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the ocean from north to south, and repre-
sented on each side the equator by a
similar and very curious curve, depending
on the superficial heat or cold in different
latitudes. At the equator the depth of
this level of constant temperature is 7200
feet-in latitude 56° it is at the surface
in the Arctic regions it descends again to
4500 feet; the temperature in each case
being invariably the same, that is 39,
below the level of these several depths.
The value of such observations to every
theory of submarine currents will readily
be perceived.

currents by the different specific gravity | the existence of a stratum of invariable of strata of water differently charged with temperature, 39° Fahrenheit, pervading salt. To the curious question regarding the origin of this saline matter, amounting to three and a half per cent. in the average of all seas, he answers that it was thus when the ocean was created; that no washing down of salts by rivers can adequately explain the phenomenon; and that the "Christian man of science" may rest on the absence of any proof from Scripture or otherwise, that the sea waters were ever fresh. Even accepting the conclusion as probable, we must repeat our remonstrance against this mode of stating it. The question in itself is one of much difficulty, and we can see no evidence that it is ever likely to go beyond presumption. The uniformity in the quantity, quality, and proportion of the saline constituents, and fossil animal remains of ancient salt seas, now found many thousand feet above the ocean surface, would seem the strongest proofs of identity of state from the beginning. The presence, in all sea-water, though in most minute proportions, of those singular elements (or what are provisionally called such) iodine and bromine, becomes a special part of this argument, and can not be neglected. We do not yet venture to cite to the same effect the recent discovery of silver, as another ingredient; since futher experiments are needed to attest its universality.* But all these researches show the complex and wonderful nature of that ocean fluid which wraps round so large a part of the solid globe.

In treating of the various ocean temperature, and its influence in producing currents, we do not observe any notice of that singular and important discovery, which we owe to Sir James Ross, namely,

*The discovery of silver in sea-water, by Malaguti and Durocher, is curiously confirmed by certain experiments by Mr. Field, showing the presence of silver, even to the amount of seven ounces to the ton, in the copper sheathing of ships long exposed to sea-water. These observations are related in a paper read to the Royal Society some months ago.

We may notice here the curious experiments of Professor Chapman, of Toronto, as to the comparative rate of evaporation from salt and fresh water. They show that the greater the proportion of salt, the slower the evaporation; and that water containing the same per centage as that of the sea, loses, in 24 hours, not quite half as much as fresh water. This fact gives some support to Mr. Chapman's theory, that one great use of the salt in the ocean is that of regulating and controlling the evaporation ever going on over its vast surface.

VOL. XLI.-NO. III.

In a chapter on "Ocean Routes," Lieut. Maury gives some graphic narratives of that racing on the high seas, which, if it be the pride and profit of modern naviga tion, is also oftentimes to be accounted its folly and peril. The struggle for superiority, whether by sail or steam, is still almost exclusively between England and the posterity of England in America-the two great commercial communities of the world. Though the Indian and Pacific Oceans form part of the scene of contest, the Atlantic is the arena where science and skill, aided by abundant capital, and incited by emulation, have achieved results, which half, or even a quarter of a century ago would have been deemed im possible. These results are too well known to need relation here; but we may notice briefly one or two facts, illustrating and explaining the wonderful changes now in progress in commercial navigation. We should scarcely err in stating the average duration of long ocean voyagesas those to or from China, Australia and India, performed by the best sailing ships

at barely half what it was at the first period just named. Among the causes concerned in this great result must first be noted, the improved construction and fitting of ships, and more especially in regard to what Mr. Russell has called the wave principle of construction; or, in other words, the form of least resistance of a solid moving through water. Connected with this, and in practice now ap plied to the same end, is the direct relation ascertained to exist between the length of the vessel and the speed it is capable of attaining. But beyond these altered conditions of the vessel itself, comes in the enlarged and more exact knowledge of the seas it traverses; of the

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winds and currents, the shoals and depths, and the various other physical phenomena of the ocean, which have been brought to the aid of practical navigation, and to which we have already so copiously referred. To the combination of these causes, and the record of the tracks and times of many hundred voyages, upon methods which Lieut. Maury has done much to enforce, we owe those feats of seamanship which have brought Australia within ten weeks of England, and made the circumnavigation of the globe as frequent and familiar as was once the passage across the Atlantic.

