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soription lias been opened on their belialf , to -which v , e earnestly hope the contributions of the public will be liberally devoted . Meanwhile , what an ignointnioiis state of tilingstkat the law should permit such an outrage , and that the bench of justice should be encumbered by such , a ridiculous person as Xord IIastiitgs ! ———~~— " ™ . ^^^ m ^ m ^—^ wmm ...
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Th . ere is no learned inan but \ vill confess he hath . much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it ' .- be profitable for him to read , Why should it not , at least , be tolerable for Ms adversary to write ?—BIixton .
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THE MOON'S MOTION . \ To the Editor of ( he Leader . ) . Dec . 3 , 1856 . Sib , •¦—This subject lias been ably discussed in your columns . It was mooted more than one hundred and twenty years ago : and the rotary dogrna of the astronomers was then successfully upheld by Ferguson , who produced e very pica for it , in an essay nov before me , -which has been put forth in this revived controversy . The common sense of the
public lmnd is now , liowevei , more freely exercised , and the idolatry of great names , and the passive difference of opinion to authority , less servile than in any past time . I "believe the general public to he very extensively convinced that the old astronomers erred in attributing any motion of rotation on an axis within it , to the moon ; and equally so in asserting that the rotation of the car tli is complete in the sidereal day . The formeT fallacy is , I think , ' . sufficiently disproved by the fact that there is no axis or centre of rotation within the moon ; and that all points in her body describe concentric rings round the distant centre of her orbit , and none round any point within herbody . All lines drawn from any part of the moon to thj | centre of . her orbit are radii of ' that orbit . These facts areperfectly incompatible - \ vith the definitions of rotating bodies given by all the best math ematical and mechanical authorities , such as Ilutton , Barlow , Grier , &c , who make it a cardinal condition of rotation that each point in the rotating body shall describe a circle rouml a centre within itself !
It is perfectly obvious that water in a basin , owing to its gravitation , mnintuins its parallelism hy allowing the basin to turn round it , which is in effect the same thing as if it rotated the contrary way to the revolution of the basin . This nowise proves the rotation of the basin on its own axis , but simply that it turns round : which no one denies that the moon does . The sole question is , how ?
Will Lieutenant Morrison , or Professor "Whew ell deny that a fly revolves round one ' s head , in a given manner , which keeps flying- round it , as we sit in an express train from Bath . to London , because it is also going in nearly a straight line from one terminus to the other , at the same time ? This is precisely the case "with the moon in its double course round earth and sun . A body may have half a dozen distinct motions nt once .
The sidereal day being the measure of tlie rotation of the earth is a positive blunder ; which I have a very simple mechanical instrument to demonstrate . The rotation of no rotating globe , which is at the Banvctimo revolving in an orbit , can be complete until it presents the same meridian lino again to the centre of its orbit . If its rotation be measured by any fixed t > oh \ t 3 external to that orbit , the return of the- meridian line to it is hastened , or in other words shortened , l > y the orbital movement added to the rotatory one .
The practical effect of taking the sidereal day as tho measure of time , is merely that of complicating » n , ° ^ fillsif y ' £ 0 II 11 nstrononiieal calculations . ¦ They measure by an immense number of tenths of seconds a little short , and instead of , twenty-four hours . They thus make the year consist of 36 « £ sidereal days or rotations instead . of 300 J solar days MMi . rotations , ns the fact is . The one extra turn is jnerely tho orbital revolution which the moon alone "as . It turns without rotating . I do not intend to discuss this matter at length ; put as I began it I could not refrain from thus
backing the very able support my effort to abolish a tottering error ( maintained elsewhere with much dogmatism and ill-temper ) has met with in your columns . —I am , Sir , yours very obediently , JULIXOXlt SYHONS .
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ASSURANCE FOR ASSURERS . (_ To the Editor of the Leader . ' ) Sir , —In tlie good old times of Haroun-al-Rasehid they used to nail bakers by the ears to their own door-posts-when bread rose to an inconvenient price . " Investigator" believes ill this sort of political economy . He would decimate , or quartate , the two hundred and odd assurance offices , and tlius reassure assurers that they should receive a shilling's worth of assurance for every shilling . Now , I "believe , on the other hand , that by the ¦ working and counterworking of the two great laws —centripetal and centrifugal—of the social system—Association and Competition—all social and
economical relations would adjust themselves . Laissezksfairc ! and , with as harmonious regularity as the rotation of the planetary bodies iu their orbits ( I shall say nothing here of the rotation of the moon on her own or any other body ' s axis ) , all social developments would correct their own . aberrations , and society would at length discover and retain the destined tenor of her iinal course . Let me state " Investigator's" argument analogically . There arc 2567 bakers in the London Directory * ( let u Investigator" count them ) , Surely avc need not so many persons to devote nil their time and energies to the manufacture of loaves and
muffins , when one well-constituted and economically conducted " Metropolitan Muffin and Crumpet Punctual Delivery Company , " with one manager , and an organized staff of agents , clerks , and carriers , would supply the Avhole of London , and every eater of broad would probably save a penny or twopence a loaf in the shape of expenses nov incurred from the hungry competition of 2 ; 167 rival establishmentsone baker to every 1000 of the population , ' including women and Jews , ' although these may be held to bo separately accommodated by tho 771 retail confectioners , whom I find at pp . 1 G 50 to > 1653 of the standard statistical classic above referred to .
