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Title: The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 08, August 22, 1840

Author: Various

Release date: January 17, 2017 [eBook #53983]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Brownfox and the Online Distributed Proofreading
        Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
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                        THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.

        NUMBER 8.      SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1840.      VOLUME I.

[Illustration: THE HOWTH LIGHTHOUSE.]

The bold and nearly insulated promontory called the Hill of Howth, which
forms the north-eastern terminus of the Bay of Dublin, would in itself
supply abundant materials for a topographical volume--and a most
interesting work it might be made. For the geologist, botanist, and
naturalist, it has an abundant store of attractions, while its various
ancient monuments of every class and age, from the regal fortress, the
sepulchral cairn, and the cromleac of Pagan times, to the early Christian
oratory, the abbey and the baronial hall of later years, would supply an
equally ample stock of materials for the antiquary and the historian. With
all, or most of these features, we propose to make our readers somewhat
familiar in our future numbers; but our present purpose is only to give
some account of one of its most recently erected structures--the
singularly picturesque and beautiful lighthouse, which we have attempted
to depict in our prefixed illustration.

The Baily lighthouse, as it is popularly called, is situated at the
eastern extremity of Howth, on a nearly perpendicular rock, whose vertex
is elevated one hundred and ten feet above high-water mark. This rock,
which is nearly insulated, is the terminus of a long and narrow peninsula
of still higher altitude, which stretches out into the sea from the
eastern end of the promontory, and whose cliffs are equally precipitous on
both sides, so that the most striking and romantic views of the
lighthouse can be had from various points, in some commanding the
horizon-bound sea, and in others the Bay of Dublin, with all its
delightful sceneries of wooded country and mountain ranges. The view which
we have chosen for our illustration is taken from the northern side of
this peninsula, that presented from the other side having been already
published in several popular works; but we trust that this view will not
be deemed less striking or picturesque; and we are of opinion that a more
romantic subject of its kind is not to be found in the empire.

The lighthouse is itself an object of great interest and beauty, and is
constructed according to the most approved models of modern times. Its
form is that of a frustrated cone, supporting a lantern which exhibits a
fixed bright light. The illumination, according to the system now
generally adopted by the Trinity-house, is produced by a set of reflectors
ground to the parabolic form, in the foci of which twenty large oil lamps
are placed: an outer gallery, lightly but securely railed, surrounds the
dome. Connected with the building on its east side, there is a large room,
which opens by folding doors on a platform, and where an excellent
telescope is kept, by means of which the shoals which obstruct the
entrance to the bay may be distinctly observed--namely, the great Kish,
and the Bennet and Burford banks, which are links of the chain extending
along the Wicklow and Wexford coasts, and called the Irish grounds.
These, though not visible, are distinctly marked in stormy weather by the
surf, which breaks over them with uncommon violence, and form a dangerous
obstruction to the approach to the bay.

The Baily lighthouse was erected by the Ballast Board of Dublin in 1814,
previous to which time the Howth light, as it was commonly called, stood
on a hill considerably more to the north, and at an elevation of more than
three hundred feet above sea level. This circumstance of its great
elevation, led, however, to its being abandoned, and the erection of the
Baily lighthouse in its place, as it was found to be frequently involved
in clouds and mist, while lower stations were clear and well defined.

The Baily lighthouse is a spot of no less antiquarian than picturesque
interest. Its name, which is cognate with the Latin _ballium_, is derived
from an ancient circular stone fortress which encircled the apex of the
rock, and of which considerable remains existed previous to the erection
of the present buildings. This great keep was fortified by three earthen
walls, with deep intervening ditches placed at the entrance to the narrow
peninsula, and by extending from one side of it to the other, cut it off
completely from the promontory. These works still remain, though in a very
ruinous state; yet they are sufficiently distinct to mark their purpose,
and to convey a good idea of the style of military defensive works in use
in extremely remote times. They will be found marked on the Ordnance map.

In the popular traditions of Howth, these works--like most others in
Ireland, the real origin of which has been forgotten--are ascribed to the
Danes, a remnant of whom, after the battle of Clontarf in 1014, were
supposed to have fortified themselves in this peninsula, till they were
carried off in their vessels. But such tradition is wholly opposed to
history, and the works themselves exhibit sufficient evidences of its
fallacy; they belong to a much earlier age, being nothing less than the
remains of Dun-Criomthan (pronounced Dun-Criffan), the fortress of
Criomthan Nia-nair, who, according to our ancient histories, ascended the
throne of Ireland in the year 74, and who, after being dethroned, died in
this fastness in the year 90, after a reign of sixteen years. His
sepulchral cairn--crowning the summit of Sliabh-Martin, the highest
pinnacle of the ancient Bin-edair--is still to be seen.

A century or two more will wholly obliterate these remains of the once
powerful prince and warrior Criomthan; but his celebrity belongs to
history, and will not thus pass away. It was in the third year of his
reign that Agricola fortified the bounds of the Roman empire in Britain
from the incursions of the Picts and Irish, the latter, it is said, led by
the monarch Criomthan himself, who, according to our annalist, returned to
Ireland, loaded with spoil, as thus stated in the record of his death in
the Annals of the Four Masters:--

“Criomthan Nia-nair, sixteen years monarch of Ireland, died, after his
illustrious foreign expedition. It was from that expedition he brought
home the noble spoils; the golden chariot, the golden chess-board studded
with three hundred sparkling gems, and the _ceth-criomthan_, which was a
parti-coloured shirt, interwoven with gold. He also brought with him a
battle-giving sword, having various figures of serpents engraved upon it,
and inlaid with gold; a shield embossed with bright silver; a spear which
gave an incurable wound; a sling from which no erring cast could be
thrown; two hounds linked together by a chain of silver; together with
many other valuable rarities.”

How long after this period Dun-Criomthan existed as a fortress, it would
perhaps be impossible now to ascertain, but from the following record in
the Annals above quoted, it would appear to have been preserved at least
for six centuries:--

“A. C. 646. The battle of Dun-Criomthan was gained by Conall and Kellach
(co-monarchs of Ireland), the two sons of Maolcobha, over Aongus, the son
of Donall. Aongus was killed in this battle, as was also Cathasach, the
son of Donall, his brother.”

These notices, which have not hitherto appeared in an English form, of a
highly interesting historical remain, not previously identified by the
antiquarian topographer, will, it is hoped, impart a new interest to the
Baily of Howth; but, independently of such claims on our attention, its
singular picturesqueness should have made it long since not only more
familiarly known to the visitors of our capital, but also to ourselves.

                                                                       P.




JOHNNY HALFACRE; OR, THE VALUE OF TIME.

BY MARTIN DOYLE.


Statesmen and professional men, whether occupying stations of eminence, or
struggling to attain them, duly estimate the importance of time; they know
the value of an hour too well to mis-spend it. The lawyer of high
practice, during the term season, steadily pursuing his laborious studies,
and determined to overcome every difficulty in his pursuit of professional
rank and wealth, rises early, and borrows from the night so many of those
hours which are spent in rest and sleep by men of less mental activity,
that he leaves himself but a very contracted measure of time for those
essential purposes. As to dining out with friends at this period of care
and labour, he rarely ventures to indulge in such a recreation; or if he
does on some very particular occasion, such is the discipline of his mind,
such the strength of his self-denying habits, that he can rise from the
table at a prescribed moment, and with a cool lawyer-like head apply to
his nocturnal labours as if there had been no interruption of an exciting
nature.

