ble, Mellifluous, Angelic, or Seraphic. Any attempt to dissipate this system of technicalities, and to render science more serviceable to the interests of humanity, met with the immediate displeasure of the church. She condemned all scientific works which did not make science conducive to her advancement, or which contained principles or discoveries opposed to the learned expositions of the fathers. All science was expected to harmonise with school and patristic divinity, or it fell beneath a papal interdiction. Honorius III condemned the writings of Eregena to be burnt, and excommunicated all who dared to read or even possess a copy of his book, "Divisione Naturæ." Virgilius, bishop of Saltzburgh, was denounced as a heretic for asserting the existence of antipodes. The old scientific theories were palpably erroneous; but the church forbad any to set them right, and no advance or alteration could be made unless the desired change was first examined and proved orthodox, or was found to offer convenient aid to support opinions pleasing to the policy of Rome. Thus knowledge, disguised and mutilated, became imprisoned within the cloister; its votaries were divested of all freedom of the mind, and compelled by fire and the sword to adopt contradictions for demonstrated truths. Slander was a common weapon employed by the church to suppress or discourage scientific investigations. Students were denounced as magicians and sorcerers. Even as early as the time of Bede, philosophical studies were looked upon with suspicion. That venerable author, in an epistle which accompanies his treatise on" Thunder and its Signification,' "*expresses his sense of the danger of the task, and entreats the protection of Herenfrid, at whose command he had undertaken it, from the malignity of those who would call him a magician for engaging in such studies. If one so honoured as Bede was thus in fear, how great must have been the danger of less influential students! Gerbert, Girald, Michael Scot, Grosteste, and Roger Bacon were all accused of magic. Roger Bacon was one of the most remarkable men of the thirteenth century. He was both a prophet and a martyr to science. He was a Franciscan friar, having assumed the grey tunic of his order in the vain hope of obtaining opportunities for study. Although with them in body, he was not with them in mind; instead of upholding ignorance and superstition, it was his aim to dispel them, and to argue against the prejudices of his age towards science. He endeavoured to show that philosophy was not opposed to Bible truth, and, as a necessary consequence, he incurred the frowns and persecutions of the church. "The prelates and friars," he writes, are starving me in prison, nor will they suffer any to speak with me, fearing lest my writings should meet the eyes of any other than the pope and themselves." His works were suppressed and cast from the libraries of his own order. He was called magician by his intolerant enemies, yet we find him protesting that "it is a sinful practice when wicked men, despising the rules of philosophy, irrationally attempt to call up evil spirits." But it was to the interest of Rome to keep the people dark; science was the great antagonist to the theory of miraculous power.

* Opera Omnia, tom. i, fol. 379.

"Without doubt," wrote Bacon, alluding to miracles and charms, "there is nothing in these days of this kind but what is deceitful, dubious, and irrational; for instance, if the nature of the loadstone, whereby it draws iron to it, were not discovered, some one or other who had thereby a mind to cozen the people would so go about his business as lest any bystander should discover the work of attraction to be natural, to cast figures or mutter forth some charm!" Such language was deadly to medieval science, and to the profitable exercise of monkish skill. Jerome de Esculo, general of the Franciscan order, condemned him to prison, and the pope immediately ratified the sentence. For ten long and dreary years Bacon was incarcerated in the dungeon of the convent of which he was a member. He died at the old age of seventy-nine, leaving among his contemporaries the name of a magician, but to posterity the reputation of a philosopher. Many instances of persecution on the part of the church towards lovers of science are recorded. About the year 1316, Peter d'Apona, a learned man of Padua, was sentenced by the inquisition to be burnt to death as a magician; and about the same time, Arnold de Villa Nova, a grey-haired old man in the eightieth year of his age, was also burnt at Padua as an "accursed necromancer," for having engaged in these forbidden studies. Henry of Aragon, Marquis of Villena, a poet and philosopher, who died at Madrid in the year 1434, was accused of magic, and would probably have suffered the usual fate but for his influence among the powerful. At his death, however, the inquisition testified its hatred to science by committing his library to the flames.