and collisions with other vessels, are all encountered at high rates of velocity. Experience and discipline have done much to protect against these dangers, but serious hazards still exist; and especially those of collision, which are constantly augmenting in an ocean every year more crowded with ships, seeking to find the shortest passage across it. In these days, however, of bold design and prompt execution, there are few ills which do not bring with them the suggestion of remedy. Lieut. Maury, and others in sequel to him, have urged the adoption of "steam lanes" across the Atlantic; that is, definite lines of navigation of a certain width, and distinct from others throughout; so appropriated severally to vessels going east or west, that the chances of collision may be greatly lessened, if not actually removed. The width of the zone of ocean now traversed by the mail steamers is about 250 miles. It is proposed to mark off lanes, 20 or 25 miles in width, on the northern and southern borders of this zone, as the routes respectively to be followed and adhered to, by all steam vessels crossing in one direction or the other. The scheme, or some one equivalent to it, we doubt not to be practicable; and such is its obvious utility, that we as little doubt its being eventually carried into effect. The phrase of a steam lane may somewhat startle those who are wont to associate with this word the cross roads of a midland rural district

We have here been speaking of sailing vessels. Steam navigation has its own peculiar history, including not only these several improvements, but others also, which depend on more perfect machinery and a higher class of engineers. Though steam has now spread its dominion over the globe, the Atlantic is still the sea where it puts forth its greatest powers. The several lines of mail steamers across this ocean, and more especially those familiarly known as the Cunard and Collins lines, have reached a degree of speed and regularity, which it would be hazardous to say may not hereafter be surpassed, but which will be a monument and mark of human progress, in applying the physical elements to the uses and demands of man. It is no serious disparagement to the second of these lines, to say that it has lost the superiority for a short time gained in speed over the Cunard line of the high hedges, deep ditches, and English steamers. According to an Ameri- straggling cart ruts; the bushes of blackcan statement now before us, we find that, berry, hazel-nut and hawthorn, and the during the last year, the average of twen- hundred sweet flowers and weeds which ty-five passages from Liverpool to New luxuriate on the hedge-banks. We can York, by the American steamers, was 12 not quarrel, however, with this new use days 16 hours-by the English steamers, of the term, if the object be fulfilled to 11 days 22 hours; of passages from New which it is applied-if long lanes of ocean, York to Liverpool, by the American ves-"which have no turning," be really laid sels, 12 days 8 hours-by the English, 11 days 3 hours. Many circumstances concur to this result; chiefly, perhaps, the consummate discipline of the English vessels in their every department of service. But the rivalry we regard as an honorable one, and it may yet be maintained, advantageously to the interest of both nations.

It is not, however, a rivalry without risk. In seeking for the maximum of speed, safety is jeopardized in all these great lines of mail steamers. Winter storms, icebergs, fogs, tropical hurricanes,

out for the safer navigation of the seas. The very simplicity and familiarity of the name is a tribute to that prowess of man which has taught him thus to mark out and pursue a fixed path through the wide wilderness of waters.

Though not having exhausted the subject of the Atlantic, either in its physical features, or in its relations to human industry and power, we stop here, only to refer our readers to Lieut. Maury's own observations on these subjects. The points we have touched upon will show how co

pious and interesting a topic, under both | its domain; and we may fairly predict these aspects, is the "Physical Geography that the history of the Atlantic, written of the Sea;" and how worthy to be em- twenty years hence, will be a record of bodied with the other great natural sci- numerous physical facts, now either ences, which at this time enlighten and wholly unknown, or dimly and doubtfully animate the world. Every year enlarges understood.

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THAT fact is often more incredible than fiction, is a remark that time frequently endorses. Were it gravely stated in a romance that one of the most powerful nations in the world was affected in its government, its opinions, and even its feelings, by a kingdom removed from it by the diameter of the globe, that events occurring in a single city of that kingdom vibrated through every corner of Britain, exasperated parties, and divided statesmen hitherto friendly to one another, we might concede to the novelist his privilege of invention, but might justly complain of his attachment to the marvelous.