The physician--I do not mean him who is regularly called out of church, or
from the social party, by his servant, under the pretence of a pressing
call, but the real and laborious practitioner, to whom minutes are money
and fame--will not idle away an hour; neither will the sober steady
shopkeeper, until he has realized an independence, absent himself from his
counter as long as there is a reasonable chance of a customer dropping in;
nor the operative mechanic, who has to finish his piece of work within a
prescribed time, and who will contrive to do it even in despite of all the
petty interruptions to which he is liable.

Time is proportionably valuable to the meanest peasant who possesses a
cabbage garden, and if properly estimated and applied, will add to his
comforts in a degree of which, he who is habitually uncalculating and
unthrifty in this respect can have but little notion.

This I am anxious to impress upon the class of labourers, many of whom I
hope can read what I write, for in them I take an especial interest,
probably because they are the least cared for of any class in the
community. Some of them perhaps will say, with a show of reality, “If
_our_ time were to bring us in such profits as the counsellor and the
doctor make, we would be busy too, and no one would see us standing idle,
sitting on a ditch side, or smoking and coshering by the fireside, or
talking to the neighbours, of a wet day, in a forge. If we could be
coining guineas as easily as the likes of them makes the money, sitting in
their soft chairs, and never doing a hand’s turn of work that would tire
their limbs, we would; but what _could_ we make, after our regular day’s
work, if we can get that same, out of a bit of a garden, that would better
us any thing to signify?”

Now, I shall show them by actual facts what they _could_ in many cases do.

Johnny Halfacre is a little farmer, whom I occasionally see, and who,
being in no way connected with me, nor even conscious that I am
particularly observing him, goes on in his own way, without any hint or
encouragement from me, or indeed from any one else, as far as I can
perceive.

Johnny two years ago had not as much land as would correspond with his
name, which is really genuine; he had for several previous years but a
rood, including the site of his house, and a shed for a pig, and some
poultry; but this rood produced more than half an acre usually does with
many, and entirely by his good management and judicious application of
_time_.

Johnny had exactly five shillings a-week, paid in full every Friday
evening, from his employer, for Johnny never had time to be sick, far less
to be drunk, and always avoided broken days, by contriving in-door work,
at Mr B.’s, in wet weather; his wife, who had two children, washed
occasionally for a neighbour’s family, thus adding two shillings and
sixpence each week to their income, and the contribution of additional
suds to the dunghill; but in other respects they had no advantage over
other labourers. Their own little garden added greatly to the support of
the family, by judicious cropping and excellent management. Johnny had
every year some drills of very early ash-leaved potatoes put down in
January, if possible, which he either sold at a very high price in summer
at a neighbouring town, or consumed as he found most economical; and his
early sowing of potatoes was far better than the more common practice of
the Irish cottier, who leaves his garden uncropped with them until March
or April, with the view of obtaining a more abundant crop (but of
inferior quality) at a late season, when they might be purchased at a mere
trifle, and that, too, without the advantage of a second crop of any
description to succeed them. Johnny had too much sense for this: he began
to dig his dish of potatoes for dinner in the first or second week in
July, when his neighbours were half starving, or paying exorbitantly for
oatmeal and old potatoes; and as he dug out his crop, he either sowed
turnips, with a little ashes and a sprinkling of dung, or planted borecole
for the winter; generally he had some of both, for he found turnips good
for his own table in winter, and profitable for the support of some
poultry, of which I shall take notice soon. He had also every variety of
common kitchen vegetables in small patches, continually changing places,
and thus improving the soil; he had, besides, two hives of bees; and for
the sake of the _straw_, as well as for rotation, and the support of his
pig and poultry, a little rye, vetches, or clover.

Johnny, however, only worked in the garden in the evening, after his
ordinary day’s work, or, in summer, at sunrise; yet there never was a weed
to be seen in it, for they never had time to grow: by using the hoe for a
few moments now and then, they were always kept down, and every waste
blade and briar and useless sod around the hedge which enclosed it, was
carefully pared and burnt for manure.

He had worked in the large garden of a gentleman who kept an English
gardener, who had taught Johnny the use of a _sprong_ in preference to a
spade for turning up the earth, especially when too hard for the latter
implement; and though the handle was short, and, according to my own
notion, fatiguing to the back, the fact was, that Johnny soon preferred it
for dispatch and correctness of operation to the long-handled spade which
all my other neighbours use. When he cut his own rye or other corn, the
ground was usually so hard that a broad spade could not enter it: but
Johnny quickly turned it up and broke it with his sprong, and then
completely pulverized it with what the Englishman called a beck, a
three-forked hoe, which, acting like the long tines of a harrow, loosened
and rendered the whole perfectly fine, while it brought any latent roots
of couch (or scutch grass) that might have escaped on former occasions, to
the surface.

Johnny’s various vegetables greatly assisted his housekeeping. He had
often a good bowl of soup, flavoured with leeks, onions, carrots, &c.,
made with the least conceivable portion of meat, but thickened with
barley, properly shelled, and prepared like French barley, but at only
one-third of the price of that which is sold under such denomination in
the shops; and his family always breakfasted on porridge, or coarse bread
of their _own baking_, with or without milk, according to
circumstances--for Johnny at this time had no cow--sometimes washed down
with a cup of tea, and more generally in winter with a mug of light and
good table beer, which the Englishman taught Johnny to brew at Mr B.’s
brew-house. Half a bushel of malt, with a quarter of a pound of hops,
produced ten gallons of _unadulterated_ beer which could not be bought any
where, and the grains (given to his pig) fully counterbalanced the cost of
fuel. Even at this time he killed a pig every year, and never wanted a
small supply of salt meat for his cabbage or beans, which with this
combination of flesh went farther in this way towards the actual supply of
his dinner, and sometimes of his supper too (for any remainder of the
dinner was heated and peppered up for the supper, with the addition of a
broken loaf, or a skillet full of potatoes), than can be imagined by the
poor man who has never cultivated his garden in the same manner--whose
cabbages are of little value from want of bacon, and whose allotment,
producing but one crop instead of two each year, is thus of but half its
proper value to him; besides, with him potatoes succeed potatoes
continually, until the ground becomes sick of yielding them.

But, further, Johnny Halfacre’s garden, in which he seldom ceased from
doing something in the summer evenings as long as daylight lasted, greatly
aided in supporting his pig at that time when food is so dear and scarce
for swine. The tops of blossoming bean-stalks (by the plucking off of
which the crop is improved) and other vegetable waste, besides vetches and
rye--the latter both in the green and ripe state--gave him sufficient food
to keep the pig in fair order, with a little help from other sources; and
the pig, by being always well littered, and supplied with this food, gave
a return in most excellent manure, which with other sources of a similar
kind, and the economical distribution of crops, supplied the entire garden
with fertilizing matter.

What the other means of providing manure were, ought to be mentioned, for
the man’s system is of such easy application that it only requires to be
stated in order to be followed.

