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it is a more progressive country—further advanced in spiritualism . " After some more questions and answers , he bade us " Good bye . " I will not further take up your space , but must mention that I have witnessed the moving of the table at my request , when I have been sitting , without any human aid from the three persons present . —J am , Sir , yours truly , Z . Let us clear up the misconception of our assertion respecting the Alphabet . We never said that Mrs . Hayden could see the letters at which the pencil rested when the raps were given , for , according to our
explanation of the trick , it is perfectly needless that she should see them . Inasmuch as she does not know what letter is the right one , and must therefore gain her clue from , the patient ; all she wants is to notice when , by his manner , by the lingering of the pencil , by the suspension of his breath , or by the eagerness of his face , he expects the rap to come , and then she raps . Thus , a patient may even stand behind her , and provided he taps the alphabet with his pencil , as he passes to each letter , the indication will suffice .
The rest of Z . ' s letter we leave to the reader . We shall probably be asked , " How do you account for Z . having received those communications V Our reply is simple : we are not in the habit of accounting for things of which we have no knowledge , and of which we cannot be sure that we have all the facts . We do not account for this ; nor , assuredly , do we believe it . We have no reason to doubt Z . ' s word ; but we have every reason to reject every tittle of his inferences . The delusion is gaining a fresh field in Germany . At tables d'hote , in the cafes , on 'Change , in the theatres , everywhere people are talking of these " Rappings" and " Tablemovings . " In Hamburg one of the theatres
has made it the subject of a Farce called Die Klopfgeister , the Spirit-Rappers . The newspapers are almost daily publishing new experiments . The first who drew attention to the subject , following upon a reprint of the article in the Leader , was Dr . Karl Andree , whose name gives some weight to the topic , he having been celebrated -in Germany as a political writer of moderate views , and editor of the Bremer Zeitung . This Dr . Andree has nothing whatever to do with Spirits or Mediums . He confines himself to the moving of tables by means of the " galvanic force , " supposed to be elicited from a party of men and woman seated in a circle with joined hands . In Hamburg , in Breslau , in Vienna , in Elberfeld , in Bremer , tables are dancing about as if they were mad ; and " numerous
" well attested" recitals appear in the German papers for the benefit of those who can believe , and those who can laugh . The credulous will regard our scepticism with feelings of pity , but we say with Oken , when president of the Natural History Society , on the occasion of a discussion about a shower of frogs : " A worthy pastor declares to you , gentlemen , that he has seen the frogs come down like a sliimor of rain from the clouds ; we cannot but credit the pastor , for have we any right to doubt of a shower of frogs which , human eyes have seen ? All I can say is , that it is lucky J didn ' t see the shower , for I shouldn't have believed my own eyes— gut , das es meine Augen nicht waren , denn ich wiirde ihnen dann nicht geglaubt Jiaben J' "
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M . Alexandre Thomas , well known to the readers of La Revue des Deux Mondes as an admirable writer , is about to give a course of Lectures on the Ideas and Manners of France during the Grand Siecle , drawn principally from the Correspondence of Madame de Sevigne—Life in the Provinces—Life in Paris—Life at Court—and the Progress of Literary Taste are the principal subjects of this course . We commend these Lectures to the notice of our readers , and will do our best to find space for some report of them as they are delivered . The first of the series will be delivered on Friday next .