The invention of printing and the reformation of the sixteenth century at last broke down the barriers of scholastic philosophy. The human mind awakened from its lethargy, and men out of the cloister ventured to lift the veil with which priestly power had hid truth from the "vulgar laity." The results were disastrous to a system built on error and falsehood, and Rome, impatient and furious, sent out organised inquisitors and oppressors of the human mind. Modern science was denounced as heretical. The church not only claimed to be the expounder of scripture, but to be the sole expounder of science too. Philosophers were again regarded as magicians and heretics, and excommunications and the fagot were employed by the zealous champions of intellectual darkness to annihilate both authors and their writings. Ignorance might insure personal safety, but knowledge incurred danger to its possessor; and the church became so jealous of any signs of an inquiring spirit among the laity, that to be learned was to be thought heretical. Cypriano de Valera, writing in the sixteenth century, tells us that it was a common proverb in Spain, when speaking of a studious person, to say, he is so learned that he is in danger of becoming a Lutheran.

The treatment of Galileo by the church of Rome is a memorable instance of her opposition to scientific progress. Study had revealed to the mind of the philosopher the truth of the earth's motion, and led him to adhere to the Copernican doctrine. Fearlessly he proclaimed and advocated his opi nions, but his views were opposed to the patristic notions of science. The Dominicans, ever the evil

genius to scientific discovery, raised an alarm, and the church denounced the doctrines of Galileo as both heretical and dangerous. Galileo defended his opinions with masterly power and argument, and endeavoured to prove that the testimony of Holy Writ was in perfect harmony with his doctrine. This magnified his crime in the eyes of the church; it was deemed an evidence of gross presumption for a layman to search into the vista of science with the lamp of Divine truth. Galileo was cited before the inquisition, and a congregation of cardinals compelled him to renounce his opinions. Years elapsed, and again Galileo issued out as the champion of science. In the year 1632 he published his "Dialogue on the Systems of Ptolemy and Copernicus," in which he undertook to prove that the sun was certainly immoveable, and that the earth revolved round the sun. The work excited universal attention, and Galileo was again summoned before the inquisition at Rome, and condemned to imprisonment. Seven cardinals signed a decree, declaring that "To say that the sun is in the centre, absolutely fixed, and without local motion, is an absurd proposition, false in philosophy, and even heretical. To say that the earth is not placed in the centre of the universe, but that it moves, and has even a diurnal motion, is an absurd proposition, false in philosophy, and an error in faith." So much for the infallibility of the church in matters of philosophy; yet some even in our own day will not believe the revelations of science, because not sanctioned by patristic theology: they cling with the most eager tenacity to the old-world science of the medieval monks, look dismally at the spread of knowledge among the people, and try to oppose with their feeble voice the light bursting upon us from all the avenues of truth. A modern Roman catholic archbishop, in his eagerness for orthodox science, has ventured to denounce the doctrines of Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton as heretical, and testified his adherence to the scholastic theory that the sun travels round the earth! These facts speak for themselves, and ought to remembered at a time when Dr. Wiseman has endeavoured to assume for his church the hitherto unheard-of character of a patron and a friend of

science.

BIRMINGHAM AND HER MANUFACTURES.

X.-CUT NAILS.

Is a former paper, we introduced the reader to a poor nailor, occupied, with his family, in tasking his feeble energies against the iron machines which, arged by steam, have devoured his means of living. Passing through Lancaster-street accidentally, our ears are assailed by the din of these machines at work, and we step into Farmer's factory to witness their performances. The owner politely accompanies us round, and explains the process, which, tremendous as its effects have been upon the fortanes of the nail-makers, is one of exceeding simplicity. A nail-cutting machine is but a ponderous mechanical contrivance for causing the sharp square edge of a massive cutting tool to rise and fall at regular intervals and with irresistible power some hundred times a minute. If the nail requires a

head--and they may be made to pattern by these machines-additional mechanism is necessary. In this case the nail is caught, the instant it is cut off, in a kind of vice, which holds it fast while it receives a heavy blow from a lateral punch, cut so as to give the form of head desired.