For two or three evenings in the summer before last, I perceived Johnny
Halfacre without his coat, rolling a wheelbarrow frequently from an
adjacent common to a corner of his garden separated from the road by an
old weather-beaten paling. When I had leisure to see what he had been
doing at this time, I found that he had marked off an oblong space for
four geese and a gander, which he had bought from Bridget Gozzard at
rather a high price, partly for the sake of their powerful manure, which,
combined with other substances, is good for stimulating the growth of
vegetables, as well as for the profit which he expected to realize by
rearing goslings for the market. Johnny was aware that fat green geese are
worth from six to ten shillings each, in the very early season in the
great English markets, and are also profitable if reared for the stubbles
at Michaelmas; and he did not see why he and his industrious wife should
not realise a profit as well as English housewives by the breeding of such
poultry, when a steam-packet and a rail-road could take them off even to
London in a few hours. Cocks and hens would ruin his own garden, and bring
him into disputes with his neighbours--he had the advantage of a run on
the common for geese--there was a pond of water near his house--and
therefore he gave them and ducks the preference. He first built his back
wall two feet and a half high and ten feet in length, with the sods from
the common, and then put down ten upright stakes in front, every pair
answering for the jambs of each compartment, with a board stretching the
whole length across, and which formed the front support of his rustic
roof; from this board he laid rafters to the top of the back wall, and
having first interwoven some small branches of a tree through these
rafters, he laid as many scraws (thinly pared grassy sods) as secured the
whole roof from rain. The jambs were then contracted to a narrow opening,
for the sake of shelter and warmth, by more sods laid one over the other.

By this simple process of construction he formed a separate chamber for
each bird, with a yard in front six feet broad and ten long, and with an
opening through the paling at the road side, by which the inmates could go
in and out at their pleasure. His rye assisted in feeding them, and he
also cultivated grey peas for them, which are excellent for fattening; and
with cabbage and lettuce leaves, the pods of beans, and other green food,
he afterwards kept them in high condition; and in the succeeding year,
when other young geese were dying of disease, occasioned by want of
shelter, and from _starvation_, his were thriving.

And to the credit of this worthy man and his wife I must mention, that the
feather-plucker was indignantly sent away from his door whenever he came
round for the execrable purpose of plucking the geese alive. Johnny’s wife
would as soon have let him pull out the hairs of her own head, as give up
one of her birds to his barbarous hands; and the consequence was, that
while their neighbours’ geese were miserably crawling about, with
draggling and mutilated wings and smarting bodies, until many of them
died, in their miseries invoking as it were in their dying screams shame
and curses on their unfeeling owners, Johnny Halfacre’s geese strutted
about on the common, with an independent and unconstrained step, as if
conscious of their security from the tortures to which their fellows had
been doomed.


HOW JOHNNY HALFACRE BECAME A LITTLE FARMER.

If it be true, and it unquestionably is, that “he who despiseth small
things, shall fall by little and little,” the converse is, I think, no
less so--that he who pays attention to little matters will rise by
degrees.

Mr B. having narrowly observed Johnny’s general good conduct and extreme
industry as a common labourer, put him in possession, two years ago, of a
field adjoining his cottage and garden, which contains about six statute
acres, and which fortunately was in good condition.

Johnny at first was afraid to accept the tempting offer, at which any
other labourer would have jumped, on the sincere and modest plea that he
had no capital for such a weighty speculation. He did not wish to grasp at
more than he could properly manage; but Mr B. set him at ease, by telling
him that he considered health, industry, and skill, sufficient capital for
Johnny to possess, as he himself would not only build a barn, cow-shed,
ass-house, and pig-styes, but put the boundary fence into perfect order
(according to the frequent practice of _British_ landlords), and lend
Johnny a sum sufficient for the purchase of every thing necessary to give
him a good start, charging him only five per cent on the advances. Mr B.,
who in riding over his property often “went by the field of the slothful,”
which “was all grown over with thorns and nettles that covered the face of
it, and the stone wall whereof was broken down,” wished to render Johnny
an exemplar of superior management to other tenants.

I shall not trouble the reader with all the details of Johnny’s management
during the two last years, but shall very briefly notice those particulars
of husbandry which are new to my countrymen of the same class. He has not
subdivided the field, nor does he intend to do so, as he values every foot
of it too much for such waste. He does not keep a horse, nor will he do
so, unless his holding be increased; but he keeps a donkey and a
well-constructed cart. As yet he has no cow, not having his land in
sufficiently clean order for laying down any part of it with grasses; but
he has two yards full of pigs, which he keeps for the sake of the rich
manure they supply. I do not advocate his system altogether, but merely
relate the most striking features of it. His pig-yards are very
commodious, and well arranged for weaning, fattening, &c. and his stock
now consists of a sow with ten young ones in one yard, and six store pigs
in another. These are in fine condition--fed on vetches, rye (of which the
grain is now, July 20, ripe), and wash, consisting of pollards and water;
their food next week, and for some time after, will be beans, ripe and
unripe, according to their successive stages. These pigs are now ten
months old, and have never been outside their yard, nor do they seem to be
(compared with pigs of the same age which have had the run of the common)
injured by confinement. Being always highly littered in the yard, having
the sleeping chamber kept perfectly clean, and being abundantly fed, they
sport about the straw, and seem quite contented. But without such care and
comfort young swine will certainly not thrive in imprisonment.

Johnny will fatten up these pigs in October for sale in November, with
barley-meal, pollards, toppings, and potatoes; and judging from his
success last year under similar circumstances, they will weigh (at the age
of fourteen months) nearly two cwt. each. He does not intend to sell any
of his ten young ones until they shall have been fattened in the same way;
but their mother will be put up as soon as possible after they shall be
weaned. He does not expect to realize any ready money by rearing and
fattening them; when sold, his stock will merely pay for their keep--he
considers the large quantity of valuable manure a sufficient return.

He has hired a labourer to work with him, and will incur but little
expense for horse-labour, as he and his assistant together are able to dig
an acre very deeply in ten days; and he considers one such digging equal
to three light ploughings; and from his experience of the last year, he is
of opinion that spade-husbandry is far cheaper than that which is effected
by the plough. As he reaps his vetches and rye for the pigs, he cuts out
the stubbles with a bean-hoe for litter; and for the perfect cleansing of
the ground before he digs it up, he collects the stubbles and clears them
from earth with a little harrow drawn by the ass, and will pursue the same
plan with all his stubbles. Last year he cut and bound half an acre of
wheat himself with a fagging-hook, which I have described in my
Cyclopædia, in one day; and he and his labourer intend to cut down an acre
this year in the same way.

I could enumerate many other particulars of this man’s excellent
husbandry--such as burning the clay of headlands for manuring his
turnip-crop and cabbage seedling beds--but I fear to be tedious, and
therefore shall only add, that Johnny Halfacre is a true exemplification
of the sacred proverb, that “the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.”
He is always diligent (not only in seed-time and harvest, but all the year
round), but never so busy with his field or garden crops as to choke the
seed of God’s word in his heart, and render _that_ unfruitful by sloth or
negligence. As far as I can judge, he does not permit his worldly to
supersede his eternal interests; and as he knows the value of the
_present_ TIME, so does he estimate aright the infinitely superior
importance of that which is _future_.

