. "We feel convinced
that the public cannot be aware that they eat their daily bread
at the expense of the life-blood of the producers. Parliament
has refused to interfere in their behalf, but Lord Shaftesbury
has taken up their cause, and we believe that ere long the force
of public opinion will lead to the abolition of the nightwork,
which is at the bottom of the evil. At all events, those who
wish to assist in the emancipation of these slaves of civilization,
will see with pleasure the introduction of the aerated bread,
which by the aid of machinery manufactures the loaf in a much
more cleanly method than by hand-labour, and performs the
whole process in less than an hour. The introduction of ma-
chinery into this trade will at once cure the evils complained of,
which result in the majority of cases from the confined establish-
ments and insufficient means of the master-bakers.
The milliners, especially of London, are nearly as unhealthy as
the tailors. The evidence given before the Select Committee of
the House of Lords in 1855, to inquire into the expediency of
passing a bill for the protection of needlewomen, certainly is ap-
palling in the tale it tells of the waste of youthful life. During
the season of four months, the shortest time these poor young
creatures work is from six in the morning until twelve at night,
and when they are very hard pressed for time they are obliged
to take their meals standing. At times of great pressure young
girls have been worked four days and nights consecutively; and
Lord Ashley publicly made mention at the meeting at Exeter
Hall, July 11th, 1856, of a witness who had worked without
going to bed from four o'clock on Thursday afternoon until
half-past ten on Sunday night. Such toil as this in close rooms
reeking with human exhalations, and further deteriorated by the
excessive use of gas, is scarcely to be matched in deadliness by
any occupation engaged in even by the stronger sex ; and we are
not surprised to hear that it is a frequent thing in fashionable
millinery establishments to find the workers faint from sheer
exhaustion ; as the Queen's physician emphatically says, "a mode
of life more completely calculated to destroy human health could
526 MORTALITY IX TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
scarcely be contrived.'* Mr. White Cooper, the Queen's oculist,
states, in his lately-published work on the eyes, that he has
generally observed a great increase of patients of this class
come to him after there has been a general mourning. The
committee of the Society of Arts which some few years since
made a report on the industrial pathology of trades which
affect the eyes, recommend that the light should be thrown on
the work rather than the eye ; they also recommend that the
colour of the material upon which needlewomen are engaged
should be changed as often as possible, upon the ground that to
preserve the tone of the organ it should have variety of stimulus,
its long application to the same colour inevitably exhausting it.
The following suggestion from a traveller, which is embodied in
this interesting report, is worthy of notice : — " Needlewomen,
embroiderers, and lacemakers should work in rooms hung with
green blinds and curtains to the windows. When in North
China, I became convinced of the very great advantage with
which this rule has been adopted by the exquisite embroiderers
of that part. Their books of patterns are frequently called
' Books of the Lady of the Green Window.' w Among the
diseases affecting female workers we must not omit to men-
tion an affection called " housemaid's knee," which is peculiar
to those servants who kneel much upon hard wet stones or
boards. The pressure on the knee gives rise to a very painful
inflammation of the bursa, or pad, which nature has interposed
between the skin and the patella, or knee-cap.
Shoemakers live a sedentary life, like tailors and milliners,
but they do not work so frequently in company, consequently
they escape the destructive influence of foul air ; they are
subject, like weavers, however, to disease of the stomach, owing
to the constant pressure made upon it, in their case, by the last.
Some old cobblers are found to have a depression at the pit of
the stomach of the shape of the heel of the boot, moulded in
fact by the pressure of this article, which he clasps between this
portion of his body and his knees whilst sewing. Like the
milliners and tailors, their sight suffers through having to direct
so fine an object as a needle point : patent bootmakers are
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 527
particularly liable to suffer in their eyes through the brilliant
blackness of the material they work upon. We perceive that
sewing-machines have been introduced into this trade at
Northampton, much to the disgust of those whom they will
benefit. The introduction of this useful machine will at once
elevate this and scores of other handicrafts, such as those of
tailors, milliners, glovers, and all who use the needle, to the
dignity of manufacturers requiring considerable capital, the
presence of which is some guarantee for the intelligence and
benevolence of the masters, and for the adoption of larger and
more healthful workshops for their people. As this very
large class of workers numbers upwards of half a million in
Great Britain, we hail the sewing-machine as an emancipator
from drudgery of no ordinary kind.