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A recent discovery with respect to the iodine m water , and its influence on the human organization is of too great an interest to be passed over here , the more so , as it may lead our Sanitary Philosophers to some fresh considerations . The afflictions of goitre and cretinism , painfully familiar to all Alpine travellers , has always been attributed to the water drunk by the inhabitants of those districts which arc the homes of these cretins . M . Ciiatin many years ago announced , as the result of his investigations , that the absence of iodine from the water was the predisposing cause of the disease . He bus recently placed this hypothesis beyond a doubt . Fully and Saillon , two
villages on the right bank of the Rhone , although almost touching each other , have long been remarkable : one village , Fully , being a notorious cradle of cretinism ; the other , Saillon , being as notoriously free from goitre or cretinism . Of late years , however , Saillon has iu its turn become infected . And the reason , say the inhabitants , is none other than the sanitary measures recently taken to purify the water ! Formerly the water of the Salcnte , before reaching the village , was wont to mingle with the streams of a hot spring , named source de fer . To bring purer water into
the village , they altered its course , and turned it away from the hot spring Observers declared that the date of the appearance of goitre in Saillon coincides pretty nearly with that of their beinj * blessed with " pure water !" M . Ciiatjn investigated the matter ; be analyzed the water of the Salente , the water of the hot spring , and the water where the two streams mingle ; the results continued hi . s previous publications : he found the Salente water free from iodine , and the water of the hot spring and of the two mingled atrongly impregnated with it . The conclusion is irresistible : wherever the water iu these districts is free from iodine cretinism and goitio are observed
among the inhabitants ; wherever it is impregnated with iodine these diseases are absent . To purify water" is not always to make it better adapted to our organism ; and there may be some ' physiological instinct in that paradoxical lady ' s announcement , " I like water with a dead-cat-and-dog flavour in it . "
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BOOKS ON" OUR TABLE . Poemt . By the Rev . Claude Magnay . W . Pickering . The Picture Pleasure-book . Addey and Co . The Charm . Addey and Co . Uncle Tom ' s Cabin . Adam and Charles Black . Men of the Time . David Bogue . Narrative of a Joxcrney round the World . By ~ F . Gerstaecker . 3 vola . Hurst and Blackett , Historical Outline * of Political Catholicism . Chapman and Hall . Odds and Ends . By A . E . Marshall . W . Pickering . The Great Sin of Great Cities . John Chapman . The Christian Spectator . W . Freeman . An Address to Parliament on the Duties of Great Britain in India . By Charles Hay Cameron . Longman and Co . The Chemistry of Gold . By Nathan Mercer . Whittaker and Co . The Diary of Martha Bethune Baliolfrcm 1753 to 1754 . Chapman and Hall . Reuben Winch ; or , the Force of Example . By G . Hodder . W . Kent and Co . The Eve-ntg of a Year . A Novel . By Emilie Carlen . 3 vols . T . C . Newby . Arthur Clifton . A Novel . 3 vols . T . C . Newby . Frank Merryweather . A Novel . By H . G . A . Young . 2 vols . T . C . Newby . The Reasoner . James Watson . Lord ' Bacon and Sir Walter Raleigh . By the late Maerey iNTapier , Esq . Macmillan and Co . Beading for Travellers . J&fontenegro and the Slavonians of Turkey . By Count P . Krasinski .
Chapman and Hall . An Essay upon the Philosophy of Evidence . By Watkin Williams . John Chapman . Select Poems of Prior and Swift . John W . Parker . Hypatizj or , New Foes with an Old Face . By Charles Kingsley , Jun . 2 vols . John W . Parker and Son . Christianity and Secularism . Report of a Public Discussion , between the Rev . Brewin Grant , M . A ., and George Jacob Holyoake , JSsq . Ward and Co . Half-a-Hozen Ballads for Australian Emigrants . By Martin F . Tupper . Thomas Bosworth . The Pope in Enqland ; andWho Shall Turn Sim Out ? Three Letters to Sir William BroaAland , Bart . By Per Cler Jocelyn . » Thomas Bosworth . JEschyli Eumenides . The Greek Text , with English Notes , Critical and Explanatory . By Bernard Drake , M . A . Maemillan and Co . The Key to Uncle Tom ' s Cabin . By H . 3 i . Stowe . Clark , Beeton , and Co . The Idealist : a Dramatic Poem . By J . H . Eohrs , A . M . J . "W . Parker and Son Taxation : its Nature and Properties . By Alexander Gibson . P . Richardson