       *       *       *       *       *

IDLENESS.--The worst vices springing from the worst principles--the
excesses of the libertine, and the outrages of the plunderer--usually take
their rise from early and unsubdued idleness.--_Farr’s Discourses on
Education._




LIFE AND ITS ILLUSIONS.

    “Lean not on Earth--’twill pierce thee to the heart--
    A broken reed at best, but oft a spear,
    On whose sharp point Peace bleeds, and Hope expires.”

                                                  YOUNG.


    We are but Shadows! None of all those things,
    Formless and vague, that flit upon the wings
    Of wild Imagination round thy couch,
    When Slumber seals thine eyes, is clothed with such
    An unreality as Human Life,
    Cherished and clung to as it is; the fear,
    The thrilling hope, the agonizing strife,
    Are not more unavailing there than here.
    To him who reads what Nature would pourtray,
    What speaks the night? A comment on the day.
    Day dies--Night lives--and, as in dumb derision,
    Mocks the past phantom with her own vain vision!

    Man shuts the Volume of the Past for aye--
    A blind slave to the all-absorbing Present,
    He courts debasement, and from day to day
    His wheel of toil revolves, revolves incessant;
    And well may earth-directed zeal be blighted!
    And well may Time laugh selfish hopes to scorn!
    He lives in vain whose reckless years have slighted
    The humbling truth which Penitence and grey
    Hairs teach the Wise, that such cold hopes are born
    Only to dupe and to be thus requited!
    How many such there be!--in whom the thorn
    Which Disappointment plants festers in vain,
    Save as the instrument of sleepless pain--
    Who bear about with them the burning feeling
    And fire of that intolerable word
    Which, inly searching, pierceth, like a sword,
    The breast whose wounds thenceforward know no healing!

    Behold the overteeming globe! Its millions
    Bear mournful witness. Cycles, centuries roll,
    That Man may madly forfeit Heaven’s pavilions,
    To hug his darling trammels:--Yet the soul,
    The startled soul, upbounding from the mire
    Of earthliness, and all alive with fears,
    Unsmothered by the lethargy of years
    Whose dates are blanks, at moments _will_ inquire,
    “And whither tends this wasting struggle? Hath
    The living universe no loftier path
    Than that we toil on ever? Must the eye
    Of Hope but light a desert? Shall the high
    Spirit of Enterprise be chilled and bowed
    And grovel in darkness, reft of all its proud
    Prerogatives? Alas! and must Man barter
    The Eternal for the Perishing--but to be
    The world’s applauded and degraded martyr,
    Unsouled, enthralled, and never to be free?”

    Ancient of Days! First Cause! Adored! Unknown!
    Who wert, and art, and art to come! The heart
    Yearns, in its lucid moods, to Thee alone!
    Thy name is Love; thy word is Truth; thou art
    The fount of Happiness--the source of Glory--
    Eternity is in thy hands, and Power--
    Oh, from that sphere unrecognised by our
    Slow souls, look down upon a world which, hoary
    In Evil and in Error though it be,
    Retains even yet some trace of that primeval
    Beauty that bloomed upon its brow ere Evil
    And Error wiled it from Thy Love and Thee!
    Look down, and if, while human brows are brightening
    In godless triumph, angel eyes be weeping,
    Publish thy will in syllables of lightning
    And sentences of thunder to the Sleeping!
    Look down, and renovate the waning name
    Of Goodness, and relume the waning light
    Of Truth and Purity!--that all may aim
    At one imperishable crown--the bright
    Guerdon which they who by untired and holy
    Exertion overcome the world, inherit--
    The Self-denying, the Peaceable, the Lowly,
    The truly Merciful, the Poor in spirit!

    So shall the end of thine all-perfect plan
    At length be realised in erring Man.




DONNYBROOK.


Verily, Donnybrook fair is, to all intents and purposes, “dead and gone;”
for the modern wretched assemblage of hungry-looking cattle, dogs’-meat
horses, measly swine, and forlorn-looking human creatures, obliged to
content themselves with staring at the exterior of the show-booths, for
want of the means to visit the interior, no more resembles the Donnybrook
of the past, than a troop of the old “bulkies,” armed with their Arcadian
crooks, and helmeted with their old woollen nightcaps, resembled a
squadron of lancers.

Alas! alas! how every thing is altered! No longer does the quiet citizen
dread the approach of Trinity Sunday; no longer does he think it necessary
to barricade his windows, and postpone exterior painting for a week or
two, in order to save his glass and the decorator’s labour from the
nocturnal industry of the gentle College students.

The students never mustered in much force at Donnybrook, because it
unluckily came during the long vacation; but there were enough at any time
to kick up a shindy or scrimmage (by modern innovators called “a row”),
for, between those who resided in town, and such as for various reasons
kept the vacation within the College walls, a pretty decent muster could,
upon an emergency, be called together.

It was upon the 26th of August--isn’t it strange that I should recollect
the day of the month, though I forget the year!--that Bob O’Gorman, Dan
Sweeny, Dick Hall, and a few other under-graduates of T.C.D., resolved to
go to the fair and have a spree.

Dick was a little, delicate, effeminate-looking “ould crab,” and so
smock-faced that he would easily pass for a girl, and a rather
good-looking one, if dressed in female attire.

But Dick’s effeminacy was confined to his looks, for his muscular power
far exceeded that of any man an inch or two more in stature, or a stone
more in weight. He was a perfect master of the small-sword, had no match
at single-stick; and woe to the unhappy wretch who fell under the
discipline of his little bony fists, for he was an accomplished amateur in
the science of pugilism, then but little known and less practised than
subsequently by gentlemen.

On the present occasion it was resolved that Dick should sustain the
character of a girl, and much fun was anticipated from the punishment that
the remainder of the party would inflict upon any presumptuous individual
who should dare to molest the modest fair one.

At the end of the double range of tents called “Dame-street,” was one
called “the Larkers;” and as this was uniformly crowded by citizens of
Dublin, it was scarcely possible for any one, residing but for a month in
town, not to be recognised by some person present, who immediately passed
the name of the new-comer round, and he was surprised (if a raw one) to
hear himself addressed by name, by persons whom he never saw in his life
before.

It was at the entrance of this tent that a countryman stood, attired in
the usual large frieze over-coat (which, from its being worn in summer as
well as winter, might lead a stranger to suppose that there seldom or
never is a hot day in Ireland), and accompanied by a pretty,
bashful-looking girl, apparently fresh from the “interior.” After gaping
for a considerable time, some gentlemen, amused by the wonderment that he
exhibited, and probably somewhat touched by his companion’s charms, called
to him to “come in.” With some reluctance he accepted the invitation, and,
fearful of intruding upon the “gintlemin,” seated himself awkwardly upon
the end of a form; up _it_ tilted, and down _he_ went, to the great
delight of the beholders. Having gathered himself up, he reseated himself
more firmly, placing “Biddy” near him, she having declined all offers of
other accommodation pressed on her by the company.