The first step towards the making of cut nails is the rolling out of iron in sheets about three feet in width and six in length, and of various thicknesses for nails of various descriptions. This is done at the rolling-mill; and piles of these sheets are standing in the sheds ready for cutting. The first operator to whom we are introduced stands in front of a huge pair of shears, worked by steam, between the blades of which he lays the end of one of the sheets of iron, which is about the eighth of an inch in thickness; the shears make no more of it than a housewife's scissors of a strip of linen. The whole sheet is in a very few minutes cut up into ribbons of about two and a half inches wide, the exact width being regulated by a gauge, which insures that all shall be cut alike: the gauge can be set to any measure, according with the length of the nails to be cut. We now turn to the nailcutters: they are seated in rows, each in front of the ponderous machines, of which some half-score are at work at once, creating an indescribable din, amid which we strive in vain to catch the accents of our guide. The work-people are of both sexes, and each of them is incessantly twisting half round and then back again a sort of mop-stick, which he or she holds in the hand, while the nails are falling in a clinking shower into baskets placed on the ground. It is the falling of the nails and not the voice of our guide-of which we cannot hear a syllable-which brings us to a comprehension of the mystery. The fact is, that at the end of each of these jumping mop-sticks protrudes one of the aforesaid iron ribbons cut off by the shears, the extremity of which ribbon each operator is poking into the jaws of the iron-eating machine as fast as wrist and elbows can manage it. Now the cutting tool of the machine does not descend in an exactly horizontal position (because if it did it would cut the ribbon into small bars of iron and not into nails), but in a slightly angular direction, which causes it to cut off a wedge of the iron, having a point at one end while it may be the sixth of an inch wide at the other, or, in other words, a nail. It is plain that if the iron to be cut were to be presented to the knife twice following in the same position, the second piece cut off would be a uniform bar and not a wedge or nail; consequently this is never done, the operator turning over the ribbon by a semi-twist of the broom-stick, and changing sides to the music every time. Considering that this goes on a hundred or more times in a minute, and that the nail-machine has no notion of occasional relaxation, we should imagine the nail-cutters enjoy but few idle moments, and, further, the noise being incessant and rather louder than the rush of an express train through a tunnel, they are not very favourably situated for gossip.

There is more variety in the nails cut by this singular machinery than one would be led to expect; we were shown nails of all sizes and shapes, and with every form of head in use; and saw nails of a shape entirely new, making to order, to suit

some whim or useful purpose. One of the greatest advantages of machine nail-making is the economy of the material: when nails are forged, twenty to twenty-five per cent. of the iron is wasted; when they are cut, there is positively no waste at all to speak of. Some of the machines which are used for cutting what are called brads, cut the heads complete without striking; and it would be possible to catch them as they fall from the machine, and to fit them together again into the form of the strip of iron from which they are cut; and if they were weighed before and after cutting, it is a question if any appreciable loss of metal would be found to have ensued. In addition to the machines above described, which cut but a single nail each at a blow, there are others with broader blades, and of a more complex description, which cut as many as six nails at each descent of the tool. These are chiefly used for cutting the smaller sorts of headless nails used by shoemakers: the strips of iron from which they are cut are laid in trenches side by side, and a whole row of them cut at once; in this case there is no turning round of the metal to be cut, the motion which produces the wedgelike shape of the nails being effected by a modifica tion of the machinery. So rapidly do some of these machines do their work, that several thousands of nails are produced in a single minute. The fruits of their labours lie around, packed in bags of about fifty pounds each. From twenty to thirty tons of iron are thus cut up weekly in this factory, producing probably not less than fifteen hundred millions of nails in a year. When we remember that nearly five hundred tons of iron are cut up into nails every week in Birmingham, and that each ton, taking one sort with another, is calculated to produce a million of nails, by far the major portion of them being very small, we may form some idea of the cut nail trade, and may well wonder what becomes of its tremendous product.

EXILES IN SIBERIA.

SIBERIA is the Russian Botany Bay. It is the place to which offenders of every class and grade are banished, exiled, transported. Every month numbers are despatched from Moscow; and a regular military convoy establishment is maintained throughout the empire, for the purpose of conducting them to the heart, and even extremities, of Siberia. Besides Russians, the writer of this paper, who resided as a missionary many years in Eastern Siberia, has met with Poles, Germans, Swedes, Frenchmen, Fins, Tartars, and many Jews, who were sent thither for various offences; but he never met with a banished Englishman, and never heard of more than one, and his crime had been forgery.

