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    least information concerning them , may be expected from the Association . Having amongst its members men of the highest eminence in every walk , o science , well acquainted with its most advanced Conditions , they cannot fail in communicating their views , to each other to throw much light on many subjects that require elucidation . In contradiction to the old saying which , in an extremely philosophic sense , as Mr . Faraday would admit , is strictly and undeniably true , new facts are continually coming into view . Journals maybe said to live by recording

    them , but oftentimes they perplex hasty readers who must snatch their knowledge as they feed , run , or work . Even to journalists they are sometimes inexplicable , and the public looks to such bodies as the Association and their members to generalise and . explain new phenomena . They not only in ^ crease the sum of knowledge , they bind up and preserve all the new information which is perpetually gathered . Annual meetings serving such purposes can ^ scarcely be too highly prised , and the Association never met at a period when interesting subjects of science were more numerous , and when

    nature and form as complete a transcript of creation as our present knowledge can supply . Perhaps the most important subject on winch the public may now look to such associations for information is . society itself . Man has long had las place in natural history as one of the mammalia , and Cuvier and other naturalists have treated the development of society as a part of natural history . That man is the subject does not make it less worthy of the naturalist ' s investigations than the generation of mosses or the community of bees . At present , the complete diffusion of the family over the whole surface of the earth , and the communication which is everywhere taking place between all its members , has plainly so extended

    the habits aiid wants , / of the people who produce them , in order to make commerce continually profitable . If these and all other practical workers must look to men of science for help-and guidance in cultivating the land , in beginning and extending trade , in navigating ships , in constructing bridges and other buildings , in framing telegraphs , in selecting materials for dresses , in diffusing light , warmth and air through dwellings , in finding and working minerals , must they not also look to them to interpret every part of nature , and be guided b y their interpretations ? Moving in this direction—the path pointed out by Bacon and followed by Newton and all subsequent philosophers—we catch sight of a great and consistent'generalisation such as philosophy loves to attain . We sec in the facts of the material world a universal rule for all actions which

    can only increase our respect for all true scientific men . If they be for us the interpreters of the commands of nature , it must be our duty to guide our conduct by the facts with which their observations and studies are for ever making them and us acquainted .

    society as to obliterate inanV political distinctions and to carry it beyond the narrow constraints of old political systems . For subjects , the Queen has men of every faith , and every race , and every colour ; and the negroes , to whom we substitute servitude for slavery—the Chinese , for whom our Government sanctions the purchase of women and ordains them a supply of opium—andthe Hindoos , Whose strange worship our authorities properly respect , can no more be governed by the same rules than rabbits and foxes . One glittering magnet has lately equally attracted Asiatics , Europeans , Americans , and the aborigines of the Pacific islands , into the new continent of

    Australia , there to live together apparently in peace and under a government which will respect the peculiarities of reach arid all . It is not merely , as M . de Tocqueville and others have shown , that democracy is moulding all institutions to its , wants ; more than this , society , considered as a whole , is fast developing itself beyond the limits of each state , and by indispensable trade is levelling polit | fal barriers . If it have hitherto been considered as an artificial organisation beyond the naturalist ' s domain , like tlie manufacture of watches , its present development has generated a different opinion , and shown it rapidly ranging beyond the boundaries of

    all political systems , and carrying ' them after its new phases . Society ,, therefore , can no longer be considered a political contrivance . It is a great natural object destined , as man multiplies on tlie earth and excavates its surface , to influence-. or alter the physical condition of the globe . It can no longer with propriety be excluded from natural history any more than mineralogy and geology , or what we may perhaps be permitted to call the mental or spiritual qualities of the material world—electricity and magnetism . To indicate from the past what are to be the future conditions of society , we must look ,

    therefore , more to philosophers than politicians . Society has already grown beyond the arts of the latter , and at present no little mental confusion prevails because the former have not taken the appropriate task of investigating the phenomena of society into their hands . That its growth and organisation depend on the same general and natural laws as the seasons , is obvious from the influence these exert over the welfare of society , and from division of labour which grows from diversity of sex , capacity , age , climate , &c , coinnion to the whole animal kingdom . It is neither creditable to natural philosophers nor beneficial to

    society that they should willingly divorce them * selves from this great branch of creation , and hand it over , declining even to look at it , as beyond their sphere- ^ -taking less part than others in social aflairs- —to those wj > o are too exclusively occupied by their own conceits and selfish advantage ' s ever to study the works and laws df nature . Tlie Association devoted to the social sciences , which is to meet next month , wants the catholicity which is a chief merit of the British Association . It is defective by too narrowly limiting its inquiries and by being chiefly composed of two classes-rlawycrs and professional politicians—who arc practically pledged to certain views of sooiety and

    certain opinions of government , which provent thorough investigation and bias all their conclusions . If sooiety bo a natural phenomenon , it . pan , ^ qnly . bfi , s . u ^ ce ^ sjfcllv st udie d in conjunctio n with all the surrounding objects . The sucoess orinuP " viduals , which is the well-being of society , requires tliom to observe and know the facts and the laws of tho material world . The farmer is incessantly urged to obtnin a knowledge of vegetable and animal life and of the chemical action of soils and manures , in order to grow an abundance of corn and rear flue cattle at the smallest cost , Tito merchant is required to ascertain the products of different countries , tho coat at which they arc produced , and