Paddy O’Neill (the name by which he announced himself), having been pretty
well plied with punch, had grown very voluble, and seemed to be beginning
to feel himself quite at home, had told many queer stories, and made his
entertainers laugh very heartily, when two elderly gentlemen, closely
muffled, entered rather stealthily, and sliding over, suddenly seated
themselves behind Paddy. Biddy, who had been hitherto quite silent,
answering every compliment or remark addressed to her only with a smile,
gave Paddy a nudge, and whispered something into his ear, that caused him
to turn and gaze at the new arrivals.

“Arrah, thin, Docthor M----, agrah, who’d ha’ thought o’ meetin’ _you_
here?” said he, addressing one of them, who sprang at the mention of his
name, as if he had sat on the point of a stray nail; he and his companion
Dr H----, both senior fellows of Trinity College, having disguised
themselves, as they thought effectually, for the purpose of seeing, for
the first time in their lives, the fair, and the fun of it, without being
recognised in such an uncanonical assemblage. With this object they had
avoided exposing themselves to the risk of walking down the tent, but had
merely slipped in to reconnoitre from behind the shelter of the
frieze-coated customer, who now, so inopportunely and innocently, had
announced the name of one of them.

“Hold your tongue, sir!” said Dr M.; “you mistake me, sir.”

“Arrah, docthor darlint, sure iv I mistake ye, ye need’nt get into sich a
comflusthration about id; bud sure I know ye too well to mistake ye. Sure,
aint I the boy that had the misforthin to dhrop yer honor’s riverince into
the bog-hole, whin ye wint out to make believe ye were snipe shootin’,
down at Colonel Thrench’s, last Candlemas was a twelmonth.”

“I don’t know you, sir!” roared the doctor in an agony, hoping by his
ferocity to overawe the countryman into silence; but Paddy had taken too
much punch to notice the tone, and seemed incapable of entertaining or
following up more than one idea at a time, and the one now before him was
that of forcing himself, will he nill he, upon the recollection of the
worthy doctor.

“Ye don’t know me!--well, listen to that!--ye don’t know me!--oh, well, iv
that does’nt flog! Arrah, thin, maybe ye don’t recollect the bog-hole that
ye wanted me to carry ye over, an’ ye war so mortial heavy that my fut
slipped, an’ I had the luck to fall an my face, jist at the very edge iv
the slush, an’ ye pitched right-over, head foremost, into the very middle
iv id; an’ iv id was’nt for the good luck that yer legs stuck out, jist
the laste taste in life, by which I got a hould iv ye, sure would’nt ye be
lost intirely? An’ don’t ye”----

“Hold your tongue, you infernal scoundrel!” roared the enraged doctor, who
saw that every eye was fixed upon him, and every one’s attention drawn to
the spot, from the eagerness of manner and stentorian voice of Paddy,
whose reminiscence had produced a roar of laughter. Escape, too, was
utterly hopeless, for the tent had been filling, and the doorway was
blocked up by those who were pressing forward from the outside to get a
view of the speaker. “Hold your tongue, sirrah; you mistake me for some
one else. I never was thrown into a bog-hole in my life.”

“Oh! pillelieu! meellia murther! listen to that--as iv any one that iver
seen Docthor M-- ov Thrinity College could iver mistake him agin; bud sure
Docthor H-- there ’ill may be help out yer mimory [Dr H-- gave a writhe,
for he had hoped to have escaped, at least]; sure he was at the colonel’s
whin ye war brought home in the muck.”

This announcement of the names and address of both the unfortunate
betrayed, was received with a shout, whilst Paddy’s earnestness to free
himself from the charge of having blundered, increased every moment, and
reminiscence followed reminiscence, each in a louder tone than the
preceding, until his argument became a perfect shout, whilst the unlucky
S.F.T.C.D.’s strove to out-bellow him with their denials, and the audience
laughed, shouted, and danced with glee at the fun.

“I protest,” bawled Dr H--, “that I do not know Colonel Trench. You
mistake, my honest man; I never was at his place in my life. My friend
here, Dr M--, knows him, and has been there often; but I have not, I
assure you.”

“Oh! you ass,” bellowed Dr M--, “what do you acknowledge my name for? ’Tis
no wonder they call you ‘Leatherhead H--.’”

A renewed roar followed this piece of blundering recrimination.

“Never at Colonel Thrench’s!--not you!--oh! ye desavin’ ould villain!”
screamed the hitherto silent Biddy. “Not you!--Do ye know me!--do ye!--do
ye!!--Do-o-o-o-o ye!!!” every repetition of “do ye” being louder and
longer than the last, until she finished in a terrific long shriek,
squeezing her hands together upon her knees, and stamping alternately with
her feet, with a rapidity that gave the effect of a shake to her voice.

“I do protest and declare,” shouted the worthy doctor, “that I never, to
my knowledge, saw your face before.”

“Arrah, Biddy, avourneen, is this the ould Turk that ye tould me about,
bud would’nt mintion his name, that was so imperant to ye? Scraub his
face, the ould thief! and let me see iv he dar purvint ye, my darlin’.
Tache him to behave himself to unpurtected faymales!”

Biddy, who seemed quite inclined to forestall her companion’s orders, had
sprung upon the unlucky doctor before the sentence was half finished. He
strove in vain to shake her off; she clung to him like a wild-cat,
screaming, shrieking, scolding, biting, scratching, and tearing, until at
length she maddened him past all endurance by pulling two handfuls of hair
successively out of the little that remained on his skull, for which he
repaid her with two furious blows.

The spectators, who had hitherto looked on, and merely laughed at the
entire affair as an excellent joke, had undergone a change of sentiment
upon hearing the innuendo contained in Paddy’s last speech; and, no longer
considering the old gentlemen as a pair of innocents amusingly “blown,”
they now looked upon them as a pair of wicked old profligates, worse than
young ones; and one, more zealous than the rest, shouting out “shame! to
strike the girl,” stretched Dr H-- with a blow.

Dr M., irascible at all times, now lost all self-possession, and, unable
to reach his friend’s new assailant, turned furiously upon the cause of
all his woe, and bestowed a shower of blows with his stick upon Paddy,
before the latter had time to bring his cudgel to parry them. He soon
recovered himself, however, and from defendant quickly became assailant.

Many of the bystanders indignantly called out, “Murder the ould
villain--knock out his brains, Paddy. That’s right, Biddy; flitther him!”
and several proceeded to give a helping hand to the good work; but others
thought it was a shame for a whole lot of people to fall upon two, and in
their love for justice they ranged themselves alongside the reverend
doctors, shouting, “fair play’s a jewel!” The fight thickened, volunteers
joining either rank every moment, in the laudable endeavour to keep up the
balance of power. Biddy had quitted her grip of the doctor, and was now,
to the surprise of those who had time to look about them (and they were
few), engaged in the endeavour to wrench a stick out of the hands of a
huge hulk of an Englishman, who, having merely gone to see the fun at
Donnybrook, without the most remote idea of joining in a fight, could not
be persuaded of the necessity of giving his stick, as he did not intend to
use it himself, to one who _did_, and that one “a female!” At first he
laughed; but he was quickly obliged to put forth all his strength to
retain it, and, whilst twisting about, he caught a stray blow that floored
him; he fell against a table, which of course overset; the confusion
increased, when a shout suddenly arose, “Hurrah for Dr M--! Hurrah for Dr
H--! College to the rescue!--Trinity!--Trinity!”