The aim and policy of the Russian government in transportation seem to be that of peopling Siberia; and therefore, whatever may be the crime for which they are exiled-and there is little room for doubting that many are sent for very trivial offences-none are allowed to return. Thus, as there is nothing of a restorative character in the system, the effect on the criminals is often too obvious, viz. desperation,-total indifference to what may befal them. They are divided into two

general classes: those who are banished for the grossest offences, such as murder, etc.-for in Russia capital punishment is not practised by lawand such as are transported for smaller offences. The former class are condemned to labour in the government mines so long as they are able to work; the latter are allowed to settle as colonists in different districts to which they are appointed. The first mentioned, especially, often cause much trouble, terror, and alarm throughout the different districts in the vicinity of the mines; as multitudes of them break away from their confinement every summer, and spread themselves in all directions, for the purpose of committing robbery and murder. It is universally believed that their overseers are not remarkably anxious to prevent their running off, and that, if they reserve for them a good share of the booty, a very bearable punishment is inflicted upon them for the depredations they may have committed. If not caught by the peasants, whose duty it is to take them and deliver them to the authorities, they are obliged to surrender themselves before winter, as it would be impossible to continue their vagrant practices during that inclement season. These wanderers often occasion serious annoyance to travellers.

During my residence in Selenginsk I once met with an adventure which had well-nigh proved very serious. It was a fine summer's evening in July, 1823. I with my family had gone to reside for a short time in the country, between twenty and thirty miles from Selenginsk, in the midst of a tribe of the Boriats, a Budhist priest having kindly offered us the use of his house for that purpose. I had had occasion to return home, and after transacting my business, had, accompanied by a man servant, just crossed over to the eastern bank of the river Selenga, on my way back to my family, when the sun sunk behind the opposite western hills. My travelling cart was taken out of the ferry barge, the horses reyoked, and we hastened to take our departure, having about twenty-five miles to travel that night. For two or three miles our road lay along a plain, till we arrived at the foot of a steep mountain, over which we had to make our way. A little before we reached it, however, we were accosted by a Russian soldier at a distance; but, as we had no time to spare, I paid little attention to what he was saying. He nevertheless quickened his pace, following us, and entreating us to stop. Well, brother," said I, in the veritable Russian mode, "what is it you want? for we have no time to spare.' Oh, sir,' he replied, “I advise you not to proceed on your journey. Just now two runaway convicts-and you know they are desperadoes-came up to me and my companion: they have knives hanging by their side as long as your arm; but knowing that we poor soldiers have nothing to lose, they took our bread from us and left us. Look! they are now going up the hill, and you cannot avoid falling in with them." I accordingly directed my eye towards the mountain, and saw two ill-looking fellows ascending it; and when they had arrived at its summit they halted. The ascent being very steep, my horses would only be able to drag up the carriage at a very slow pace. The road on both sides was skirted with the trees of the forest, through which our path lay; so that it would be impossi

66

LATE HOURS.-The porter of the late Lord Jersey came to some one and complained he could not stay with the Jerseys, because " my lady was the very latest woman in London.' "Well, but what then? All women of fashion are late; you can sleep afterwards." Ah, no, sir, that's not all, for my lord is the earliest gentleman in London, and, between the two, I get no sleep at all." I mentioned the circumstance of a man from the country visiting his friend in town, and both sleeping in the same bed, without ever meeting for a fortnight.-Memoirs of

Thomas Moore.

TIMELY ARRIVAL.-The Marquis of Lansdowne called one morning on the Countess of Cork, and found the house in a state of great bustle and excitement. "Come in," said she, "Lord Lansdowne, come in! I am so glad you are arrived at this moment. Only think! the gray parrot has just laid an egg."—Ibid.

Sir Edward Codrington, when a young officer at Toulon, was so anxious to distinguish himself, that he passed the greater part of the twenty-four hours on deck, watching for signals to give intelligence of the movement of the French vessels, and when he did retire to his cabin, he sank into a dead sleep, from which the loudest noise could not awake him; but if the word "signal" was but whis. pered in his cabin, he started up directly.

According to the "Stamford Mercury,' a journeyman carpenter, of Peterboro', has invented a novel instrument, which, in size and shape, resembles a large pair of kitchen bellows, but is double the thickness. Whilst the performer is blowing the fire, this instrument plays with astonishing precision three popular airs. The music, it is said, resembles that of a concertina, and the tone is exceedingly mellow.

The district court of Breslan, in Silesia, will soon be called upon to decide on the validity of a marriage contracted between two Germans at Gretna Green. A similar case occurred some years past in another provincial court, which declared the marriage null and void.

The Darya-i-noor diamond, said to be a far purer gem than the celebrated Koh-i-noor, was sold at Calcutta on the 29th of November for 59001. It formerly belonged to the father of the present prime minister at Hyderabad, who obtained it from the Mahratta princes for 13,0007.; and it subsequently came into the possession of the late Maharajah Runjeet Singh,

As many as nine Chancellors of the Exchequer are alive-Lord Henry Petty, (now Marquis of Lansdowne, and the senior chancellor of the nine,) Mr. Frederick Robinson, (now Earl of Ripon,) Mr. Herries, Mr. Goulbourn, Mr. Spring Rice, (now Lord Monteagle,) Sir Francis Baring, Sir Charles Wood, Mr. Disraeli, and Mr. Glad

stone.