The compositor, who works in an atmosphere very similar
to that breathed by the tailor and milliner, is, like them,
subject to severe pulmonary diseases. In some newspaper
offices they are planted as thickly as their type- cases can stand,
and they carry on their monotonous labour, which is confined
to a multitude of small motions of the right hand, conveying
to the left types in course of " setting up," Jobbing printers,
who have a much greater variety of motion, are invariably
healthier than newspaper compositors ; and Dr. Guy has re-
marked that those compositors who work in the upper stories
of large establishments, and consequently in an atmosphere
reeking with the impurities which have ascended from the
crowded rooms below, and possibly from an engine-room in
addition, are much more troubled with spitting of blood
and, consumption than those working beneath them. In a
printing office thus foully ventilated, he was enabled to make
a very instructive comparison ; for instance, there were fifteen
men employed on the second floor, and seventeen men in
precisely the same way on the third and uppermost floor.
On making personal inquiries of each of the men respecting
his health, four only out of the fifteen on the second floor
made any complaint ; one was subject to indigestion, a second
to cough, the third to ulcers of the legs, and the fourth was
52S MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
what might be termed a valetudinarian. But of the seventeen
employed on the uppermost floor, three had had spitting of
blood, two were subject to affections of the lungs, and five to
constant and severe colds. Ten of these seventeen, therefore, were
subject to diseases affecting the chest, while only one of the fifteen
in the room beneath had a disease of this nature. In the course
of his inquiries respecting the health of workers in printing-
offices, the same intelligent statist hit uponanother fact with
respect to pressmen, which appears to be of general application.
Pressmen, or those who take the impressions of the types set
up by the compositors, are generally located in the same building
with them, and often in the same room, under precisely similar
conditions as regards ventilation and quality of air ; yet a series
of inquiries brings out the fact that the pressmen are far the
healthier of the two. The only manner of accounting for this
difference lies in the nature of their labour. The pressman has to
use long-sustained and somewhat violent exertions in swinging
round the lever of his press, unfolding and refolding the tympan,
and screwing up its bed. Compared to these varied muscular
movements, the compositor's hardest work is lifting types from
his case to his composing-stick ; yet the result is, that the press-
man's liability to consumption is but half that of the compositor,
and of other diseases a third less.
This is a very remarkable fact, and irrresistibly points to the
conclusion that foul air and a heated atmosphere can be borne
with far greater impunity by those who labour hard than by
those who employ themselves in a sedentary manner. The fair
lady who honours us with her attention will perhaps draw a
conclusion of her own from this experience, which, no doubt,
tallies with her practice and her instinct, that it is far better to
waltz till five o'clock in the morning in a crowded ball-room
than to remain for the same period a disconsolate "wall-flower."
There appears also to be another law, with respect to the two
classes of workmen, equally worthy of remark. The pressman,
although he enjoys the best health, and the greatest green age,
does not, in individual cases, live as long as the compositor.
In the same manner, the stalwart blacksmith, although a far
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
529
healthier man than the tailor, and generally longer-lived, does
not yet count so many patriarchs among his ranks as snip does.
This comparison holds good between those who take much or
little exercise out of doors. Mr. Neison, who has carefully
worked the fact out, in his volume on Yital Statistics, gives the
following highly interesting table : —
Age.
EXPECTATION OF LIFE IN
In-door occu
pation, with.
Out-door occupation, with
Little Exercise.
Great Exercise.
Little Exercise.
Great Exercise.
20
30
40
50
60
70
41-8822
35*1170
27-9113
20-5022
14-0430
8-6490
42-0133
34-5022
27-8004
21-1805
15-1413
10-4407
37-8017
30-1435
23-0357
17-2754
11-0169
4-5607
43-4166
36-5832
29-1284
21-9732
15-5635
9-3313
Thus, between twenty and thirty, the gardener, the labourer,
the thatcher, the drover, and the whole class of men who earn
their bread toilfully in wind, rain, and sun, have the expecta-
tion of living at least six years longer than the coachman, the
watchman, and others who are equally exposed to the weather,
but whose blood is not equally circulated or sweetened by
continual and active exertion. It will be remarked also,
that the out-door worker with little exercise comes off but
badly in the comparison with the sedentary in-door worker —
in other words, the coachman's is a worse life than the shop-
man's. "We suspect, however, with Mr. Neison, that intem-
perance must thus kick the beam against sedentary out-door
employments. We all know, for instance, that Jehu is not a
teetotaller, and our suspicions are, moreover, strengthened by
the fact that engine-drivers, who are forced to maintain a strict
sobriety, although among the class of sedentary out-door workers
and exposed to a hurricane of air, and to driving wet during
the greater part of their existence — are yet remarkably free
2 M
530 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
from consumption — the fell disease wliich decimates the poor
printer, who cannot tolerate the minutest draft in his place of
work.