At the well-known war-cry of the students, several changed sides; those
who had just been defending the doctors now turned upon them, whilst many
of their late assailants ranged themselves on their side. The citizens,
thinking that the number of students must be small, rushed to the spot, to
pay off sundry old scores; but one would imagine that the cry of “Trinity!
Trinity!” which resounded on all sides, was a sort of spell, or
incantation, that raised spirits from the earth, so many voices responded
to the call.

The unfortunate doctors, who had just expected nothing short of utter
annihilation, felt their spirits rise at the prospect of aid and rescue,
and bellowed with might and main, “Trinity! Trinity!” and in a few minutes
they were the nucleus of a fight in which the whole fair had joined.

“The poliss!--the poliss!--here come the bloody poliss!” was now the cry;
and the horse police dashed into the mob with their customary ardour,
their spurs fastened in their horses’ flanks causing them to plunge, and
bite, and kick most furiously, and laying about them with their swords,
cutting at every thing and every one within their reach; luckily they did
not know the sword exercise, and, therefore, when they struck with the
edge, it was only by accident. In a jiffy, the reverend seniors, caught in
the very act of shouting “Trinity!” were handcuffed, as were also the
Englishman, who got a blow of a sabre from a policeman that nearly took
off his ear, for attempting to expostulate; Paddy, who submitted quietly;
and Biddy, after a severe tussle, in which she reefed one policeman’s
face, and nearly bit the thumb off another. They were all put together
into a jingle, and conducted by a mounted escort to town; the police
hurrying them for fear of a rescue, by keeping continually whaling the
driver with the flats of their swords, and prodding the horse with the
points, which so enraged the jarvy, that when he got near the corner of
Leeson-street, Stephen’s-green, where two or three hundred of his
brethren were assembled, having whipped his Rosinante into a gallop, he
drove against a brewer’s dray, by which his traces were smashed, his horse
set free, the jingle locked fast, and he, springing off his perch, shouted
out, “down with the bloody poliss!”

In an instant the mob rushed upon them. Paddy and Biddy, with an alacrity
and agility truly astonishing, sprang from the lofty vehicle, plunged into
the crowd (where there were plenty of willing hands to free them from the
handcuffs), and escaped. Nor were the worthy doctors slow in following
their example, the only prisoner that remained being the bewildered
Englishman, who suffered “only” a three months’ incarceration in his
majesty’s jail of Newgate for going to see Donnybrook, and the fun at it,
his sentence having been mercifully mitigated, in consideration of its
being his first offence!

“Well,” said Dr H--, when he went with his head bandaged up, a shade over
his right eye, and about twenty bits of sticking plaster stuck over his
face, to visit Dr M-- (who was unable to leave his bed for a week), “well,
what a fool I was to be persuaded by you to go to Donnybrook fair! what a
pretty exhibition we would have made at the police office this morning!
Was it not most fortunate that we made our escape?”

“I have been thinking,” said (or rather groaned) Dr M--, “who that
scoundrelly country fellow could be. I never fell into a bog in my
life--that was all a lie; and still the blackguard’s face was familiar to
me.”

“I think he was very like that scapegrace Robert O’Gorman, only that he
had light hair; and though I could take my oath I know nothing of that
infamous little wretch that they called Biddy, yet I do think I have seen
her face before--hum”--

“Could it have been that he disguised himself, eh! I’ll inquire into it,
and if he did, by”--

“I think, my dear M--, you had better let it alone; the less _we_ say
about it the better. You know we really led the fight--that’s a fact that
can’t be denied; though it surprises me how we were hooked into it.”

A rustle at the door, followed by a loud knock, announced that the
newspaper had been thrust into the letter-box, from which Dr H--
immediately extracted it; and as he glanced over the page, the following
paragraph met his eye. It was headed “Disgraceful and fatal riot at
Donnybrook:”

“It is with mingled feelings of indignation, horror, and contempt, that we
feel bound, in discharge of our imperative, onerous, and painful duty to
the public, to give publicity to one of the most astounding, frightful,
and overwhelming facts which it has ever fallen to our lot, as faithful
journalists, to record. The peaceable, gentle, and innoxious inhabitants
of the village of Donnybrook, and the casual visitors who sought a little
innocent recreation at the fair now being holden, were yesterday evening
thrown into a state of the utmost alarm, confusion, and dismay, by a
barefaced attempt to carry off by brutal force a young girl from the
guardianship and protection of her brother. It appears that they had gone
into a tent to rest and refresh themselves (having probably over-exerted
their light fantastic toes), when their savage assailants (respecting
whose rank and station various rumours are afloat, which for the present
we forbear from mentioning) rushed upon them, and endeavoured to force her
away. The indignant bystanders interfered to prevent the outrage,
when--will it, can it be believed? our pen trembles, and a cold thrill
runs through us as we write it!--the worse than Indian war-whoop, the yell
of the collegians, was raised, and their numbers would in all human
probability have succeeded, but for the timely interference of the police,
to whose humanity, promptitude, and forbearance, upon the trying occasion,
too much praise cannot be given. The riot was not quelled until the
military were called out, and by three o’clock this morning all was again
quiet. Up to the time of going to press we had only heard of sixteen lives
being lost.

Second Edition.--We stop the press to announce that no lives have been
lost; but Sir Patrick Dunn’s, the Meath, and Mercer’s hospitals, are
crowded with wounded. N.B. The soldiers were not called out.

Third Edition.--Dr Fitzgerald has just informed us that there are no
wounded in either Sir Patrick’s, the Meath, or Mercer’s.”

“Well,” said Dr H--, “if they are not there, we at least know where some
of them are.”

                                                                   NAISI.




WHAT IS THE USE OF WATER?


Why is it that of the whole surface of this globe, we may consider that
three-fourths are covered by water, and that only one-fourth is in a
condition to be permanently inhabited by human beings? Is there any great
object in nature served by this? Is there any law of nature which would
prevent the proportion being one-fourth water to three-fourths land, or
even less water? In fact, what after all is the great use of water upon
the large scale in nature?

First of all, although three-fourths of the globe are now covered with
water, there is no reason to suppose that it has been always so. On the
contrary, it is quite certain that the proportion between land and water
has changed very much and very frequently; that the whole continent of
Europe was at one time the bed of an immense sea, when probably there was
a great continent where the Pacific Ocean is now spread; that even Old
Ireland was once not merely what Admiral Yorke wished her to be,
forty-eight hours under water, but probably many thousand years in that
condition; and that the great tract of limestone which occupies all the
centre of the country, is nothing more than a collection of the skeletons
of shell-fish, her first inhabitants, which by time and pressure have been
converted into the hard material of which we build our houses, and which
we burn into lime. There is thus no particular reason why there should be
three times as much water at present as land, but it is easy to show that
water on the great, as well as on the small scale, is of paramount
importance in nature.

Water is a portion of the food of all living beings. In the case of
animals, the bodies from whence they derive nutriment are so varied and so
complex, that to illustrate the peculiar part which water plays in each,
would occupy too much space. In all our drinks, even in ardent spirits,
there is a very large quantity of water, and our solid food very seldom
contains less than nine-tenths of its weight of water. The living body is
even less solid. A man weighing 150 lbs. would, if perfectly dried, weigh
not more than 10 lbs., the other 140 lbs. being water. It is to the
existence of this quantity of water that we owe the elasticity, the
softness, and pliability of the different portions of our frame, the
animal tissues being, when dry, hard and brittle as dry glue.