Yet the fact is before us, authenticated by dispatches, supported by blue-books, debated in the legislature, and shortly to be discussed at the hustings. A dispute at Canton has suspended the public business of Great Britain and Ireland, and terminated unexpectedly the present session of Parliament. Commissioner Yeh has performed a feat which Lord Derby and his adherents have for three years been occasionally attempting; they have carried a vote of want of confidence against Ministers, and made it advisable for them to appeal to the sense or the passions of the country. "Tantæ ne animis cœlesti

*Papers relating to the Proceedings of her Majesty's Naval Forces in Canton; with Appendix. Correspondence respecting Insults in China.

CHINESE.*

bus iræ :" what share have the inhabitants of the celestial kingdom in this commotion? Is it their strength, their duplicity, or their perversity which has thus imperiled, or, it may be, strengthened the hands of Lord Palmerston, and filled the columns of our journals with professions of self-devotion and zeal for the public interest?

Into the state of parties at home, the possible results of the approaching elections, and the chances of the present Ministry for a new lease of office, or a prompt dismissal from it, we do not propose to inquire. We leave these "domestica facta" for others to celebrate, and propose devoting a few minutes to the people who, directly or indirectly, has called from their hiding-places the banners, the colors, and the manifestoes of candidates, and will shortly inflict more noise and turmoil upon our capital and provincial towns than the Chinese themselves create with their periodical hubbub of gongs, tom-toms, and fire-works.

If we do look to the number of books which have been written about China since our permanent establishment at Canton, we have no reason to complain of the scantiness of our information. On the contrary, we feel the embarrasment arising from riches. But the labor and the opus are to construct from the materials in hand a clear and consistent picture of the

nation with whom we are now exchang- | ing shots. The inquiry is by no means unimportant. We may be engaged in a duel with the city of Canton alone, or we may be drawn into collision with an empire more formidable than any we have hitherto encountered in the East. If the central government of China should ignore the acts of its pro-consul, the conflict will be a short one; but if it adopt his prejudices against the "outside barbarians," we may perhaps have begun a contest that will be costly in its process, however triumphant to ourselves in the end.

Nor are the revolutions of Asia by any means objects of indifference to England. We do not hold, with dreamers of the Coningsby school, that the fate of the civilized world has always been, and ever will be, determined from the land of the Orient, or that revolutions from that quarter may again renovate or destroy our systems of religion and society. Yet neither is it possible to deny the fact, with the pages of history before us, that the compact masses of eastern tribes have at many epochs affected powerfully the civilization of the West, or that it was a horde from Central Asia which consumated the ruin of the Roman empire. It may be well, accordingly, to consider the social and physical aspects of an empire on whose skirts we are at this moment at war, and the probability or improbability of its rising against us in mass, and, if not assailing our outposts, yet at least inflicting on our trade and progress in the East a blow which will be felt both in our colonies and at home.

In contemplating a country which we may be called upon to assail on some more vulnerable point than its extreme border, we must take into account all its resources of defense or aggression-its climate, since heat and cold are among the implements of war; its wealth and population, since these are the sinews of war; the physical character of the land, since mountains, and rivers, and plains are often the strongest bulwarks of a kingdom; and the degree and kind of its civilization, for this, more even than its numerical force, is often the measure of its resisting power. It may be useful also to inquire whether there be any element in the national character of the Chinese people likely to inspire them with the strength of enthusiasm or union, or whether the days of its

empire are numbered, and the epoch has arrived for breaking down its long isolation from the great human family.

Our survey of the Chinese empire must be brief, and accordingly we can afford to trace in the following sketch such features only as appear most important to our present inquiry. We shall presume, indeed, since the means of information are so abundant and easy of access, that our readers are in some measure acquainted with the subject, and shall attempt merely to generalize what is commonly known.

The climate of China may be described as one of extremes, and presents some curious anomalies. The general temperature of the country is very low for its geographical position. At Pekin, which is one degree farther south than Naples, the mean temperature is nearly that of Brittany, and while the winters are as rigorous as those of Sweden, the summer heats are more intense than those of Cairo. But in a territory ranging from the twenty-sixth to the forty-second degree of north latitude, the variations of the climate are necessarily great. In the maritime provinces-and the sea-coast extends nearly 2500 miles-both heat and cold are much modified by the sea. At Canton, which is under the tropic, the heat during the months of July, August, and September is excessive, and is accompanied, at least in the neighborhood of the city, with frequent and destructive typhoons. At the close of the hot season, the transition to cold is sudden, and the entire province is overspread at night, for weeks together, with dense and chilling fogs. The climate of the interior is, however, generally exempt from the extremes of Canton and Pekin. The province of Kiang-se is the most favored; but the central provinces generally enjoy a happy mean between the rigor of the north and the enervating heats of the south. In no one, indeed, of its numerous sections is the climate of China decidedly unhealthy or ill-suited to the development of vegetable or animal life. Even in the north, the summers are genial, and the winters, though cold, are dry. The least salutary portion of the country is in the western frontier districts of Gun-nan and Sze-che-se, and on this account they have probably been selected for penal settlements. The census of China exhibits a numerous population in every quarter of the empire; and accordingly we may gene