As we ascend in the social scale, it would naturally be
supposed that we should find the value of life greater, and
occupations more healthy. It is a great question, however, if
the artisan, subject as he is to so many injurious circumstances,
has not the advantage over the shopkeeper. This may appear
at first impossible, but when we come to consider the life led by
the tradesman, and especially by the smaller ones, who form so
large a proportion of the class, we find they are subjected to an
accumulation of adverse influences. In the generality of cases
the individual of this genus confines himself to the smallest
possible amount of room, in which he can possibly carry on his
business — the rest of the house he lets off for offices. In this
confined space he lives, without taking any adequate exercise,
often lying perdu in a dark inner room, through a peep-hole
of which he watches for customers. At night, he inhales an
atmosphere polluted by many gas-lights, and when, finally, the
shutters are closed, he will often be found sorting and placing
away the goods disturbed during the day. Under such circum-
stances, is it wonderful that he perishes at a more rapid rate
than the artisan who labours all day at some noxious trade, and
sleeps at night in some wretched lodging 1 It is well-known
that there is scarcely such a thing to be found as a London
tradesman of the third generation. The class is entirely kept
up by the rosy-faced youths who come up from the country
full of hope and health, anpl then gradually subside into the
pallid tradesman of middle life, taking on, as it were, the sad
colour and aspect of the great city, just as hares and foxes turn
white in northern latitudes, when winter brings about her snow.
There are certain classes of tradesmen who suffer from
singular skin diseases consequent upon handling articles of
their trade. Thus the miller, whose hands are constantly im-
mersed in his meal, is subject to an irruptive disease of those
members, in consequence of the attacks of the meal-mite— a
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 531
small insect to be found in some kinds of flour. The grocer's
itch, again, is occasioned by handling sugar infected with an
animalcule peculiar to it. We have seen sugar which absolutely
moved throughout its entire mass in consequence of the immense
number of insects present in it, and these readily attack the
hand, and produce an irruption similar to that of the ordinary
itch. Chimney-sweepers, again, suffer from a more formidable
disease — cancer induced by the irritative qualities of the soot
upon certain portions of the skin of the body. Neither must
we omit from the ranks of unhealthy town occupations the
squalid race of clerks, whose monotonous occupation and pos-
ture perpetually fixed in the form of a Z, renders them a very
unhealthy class of men.
Waiters in hotels and taverns sap their health by surreptitious
tippling. A medical friend says, his experience of them is, that
with few exceptions, they are all rotten with perpetual imbibition.
Footmen do not drink so much, but they are so grossly over-
fed and under-worked, that they are always suffering from
plethora. " Jeames' " aim. is to run to calves, but he pays the
penalty for his ambition. They are, in fact, in the position of
the convicts at Fremantle, Australia, who, during the time that
our soldiers were dying for want of food in the Crimea, suffered
from what was significantly called the gluttony plague. Exces-
sive over-feeding and under-working was, it appears, the rule at
the convict establishment ; and, in consequence, no less than
1554 patients were under medical treatment in less than six
months, with diseases of the digestive organs, inflammatory
affections of the eyes, and cutaneous eruptions. The physic of
short allowance and plenty of work soon set matters to rights.
It is not often that the lower or middle classes suffer from over-
feeding ; but drink is the bane of many trades and occupations.
The gigantic brewer's drayman, who seems built as a match for
the Flemish team he drives, is but a giant with feet of clay ;
his jolly looks are a delusion and a snare. The enormous amount
of beer and stout he is allowed by his employers — on the prin-
ciple, we suppose, that you should not muzzle the ox that
2m2
532 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
treadeth out the corn — so deteriorates his blood, that a scratch
prostrates him, and any serious illness is pretty sure to carry
him off. The common labourer, who lives under pretty much
the same condition, with the exception of the temptation to
drink, has an average life of 47f years, but he is cut off at the
early age of 43 years.
If we take another class of persons thrown continually in the
way of tippling, we find the result is equally unfavourable^
The pot-boy of the metropolis, with whose doughy face and
pert leer we are so well acquainted, scarcely lives out half his
days. In his case, in addition to continual potations, he is per-
petually breathing, until twelve o'clock at night, an atmosphere
compounded of drunkards' breath, stale tobacco, and all the im-
purities arising from the brilliant gas illumination of a gin-palace ;
it is not, therefore, surprising to find that his average age is but
41^ years ; while the footman may reckon upon helping himself
to his master's venison until he is 44-| years old. The publican
is almost as great a sinner as his man in the way of intemperance,
and his life in consequence is at least 2 J years shorter than the
very limited span of the tradesman.