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LOUD GREY AS COLONIAL SECRETARY . The Colonial History of Lord John Russell's Administration . ~ By Earl Grey . 2 vols Bentley . The aim and manner of this book are antagonistic . In fact , it is an appeal to the public ; but ifc is written in the form of letters to Lord John Jiussell , and audience other than " my dear Lord John , " is all but ignored , suggesting the idea that the volumes were printed for private circulation in Downing-street and its dependencies , and hare escaped into public life through some mistake of the printer . As a clear statement of colonial affairs and official proceedings , the work is valuable ; we have now evidence on both sides of many a vexed colonial question . The
general tenor of JLordGrey ' s testimony is clearly satisfactory , to himself : excepting " one error in judgment , " the Colonial Office seems to have been right all through the I'ecent series of contests with colonies in . all parts of the world . It certainly happened that Lord Grey ' s conduct provoked obstinate opposition , and caused bitter irritation , in many cases ; but this book proves that this arose from tho natural wickedness of human nature in general , and the perverse disposition of colonists in particular , to like everything injurious , and to detest everything for their good . Lord Grey is firm in this belief : even in cases where he yielded to tho wishes of colonists , he was unconvinced , though conquered ; he granted their prayer , as if to curse them with his consent ; and lie never fails to show now much the colonists lost by their obstinate opposition—winding
up with a resigned sigh , expressing ' , " Hut it is their business , not mine . Had this wise thought come a little earlier , Lord Grey ' s official career might have been harmless . When Whigs talk of Free-trade , they remind one of those gipsies who having saved an heir of the Buckingham family , were allowed to squat on the estate , rent free , for ever . The right to a like unconditional occupation of Downing-street , is tho first article of belief with the true official Whig . Each paragraph of his litany of excuses , for all kinds of oflicial faults , ends with " the great principles of JPrec-trade . " "Tho effect is excellent . " In explaining the differences with tho sugar colonies , Lord Grey does not forget liis catechism ; the X ' rotcctionists were at tlio bottom of every disturbance . They stimulated the combined Court of Guiana to demand a reduction of salaries ; and the Commissioners of Public
Accounts , in Jamaica , still more wicked , were clearly inspired , aut Diaholi , aut Disraeli . The latter cuho illustrates tho general question of the sugar colonies . The Jamaica assembly resolved on a reduction of oflieial salaries , " in consonance with the impoverished condition of the island ; " and as Commissioners of Public Accounts , having the collection and application of tlio revenue in their own hands , tho resolution was of weight . Hut tho Governor ( Sir Charles Grey ) seeing tlie cloven hoof of Protection in the assertion of poverty and the consequent course , refused hi . s consent , again and again , to Retrenchment bills , in succession . Tho Ah-Hembly , thereupon , stopped tho supplies for ollicial salaries . An unseemly and perilous strife ensued ; the Assembly was once dissolved , and several times prorogued ; the prerogative of tlie Crown to pny its o / Iicors
proper salaries out of the peoples' pockets , whs zealously maintained ; for ( as in tho cuho of Guiana ) " it was absolutely necessary , ' says Lord Gyoy , " that they ( the colonists ) should ho made to foci Unit we would not flinch from tho course wo had deliberately adopted . " This fiorco quarrel , in which the dignity of the Crown wnri directly pitted against the tax-payers of Jamaica , involved nothing lews important and momentous , than the reduction from 1200 / . to < J 00 / . a year , of the salaries of half-a-dozen English barristers . To imply , as Lord ( h-oy broadly doeH , that it involved tho maintenance of Free-trade , in utterly absurd . When a legi s lature baBCS a bill on tho consequences of . Free-trade , it accepts the policy uh an accomplished fact , and clinches it , by adapting the institutions of tho country to tho new romillB .
On tho connected and previous question of negro omniu *< ipation , Lord Grey waa free from the extreme and inconsiderate zeal of tho Emancipationists . Jn a country where no other labour wuh available , to any practical oxtout , the planters found the labour of Uio nogroos snatched from
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Ai > ittL 23 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 403
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Leader (1850-1860), April 23, 1853, page 403, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1983/page/19/
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