GOLD IN ENGLAND.-Active operations are being taken to work the gossan at the mines of Lord Poltimore, near North Molton, Devon. A steam engine is about to be erected. About 100 tons of auriferous gossan from the Poltimore mine have been taken to Liverpool, where it is to be reduced in bulk, at the works of Messrs. Rawlins and Watson, who have already tried a small sample, in which the existence of gold was perfectly clear.

WAS NOAH THE FOUNDER OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE? We have no accurate record that the Chinese Empire was founded by Noah. The Chinese, however, in their traditions, have a clear account of the flood, and their early records state that the empire was founded by one who escaped from the deluge in an ark. Recent discoveries at Nineveh may yet throw light upon this subject, and when we gain access to China, and to the records of the country, the truth may be evolved.-Lectures on Scripture History.

A BOY OF EIGHTY AND HIS FATHER.-There is now living at Tolleshunt Major, Essex, a labourer, Joseph Bateman, who has reached the age of 102 years. His wife has been dead many years, but he has a son living eighty years old, and the veteran is often solaced by "the boy" calling upon him for a little chat.

The affection of Aurelius Marcus, a Roman soldier, for his wife, is evinced by a stone in the Norman keep, at Newcastle, which commemorates "his most holy wife, who lived thirty-three years without a stain."-Another sor rowing warrior perpetuates the name of "his incomparable wife, with whom he lived twenty-seven years without having had a single squabble!”

The "Athenæum," in an article on the Zoological Gar dens, Regent's-park, says: "The death of the Uran Utan seems to have conveyed a warning as to the manner of treating the higher forms of monkeys. A pair of Chimpansees, male and female, have here appropriated to them an apartment consistent with their near approach to humanity. This room is furnished with two chairs, two beds, and a tree; and, if we may judge from the appearance of these animals now as compared with what it was when they first arrived, we should say that their treatment agrees with them. These creatures, which excite little less than disgust by their apparent caricature of humanity, are interesting on account of the contrast of their habits to those of the lower forms of the same family, and of the approximation of their structure to the form of man." In America there are 350, and in England only 10 daily papers.

In 1821, the tobacco consumed in Great Britain and Ireland averaged eleven ounces per head. Last year it was sixteen.

A report has gone abroad that the damage to the London and North-Western Railway by the rains will cost near a million of money.

There is more work done in England every day by the power of machinery than all the men and women on the face of the earth-reckoning them at 800 millions-could do without it.

By a return just issued, it appears that last year 39 millions of letters passed through the Post Office, being an increase of 19 millions as compared with 1851.

A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations. Four hostile papers are more to be feared than a hundred thousand bayonets.-Napoleon Bonaparte.

A writer in a morning paper states that in the year 1851, 500,000l. was paid in this country for foreign poultry and potatoes, 1,000,000l. for foreign live stock, and to France alone, for wheat and flour, 2,132,1791.

The picturesque ruins of Charlemagne's old castle of Heinsberg, near Aix-la-Chapelle, fell to the ground last week, after an existence of 1000 years.

A company has been advertised for constructing an At lantic and Pacific junction canal through the Isthmus of Darien, at a cost of 15,000,000l. sterling.

Within three months between 300 and 400 wrecks have occurred on the coasts of the United Kingdom, and nearly 250 persons have lost their lives.

EXTRAORDINARY MARINE CONVULSION.-Information was recently received at Lloyd's, of an extraordinary marine convulsion experienced by the "Maries" on her passage from Liverpool to Caldera. On the morning of the 13th of October, the ship being twelve miles from the equator, a rumbling noise appeared to issue from the ocean, which gradually increased till the uproar became deafening: the sea rose in mountainous waves; the wind blowing from all quarters, the control over the ship was lost, and she pitched and rose frightfully, all on board expecting each moment to be their last. This continued fifteen minutes; the water then gradually subsided, when several vessels in sight at the commencement of the convulsion were found to have disappeared. Shortly afterwards a quantity of wreck and a part of a screw steamer were passed, so that some vessels and lives were lost.