    the public were more disposed than now to take an interest in its proceedings . The Association has already told us what it has done to increase our knowledge of magnetism . On this point its wishes for another quasi Arctic expedition have not been complied with by the Government . The kindred subject of electricity , the actual bringing the Old World aud the New into Speaking communication by its means , and the temporary suspension of the intercourse after it has been fully established , are themes of surpassing interest . They will , no doubt , be satisiactorily treated by the historians and electricians of the Association . Many points in the past exertions yet require to be described , and many

    differences between contending men of science to be cleared lip . Of much of tlie apparatus employed in laying the cable , and many of the instruments used in measuring the electricity and receiving the comrnunicatkra , the public are ignorant , and the Association will cause some disappointment if it' do not provide a fuller and more correct account of this great marvel of 1857 than has yet appeared . We may expect , too , that the nature of electricity , now so widely employed in tlie arts , and of late used to effect the most extraordinary feats ever accomplished , will receive much attention from the Association . We look to it for such an ' explanation of the facts as will tend to connect phenomena , that seem distinct from space and time , with the general laws of the universe .

    Of the visitor who flames nightly m the heavens , such as has not come to us for nearly half a century , this generation will expect from its scientific leaders some distinct account . They will wish to learn the past , the present , and the future of this interesting stranger . If there be not this year a new planet to be announced , the events of the past season immediately concern our welfare and are as worthy the attention of philosophers as that remarkable illustration of the prophetic spirit which science imparts to man .

    One source of the success of the Association is in the union of men who have been studying apart each liia own particular subject . By this means they inake great . acquisitions , and then , by meeting , the diversities of kuowledgo which have been separately gained arc brought together and made in our pursuits ! . and in our books , as in , nature ,. one . great whole , The , comparative anatomist and the geologist come together , and the fossil animals winch excite our wonder , when put together by the former , are restored by the latter to those rocks in which they were found embedded , and he writes tvhat he believes to be their history . Tho chemist and the electrician commune with one anoand the of the

    ther ^ they may reduce affinity one and the electricity of the other to one general law . Professor Owen intimates , in his inaugural discourse * that all these abstruse powers to which we give different names may probably bo generalised ^^ p ^ f t&Ji ^ ntoj ^ with all the investigators of the animal kingdom , as they discuss together tho peculiarities which each discovers , will agree that throughout one type is discernible . They seem likely to find this one $ yp e every where , and to extend tfie limits of life to everything which has motion and fur beyond , the Mnyjfja ^ s of living beings on the surface of the globe , . - S ^' Mifhile each acts on the principle of division of 'labour ^ , and steadily confines his researches to one ' object , the combined researches of all extend over all

    Untitled Article

    THE LIVERPOOL BOROUGH BANK . THE KECENT VEKDICT . "We are enabled to redeem our promise of placing before the public a copious report of the speeches of counsel , the evidence , and the Judge ' s charge to the jury , in the - . important case of Scott v . Dixon , which has excited so much comment and , we may add , consternation in the . commercial circles . From the commencement we were unable to unclerstand the grounds on which the jury arrived at their verdict , and we are bound to say that , now we have carefully and dispassionately read and weighed all the facts that are accessible , our astonishment has become unbounded at the result . And we

    venture to predict that this feeling will be shared by all those who will take the trouble to read through the mass . of information which is set forth in another part of our journal ; Tlie case , recollect , against Mr . Dixon was , that "he falsely , fraudulently , and deceitfully issued a certain document in order to induce a belief in the solvency of the bank . " _ We must commence our remarks from the period when Dixon joined the bank , he preshareholderand conti

    viously being a large , - nuing a large shareholder throughout . Without doubt there seems , up to this period , to have been great incapacity in the management previous to July , the period when Mr . Dixon first took an active part in the affairs of the bank . Mr . Dixon was one of the outside directors taking no pay , andj like the other outside directors , expressly forbidden to know or sec the customers' accounts . The public well knew that this was the fact ; they knew that the real management vested in the manager and the managing directors . We may here remark with reference to Mr . Smith , m anager , that , up to the present time , no one accuses Mr . bimu

    of anything beyond errors of judgment— nor . » suspicion is breathed against his honesty . VYliea Mr . Dixon was associated in the nominal management , he had made repeated demands for rciorm in the system , which seem to have led to no result . It will also bo observed that neither the outside directors nor their friends made use of the tunas ot the bank , or got any accommodation from the banK . Mr . Dixon was desired to draw up a report to oe aim

    laid before the shareholders . We did so , ««» let us inquire what is tho essential difl ' erence between the report drawn up by Dixon and the report eventually issued . Both show that , alter pny" » ° « of the semi-annual dividend of 2 £ per cent ., there was a deficiency on the capital of fifty-eight thousand pounds out of a million . There is »? . cllilc ^ ^ whatever in the substanco , and the djflcrenco in form seems to amount tp this , that D » xon appears to have expressed himself without owing loitne disorcdit that tho announcement of the result woum throw on tho previous management , while the 01 " directors , probably the manager and « nonng ng directors , seem to have preferred to « S ffv " 2

    uiiderotnndiiur plnin English could \™*™ JJ . misled by the issued report . If no one couw do so , misled , where , we ask , was the ground or «« J justice of tho verdict P Was Mr . Scott really «»* truly deceived by this report . P . for that ia ™ ° fft tiou . Mr . Scott was acquainted with Mr . bo » lwj « appears . Was he not rather misled W ' faith in the high charaoter and . business kwowioago of that gentleman P Tho brokers who obtained we

    Untitled Article

    1000 ' THE IiEADER . [ Ko . 444 V SBPTEMBEftjg ^ sSS . T

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 25, 1858, page 1000, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2261/page/16/