The nutrition of vegetables furnishes a beautiful and simple example of
the use of water in nature. The body of the vegetable, the proper wood,
may be considered as being composed of water and of charcoal; and hence,
when we heat a piece of wood until we decompose it, the water is expelled,
and carbon or charcoal remains behind. In order to grow, a plant must
therefore get water and charcoal in a form fit for its use, that is, in
such a form as it can make food of, and digest them. For this, the carbon
is supplied in the carbonic acid which the air contains, and the water in
the state of vapour which the air contains also, and which is continually
descending under the form of dew and rain to moisten the leaves and the
roots of the plants, when it has been absorbed into the ground. All the
water which is absorbed by plants is not assimilated, or digested; a great
part is again thrown out by the surface of the leaves; for, precisely as
the air which an animal expires from the lungs in breathing is loaded with
vapour, so is there a process of perspiration from the surface of the
leaves, which are the lungs of plants. For the formation of substances
which are peculiar to certain plants, other substances are required as
food, thus, most plants require nitrogen, which is accordingly furnished
abundantly in atmospheric air; others must have access to sulphur, in
order to flourish; but this depends, as it were, upon particular branches
of manufacture in which the plant is engaged; for its own support, for
making wood, and the tissue of its leaves and vessels, it uses only water
and carbonic acid.

The conversion of water into steam or invisible vapour by boiling, is one
of the best known facts in science; but by a little attention we can
observe that this change takes place at almost all temperatures, although
much less rapidly. Thus, if a little water be laid in a plate, it is soon
dried up, and wet clothes, by being hung up in the air, are very soon
completely dried. Even below the temperature at which water freezes, it
still evaporates; and thus, when a fall of snow is succeeded by a
continued frost, the snow gradually disappears from the fields without
having melted, evaporating while yet solid. From the surface of all the
water of the globe, therefore, there is continually ascending a stream of
watery vapour; but as the proportion of sea is so much greater than that
of land, we may look upon the ocean as being the source of the watery
vapour of the air upon the large scale.

Now, watery vapour is lighter than air, and hence the vapour, as soon as
formed, ascends in the air like a balloon, until it arrives at a part of
the air which is of its own specific gravity. The air in these higher
regions is extremely cold, and the vapour can no longer maintain itself
under the form of invisible steam: it is condensed, and would immediately
fall back to its source as rain or hail, but for a singular property which
it acquires at the moment of being vaporised. When water evaporates, it
becomes highly electrified, and could attract a feather, or other light
bodies, like a stick of sealing-wax which has been rubbed briskly on a
woollen cloth. Now, the vapour which passes off is electrified also; and
while in this state of electricity, it, on arriving at the colder regions
of the air, cannot condense, to form liquid water. The minute particles of
the water repel each other too violently, in virtue of their
electricities, to form drops, but they constitute the great loose
collections of clouds which diversify so much the appearance of our sky.
The clouds being thus highly electrical, and being very light, are
attracted by the tops of mountains and high lands, or by elevated
buildings; and, giving off their electricity, the particles of water
coalesce, to form drops which descend as rain. In this country the air is
so damp that in general the discharge of the electricity of the clouds
takes place quietly and silently; but in summer, and in dry climates, it
produces the vivid flashings and injurious effects of the lightning, and
the re-echoed rattle of the thunder-clap.

When water is cooled, it diminishes in bulk like other bodies; but at a
particular temperature it deviates from the general law of contraction,
and by doing so, becomes, perhaps, the most striking example of
providential design that is to be met with in inorganic nature. Cold water
is specifically heavier than warm water, in consequence of the contraction
it has undergone, and hence will sink in it, as water would sink in oil.
Now, if we consider the surface of a lake exposed to the cooling action of
a wintry wind, the water which is first cooled becomes heavier, and,
sinking to the bottom, is replaced by the warmer water, which floats up to
the top; there is thus a current established of cold water descending and
of warmer water rising up. This continues until all the water in the lake
has been cooled down to the temperature at which its specific gravity is
greatest, which is about 40 degrees, or about eight degrees above the
point at which it begins to freeze. The action of the cold wind
continuing, the water at the surface is still further cooled; but now, in
place of contracting, it expands--instead of becoming heavier, it becomes
lighter, and remains floating upon the surface. It is then still further
cooled, and finally its temperature being reduced to 32 degrees, it
freezes, and a layer of ice is formed on the surface of the lake. This
ice, and the cold water next it, are impermeable to heat: it actually
serves as a blanket to the water at 40 degrees which is below, preventing
the escape of the heat, and retaining it at that temperature, sufficient
for the purposes to which it is subservient; for at the temperature of 40
degrees, the life and enjoyments of all the various tribes of animals and
vegetables which reside permanently under the surface of the water are
perfectly secured, at least for a very considerable time; the water
holding dissolved a quantity of oxygen for the animal respiration, and the
vegetables living on the carbonic acid which is formed by the respiration
of the fish. On the approach of spring, the warmer air, and the rays of
the more elevated sun, act directly on the surface of the ice, and each
portion of water formed by melting, becoming heavier, sinks, so as to
expose the ice itself to the source of heat. Thus the ice is rapidly
dissolved, and after a few days the lake throws off its wintry aspect
altogether.

Now, if water did not possess this peculiarity of being heaviest at the
particular temperature of 40 degrees--if it contracted according as it was
cooled, up to the moment of freezing, as almost all other liquids do, what
would be the result? The cold wind acting on the surface of the lake, and
the water becoming heavier by being cooled, the circulation would continue
until all the water had been cooled to the point at which it freezes. The
ice would then form indifferently in all portions of it, at the bottom and
in the centre, as well as on the surface; and by the continued action of
the source of cold, the wind, the whole mass of water in the lake would be
frozen into a solid block of ice. The watery sap in the vessels of the
aquatic plants, the blood in fishes and other animals inhabiting the
water, would be equally frozen, and all these living beings consequently
killed. Further, on the approach of summer, by the first heating action
of the air and sun, a layer of ice, of a few inches thick upon the
surface, would be melted, but the water thus produced would, by being
impenetrable to heat, prevent the great body of ice below from being
affected. Just as, in reality, the cold water at the surface prevents the
warmer water below from being cooled, so then it would prevent the colder
ice below from being warmed; and hence the heats of summer passing over
without the melting process extending beyond a few feet in depth, the
first cold days of the next winter would solidify all again.

In every country, therefore, where at present water is frozen at all in
winter, we should have there established the reign of perpetual frost. By
the presence of such large masses of ice, the temperature of the ground
would be so much reduced, that, in place of the rich herbage of our
meadows, and the luxuriant produce of our corn-fields, we should have our
country yielding a scanty support to wandering herds of deer, in the
mosses and lichens that could be scraped up from beneath the snow. The
oaks, the beeches, the horse-chesnuts, which give such beauty to our
sylvan scenery, would disappear, and the monotony of wildernesses of the
Scotch fir and of the spruce would be varied only by patches of stunted
birch. The countries nearer the tropics would be gradually brought into
the same condition, by the depression of their mean temperature; and thus,
in a short time after water had ceased to possess this peculiar property,
the whole surface of the globe would be reduced to the condition of which
we now happily only read in the tales of the arctic voyagers; and all
commerce, manufactures, and civilization, would be banished from the
earth. Of such value is this little peculiarity of water!