have paid the mousquetaires of the Bourbons. In fact, so small in value, or so debased a metal, are the native coins, that these solid pieces of the barbarians were hoarded as ingots by a succession of impe

rally ascribe to its climate the properties | stamped with the effigies of our Edwards which conduce to the conservation and and Henrys, dollars which bore the cascomfort of life. The wealth and popula-tles of Castile, and crowns which may tion of China are difficult to ascertain accurately, since our accounts of them are often suspicious, and the standard of wealth is differently estimated by native and European economists. Many a retail shopkeeper in England enjoys or ex-rial chancellors. The wealth of China, pends a larger annual income than a Chinese country gentleman; and many an English country gentleman could defray, without much inconvenience to himself, the annual expenditure of a dozen mandarins. But goods, rather than money, are the symbol of wealth or competence in the Middle Kingdom, and a proprietor of lands is opulent in proportion to the amount of grain and rice in his barns, and not of the money in his purse. There are indeed no large estates, since the lands of the father are divided, after his decease, equally among his sons; and if any one holds more land than he can cultivate conveniently, he lets it to another on the métayer principle, or on condition of receiving half the produce. The Government, in some measure, fare in this respect like its subjects. Consistently with the patriarchal system of the Chinese, the Emperor is the universal landlord, and takes the tithes or taxes of his vast estate. He receives them both in money and in kind; and he distributes them, in like manner, among his civil and military of ficials, signing for some of them a cheque on the treasury, for others an order for so many quarters of rice or grain.

The annual revenue paid into the imperial exchequer is £10,000,000; but this sum by no means represents the produce of the taxes, the excise, and customs; since at least two millions more are paid in kind, and the provincial governors deduct their departmental expenditure, and forward to the treasury only the balance remaining. The imperial treasury, before the close of the late war between England and China, contained perhaps one of the most curious collections of coins in the world. For the native wares of their country, the luxuries or the necessaries of Europe, the Chinese venders were content to take any currency, provided it were in good silver; and there had gradually found its way to Pekin, through the most devious channels, the specie of Venice and the Greek empire, the tokens of the Flemish and Hanse towns, shillings and angels

therefore, as contained in a circulating medium, would give a very imperfect idea of the actual or comparative resources of the country. These must be sought in its universal industry and its minute agriculture. The sternest of our political economists has not a greater theoretical aversion for vagrants and beggars than John Chinaman has practically. Mendicants are usually found in the immediate vicinity of Buddhist temples; and the only endowed religion in China-the religion, however, of a sect, and not of the State-lies under the discredit of alone encouraging paupers in idleness. The orthodox Chinese are mostly in the condition, as to worldly goods, which the wise man aspired to when he prayed for "neither poverty nor riches." He can not subsist without work, and there is no kind of work which he will not cheerfully undertake. And the opportunities for laboring with his hands or feet are indefinitely multiplied by the rudeness of his implements and machinery. He despises, and he has always despised, the substitutes of the "Western devils" for manual labor. When the Jesuit priests displayed to the Emperor some of the most delicate instruments of European art or science, his Celestial Majesty viewed them with open indifference and secret contempt, observing that they would amuse the inmates of his nursery. The Chinese, at no period of their history, have been enslaved by the bondage of castes, like the Hindoos or ancient Egyptians; yet they have suffered from many of the inconveniences of that institution. It was forbidden by law to the Egyptians to improve upon or depart from the pattern of the saws, hammers, and chisels of the craftsmen who wrought for Menes and Rameses, even though the handy Greeks exhibited before them, at Alexandria, their own lighter and more. efficient tools. Custom in China has been nearly as prohibitory as law in Egypt, and the artisan performs the most delicate operations of weaving, upholstery, carving, and inlaying, with implements that an Eng

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