The " Apollo and Marsyas" of HAPHAEL . —Some particulars with respect to th e opinion entertained by Dr . Waagen on the authenticity of this picture ( of . which , as the regular subscribers of the -Leader will remember , we gave an engraving in the first year of our existence ) are contained in the N ' eue Preussiscke Zeitung speaking of a recent meeting of the Wissenschaftlicher Kun&tverein . ( Scientific-Art . Society ) . We there read : — " The secretary of the society raised a doubt whether already , in 1505 < the date given to the picture ) , Raphael was acquainted with the Apollo Belvidere—the character of which has some resemblance to the Apollo ictur
m the p e—as Raphael did not go to Rome until some time after . The original drawing for the picture by Raphael , in th . e Imp . e Reali Accademia delle Belle Aril di Vetiezia , and which the Venetian Catalogue , pointing to the picture in Mr . Morris Moore ' s possession , expressly and emphatically declares to be undoubtedly by Raphael , places the authenticity of that picture beyond doubt . At the meeting of the Wissensckaftlicher Kunstverein , there was no one , with , perhaps , the exception of Dr . "VVaagen , who , on inspecting the daguerreotype , &c , taken from the painting and submitted to the meeting by Mr . Morris Moore , did not at once recognise it as a genuine design by Raphael . "
Reversal op a De * ckee of the Pkerogattvts Court .- —Dr . Lushington , at a sitting of a Judicial Committee of the Privy Council last Saturday , delivered judgment in the case of Scoular v . PloTrright . It was , he said , an appeal from a decree of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury , wkereby the jvwlge of that court pronounced for the will propounded ia the cause , and condemned the next of kin in part of the costs . The will was propounded by Mr . Plowright , one of the executors named therein , and was opposed by Sir . G . Scoular , the onlj brother and next of kin of the deceased , Mr . " William Scoular , a sculptor in Dean-etreet , Soho , who died in July 1854 , a few days after the dating of the will , leaving personal property to the amount of
about 40007 . Dr . Lushington said their Lordships were of opiniou that the will was not the spontaneous act of the testator , who would seem to have "been acting under control and duresse . Tie will was prepared by a Mr . Edwards , the person principally benefited by it , and he , by his own admission , concealed the fact of execution from everyone during the lifetime of the deceased , and destroyed tie instructions for it . Their lordships could not therefore affirm the judgment of the Court below , but would advise her Majesty that the decree must be reversed ; and , believing it to be a case in which gross fraud liad been perpetrated , they must condemn the party propounding the ¦ will in all the costs incurred .
The Neav Bisiror ox Ripost . —Lord Palraerston , on Friday week , offered the vacant Bishopric ' of Ripon to the Eev . Robert Bickerstetli , by whom it was accepted . The new bishop belongs to the Evangelical section of the Church of England . lie is a nephew of the late Lord Langdale , and originally studied for the medical profession ; indeed , lie is ercn now a member of the College of Surgeons and of Apothecaries' Hall . It is stated that the honour now conferred on him came quite as a surprise . The new bishop is only a little above forty . The Weather . —" VTc have been through the whole of this week in mid-winter . Not only is Scotland aud tlie north , of England covered with snow , and ice-bound , but the metropolis also has been visited with intense
frost . During Monday night , the thermometer at the Royal Humane Society ' s receiving-house fell as low aa 10 deg ., being 13 deg- "below freezing point . At nine o ' clock on Tuesday morning the mercury rose only to 23 deg ., and even at noon , in tho sun , rose no higher than freezing point . The wind was variable , but the principal quarter was north-west . The barometer indexed , during the chief part of the day and the previous night , 30 ' 12 dog . The Serpentine River in Hydo Park was completely frozen over , but was in such a palpably dangerous state that Mr . Superintendent Williams
issued orders that no one was to bo allowed to go upon it . On tho Long "Water in Kensington Gardens , however , tlicro were crowds of skaters and sliders . Two men fell in , but were rescued by the Humane Society ' s officers . Several persons also fellthrough on tho ornamental waters in tho llcgont ' s Park . No casualty of this kind occurred on . the round poud in Kensington Gardens , but a gentleman -who was skating fell on his head , split it open , and was taken up insensible . Ho was afterwards , however , enabled to walk home . —A thaw set in iu London on Thursday , and haa continued up to tlio moment of our going to press .