Dr. Guy, who has taken considerable pains to ascertain the
value of life in the educated classes, has worked out the ex-
traordinary result that, the higher the step in the social hier-
archy, the greater the means of self-indulgence, the less the
chance of long life. People have so long been accustomed to
look upon the possession of wealth as the best guarantee for a
flourishing bodily condition, that they will be surprised, per-
haps, to hear that in proportion as the wholesome stimulus of
labour is withdrawn from any class, in the same proportion the
value of its average term of life is shortened. And yet our
common experience but tallies with the results of scientific
inquiry in this matter. When a man who has lived a long and
active life, suddenly retires with the idea that he has earned his
ease, and that it is time for him to enjoy himself, ten to one but
he has taken the most effectual method of shortening his life ;
and much as we may smile at the taste of the retired soap-
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 533
boiler, who always made a point of going down to his old shop
on " boiling days," yet we can see that his instinct directed him
rightly, for we can none of us bear idleness, least of all those
who have long practised industry.
Regularity, sobriety, and. activity of mind and body, are the
pabulum on which vital force is fed ; while, on the contrary,
luxury, licentiousness, and sloth, are the cankers of life. A
* comparison of the longevity of the different educated classes
proves this in a remarkable manner. Let us take, for instance,
the three learned professions. If the reader were asked whether
the clergyman, the lawyer, or the physician lived longest, most
probably he would say the lawyer. Accustomed to venerable
age on the judgment-seat, and struck with the fact that our
leading law lords have generally been, and still are, noblemen of
very advanced age, he would perhaps be justified in giving the
palm of longevity to them. Yet, in truth, as a class, they are
the shortest-lived. The race is neck and neck, it is true, but
they lose by- a neck. The clergyman, as we should naturally
suppose, enjoys a higher standard of health, and attains a greater
age, than any member of the community, excepting poor Hodge,
the humblest member of his flock. His average age, taking
those persons only into account who have passed their 50th year,
is 74-04 years, or rather better than one year longer than the
physician, who lives to an average age of 72*95 years. This
trifling difference, we should expect, as the latter is subject to
many chances of infection, and lives more a town life than the
former. If the comparison is made, however, between the
highest grades of the two professions, between archbishops and
bishops, and baronets who have filled the posts of physicians
and surgeons to the sovereign, the latter have the advantage by
four years, and in both cases the lawyer lags behind in the race
with clergymen and physicians : with the latter in his ordinary
rank by a few days only, and with the class of medical baronets,
as compared with judges, upwards of four years, how much
hard study, alternated with tawny port, has to do with the
difference, we should scarcely like to say. The gentry may
O 6 4 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
be reckoned to be about as long-lived as the clergy ; well-housed,
well-fed, and living an agricultural life with active habits, they
have few diseases, and are especially exempt from consumption.
Officers of the navy have slightly the advantage of those of the
army — say one year of life. From this point, where the social
hierarchy takes a leap, and clothes itself in the purple and fine
linen of nobility, the lamp of life begins rapidly to burn low.
The aristocracy of this country are shorter-lived, by more than
one year, than he who works with all the cares and anxieties
of the priest, the lawyer, or the physician ; and members of
royal houses (calculated from the ages of members of continental
as well as English royalty) descend the ladder of life so rapidly,
that they have three years less of existence than the peer ; and,
lastly, we come to the "round and top of sovereignty itself."
The potentate who stands on the highest pinnacle of human
greatness, surrounded, it would seem, with every condition
favourable to comfort and longevity, fenced about from casual-
ties which constantly beset the paths of ordinary mortals — his
would appear indeed a charmed life ; yet the hard fact will stare
us in the face, that the sands of life run far quicker with him
than with any other of the educated classes. His years are on
an average but 64, or 10 less than the clergy, who probably
have to fight the hardest battle in the world — the fight of com-
parative poverty against appearances. It could be u clearly
shown," says Mr. Neison, in his " Vital Statistics," " by tracing
the various classes of society in which there exists sufficient
means of subsistence, by beginning with the most humble, and
passing on to the middle and upper classes, that a gradual dete-
rioration in the duration of life takes place ; and that just as
life, with all its wealth, pomp, and magnificence, would seem to
become more valuable and tempting, so are its opportunities and
chances of enjoyment lessened. As far as the results of figures
admit of judging, this condition would seem to flow directly
from the luxurious and pampered style of living among the
wealthier classes, whose artificial habits interfere with the
nature and degree of those physical exercises which, in a simpler
MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. 535
class of society, are accompanied with long life." Truly, there
is a spirit of compensation in this life, if we could only " distil
it forth." The poor countryman of thirty years of age, who
takes his frugal repast under a hedge, has a chance of thirteen
years' longer life than the monarch of the same age clothed in
purple, and lord, perhaps, of half the habitable world !
THE END.
ROBKRT HAROVVltlKti, J> jtlK I'JiiK, i.^2, i-ieCABILLY, iONDON.
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