A property of water, which, however, unlike the former, it shares with all
other liquids, is, that when it freezes it gives out a large quantity of
heat; and that conversely, in order that ice may melt, it must obtain,
from some other source, a quantity equally considerable. Consequently,
water freezes and ice melts very slowly; and that it should melt thus
slowly, is of essential importance in animated nature. If in spring or
summer, when vegetable life is in activity, when the development of
leaves, of flowers, and fruit, is at its greatest energy, end all the
vessels of the plant are distended with its nutritious juices, were it
suddenly exposed to cold, the sap would be frozen, and by the expansion of
the ice the vegetable tissues torn to pieces, and the plant killed. In the
thin extremities, as in the leaves, such is the effect of the frost of a
single night; but as the fluids, yielding but gradually up their latent
heat, solidify very slowly, the injury does not extend so far as to be
beyond the remedial powers of the plant itself. In another way, however,
the peculiar latent heat of water is of still more importance. If there
was no large collection of water on the globe, the change of seasons would
be amazingly more rapid and more remarkable than they at present are. A
change in the direction of the wind, the alteration which a few weeks
should effect in the position of the sun, would transfer us from the depth
of the severest colds of winter to the summer heats. These colds and heats
would also be much greater than they at present are, and an approximation
to this actually occurs in countries far distant from the sea. The central
districts of Europe and of Asia have what are termed continental climates
to distinguish them from ours, which is called insular. Their summers are
hotter, their winters are much colder, and the spring and autumn seasons
of passage, which with us might be said to occupy most of the year, are in
those countries of only a few weeks’, or even a few days’, duration. In
fact, when on the cessation of summer the first cold winds tend to bring
on the winter, and to bind up our lakes in frost, the first portion of
water frozen becomes, by giving up its latent heat, a source of warmth
which tempers the chilly air, and retards its action on the remainder. The
water freezes thus very slowly. The vegetables, and certain classes of
animals, feeling the cold of winter thus gradually coming on, prepare to
meet it without injury. The motion of the sap in the one, that of the
blood in the other class of living beings, becomes slower, and, dropping
its leaves and fruit, the tree retains but its firm trunk, within which
its energies are preserved for the ensuing season; whilst the hedgehog,
the viper, the frog, and other animals, retire to their hiding-places, and
in a state of almost lifeless stupor remain until the warmth of the
succeeding spring calls them to renewed existence.

In the formation of the insular climate which we possess, another power of
water, however, equally or perhaps more influential, can be traced. There
issues continually from the ocean at the equator, as the earth revolves, a
current of water considerably warmer than that which bathes our shores.
This current becoming sensible first in the Gulf of Mexico, is called the
Gulf Stream; it passes obliquely across the Atlantic, floating on the
colder water of the ocean, which tends in a direction nearly opposite to
replace it, and thus diffuses over the coasts of North America and Europe
the heat which it had absorbed within the torrid zone. The northerly
winds, which would bring down a sudden winter on us, are therefore
tempered by passing over the warmer surface of the ocean; whilst the hot
winds from the south, which on the approach of spring might make too
premature a change, expend, in passing over the great expanse of sea, a
portion of their heat; and thus the transition in both directions is
rendered more gradual and harmless.

These are but a few of the important duties which are allotted to water in
its place in nature. It in other respects presents an equally interesting
subject of examination, and it is one to which we shall return. From its
value as the great agent of nutrition to the vegetable world, and the
necessity of a supply of it to animals; from its power in modifying the
appearance and structure of a country, changing land into sea, and
elevating banks where deep water had been before, the philosophers of old
looked upon water as the origin of all earthly things, as being above all
others the element of nature. It is not so: water is not an element. Among
other wonders which chemistry has taught us, we have learned of what water
is composed; and on another occasion we shall describe the way in which
its elements may be obtained.

                                                                       K.

       *       *       *       *       *

CELEBRATION OF THE FOURTH OF JULY IN NEW YORK.--On this day, the
anniversary of American independence, all creation appeared to be
independent; some of the horses particularly so, for they would not troop
“in no line not nohow.” Some preferred going sideways, like crabs; others
went backwards, some would not go at all, others went a great deal too
fast, and not a few parted company with their riders, whom they kicked off
just to show their independence. And the women were in the same
predicament: they might dance right or dance left; it was only out of the
frying-pan into the fire, for it was pop, pop; bang, bang; fiz, pop, bang;
so that you literally trod upon gunpowder. The troops did not march in
very good order, because, independently of their not knowing how, there
was a good deal of independence to contend with. At one time an omnibus
and four would drive in and cut off the general and his staff from his
division; at another, a cart would roll in and insist upon following close
upon the band of music; so that it was a mixed procession--generals,
omnibus and four, music, cart-loads of bricks, troops, omnibus and pair,
artillery, hackney-coach, &c. “Roast pig” is the favourite “independent”
dish, and in New York on the above day are “six miles of roast pig.” viz.
three miles of booths on each side of Broadway, and roast pig in each
booth! Rockets are fired in the streets, some running horizontally up the
pavement, and sticking into the back of a passenger; and others mounting
slanting-dicularly, and Paul-Prying into the bedroom windows on the third
floor or attics, just to see how things are going on there. On this day,
too, all America gets tipsy.--_Captain Marryatt’s Diary in America._

       *       *       *       *       *

IRISH DRAMATIC TALENT.--Difference of taste makes it difficult, if not
impossible, to say which is the best comedy in the English language. Many,
however, are of opinion that there are three which more particularly
dispute the palm--namely, “She Stoops to Conquer,” “The School for
Scandal,” and “The Heiress;” and it is remarkable that the authors of
these three beautiful productions were all Irishmen--Goldsmith, Sheridan,
and Murphy.--_Literary World._

       *       *       *       *       *

THE MORNING.--The _sweetness_ of the morning is perhaps its least charm.
It is the renewed vigour it implants in all around that affects us--man,
animals, birds, plants, vegetation, flowers. Refreshed and soothed with
sleep, man opens his heart; he is alive to Nature, and Nature’s God, and
his mind is more intelligent, because more fresh. He seems to drink of the
dew like the flowers, and feels the same reviving effect.--_Illustrations
of Human Life._


    Printed and Published every Saturday by GUNN and CAMERON, at the
    Office of the General Advertiser, No. 6, Church Lane, College Green,
    Dublin.--Agents:--London: R. GROOMBRIDGE, Panyer Alley, Paternoster
    Row. Manchester: SIMMS and DINHAM, Exchange Street. Liverpool: J.
    DAVIES, North John Street. Birmingham: J. DRAKE. Bristol: M.
    BINGHAM, Broad Street. Edinburgh: FRASER and CRAWFORD, George
    Street. Glasgow: DAVID ROBERTSON, Trongate.







*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL, VOL. 1 NO. 08, AUGUST 22, 1840 ***


    

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