The SouTnAMrroir Elkction . —Mr . lulwm James has mysteriously disappeared from Southampton , and for some days past has not even communicated with his committee . His supporters wore therefore brought to a complete standstill , and , having called a meeting , they indignantly resolved to abandon tho missing Queen ' s Counsel who luid so unceremoniously abandoned them . Mr . Alderman Andrews , tho present Mayor , was then invited to come forward , which ho consented to do , if he could see one thousand signatures to tho requisition . A requisition was immediately put in circulation , which received tho sigaaturo of nearly every elector present ; and "James ' s Committee" is now accordingly converted into " Aiulrcws ' s Committee-. " Sir Edward ISutlcr , the Conservative candidate , ( ind Mr . Wogiielin , still continue their canvass with much activity .
The two hundred assurnncG offices have their sphere of operation over all the British and Colonial world ; tho most ambitious of tlie ' 25 ( 37 bakers—10 bakers to every assurance-, oflice—do not extend beyond omnibus distance of Charing-eross . If the iSciisons and the Scratchleys cimnot remedy tiro evil , tho matter , depend upon it , must mend itself . It is not to be done by legislative interfevonco , but by tho gentle peristaltic : persuasion of Laisskz l ^ Ainn .
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December 6 , 1856 . ] [ THE LEADER . 1167 - m »___^ . — . ^_^___^ , __^^____^__^^_^^^______^__ — _ , j
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[ IX THIS' ' imrABTSITSNT . AS -M . L Ol'INIOXS , HOWEVER EXTREME , AKI AI . I / JWKD AN BJU'HKSSION , TUB EUIXOiJ HilC'liSS-AlULY HOLDS JJI 1 ISKi- * « Ii .-JI-OXSriJXE fOll SO . Vf . 1
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THE MOON'S ROTATION . ( To the Editor of ' the Leader . ) 3 rd Deo ., 1856 . Sir , —There appears , to me , a total misunderstanding on the part of Mr . Kenward , and partly so with Mr . Morrison , as to the real question at issue . In the fou . r concluding paragraphs of Mr . Best ' s article is acknowledged all that has as yet-appeared against it , with the exception of what Mr- Morrison says , —that "the moon , does not really move round the earth at all , but moves in close company with the earth around the sun once a year . " Whether this motion round the earth be real or apparent
does not affect the real question . Nothing to me appears more clear , than that the article of Mr . Best is coiiiiried to a disproval of separate , independent , axial motion . Can that motion be proved ? That is , can it be proved that the moon turns on an axis within herself ' ?¦ This is the legitimate question j to contend for that which is already in our possession , is to combat with a shadow . I would here respectfully observe , that to taLk of synodical periods , and to remind us of the ¦ precise velocity of the earth through space in her annual coarse roinid the sun , docs not reconcile the never-varying appearance of the moon , so far as we can see her , with her having separate , independent axial motion . Mr . Kenward , it appears , does apt understand what I ¦ ¦ mean by relative or subordinate , and
primary motions . Did it not recur to his mind during his ' experiments ,.-that the motions of the basin , water , and straw were all relative to his motion , and subordinate to it ? That when his , the primary , motion ceased , that of the basin , -water , and straw , being subordinate , ceased also . And does Mr . Kenwartl think that the moon would , continue in . the earth ' s path round the sun , were the earth alone to be obstructed ? For the solution of this proposition I will not appeal to Sir W . Herschell , but to Mr . Kenward in his reflective moments . Should he , after due reflection , negative this proposition , he will then perceive the motion of the moon to be subordinate , and that of the earth primary . TVnat else Mr . Kenward professes hot to understand he has saved me the trouble of ansvering 3 by himself drawing a positive conclusion . I am , Sir , yours respectfuny , John Taylor .
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* Post Ofltco London Directory , umler the inniiediatc and special patronage of her Majesty ' s Poatinaftcr- (! cnoral . Fifty-soventli nnnuul publication . London : Kelly and Co . 185 i 3 .
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 6, 1856, page 1167, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2170/page/15/
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