12 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[January* 



number) to the Abbot Dionysius, " whose pascal calender," savs he, " wc 

 are using to this day." He mentions tlie diffusion of tlie Scriptures among 

 the people in their native tongues as giving rise to many doubts and ques- 

 tions upon the suhject ; anil alludes to this diffusion as having taken place 

 in Italv, and specifically as having caused a reference to Cardinal bessarion 

 ■when he was legate at Venice. He further says that the Jews very frequently 

 raised objections to the existing Christian mode of determining a feast which 

 •was asserted to be connected with tlic Passover ; ami so far bad the dissatis- 

 faction gone, that some priests of liremen* (sacerdote.': jiremmses) liad un- 

 dertaken to correct the error themselves, and liad kept Kaster a month before 

 all tlie rest of the Cburcli — fordoing which the adjective ;jremcnifs had be- 

 come a standing joke against them with a double meaning. 



Between clocks and watches, lighted roads, and public announcements, we 

 are now so well provided with information, that an almanac is not a matter 

 of the first necessity to most persons. It was otherwise io the fifteenth cen- 

 tury ; and if we consider bow much comfort must have depended upon being 

 able to arrange business with reference to the numerous holidays and tlie 

 moonlight, we shall see that the mere list of saints' days and moons must 

 have been a matter of consequence." 



The topic of astrology is naturally touched upon as pertinent to the 

 subject in liand. 



"There are many manuscript almanacs of the fifteenth century yet remain. 

 ing. They may lie divided into what we now call asl roloijioal (a word which 

 was then frequently used in its original sense), and those which were simply 

 astronomical. Tbe majority of the astronomers in the middle ages believed 

 in the prognosticating power of tbe stars : even Koger IJacon inclines to the 

 supposition tliat tliey have a physical influence on tbe body, and through it 

 on the acts of tbe mind. The Church of Home always, collectively, set it- 

 self against this absurdity. Not that its popes and cardinals were by any 

 means universally free from belief in it ; but those who believed considered 

 it as magic, while those who disbelieved thought it of course an organized 

 fraud. So that, upon the whole, divination by the stars met with little 

 public encouragement, and its professors were obliged to write about it un- 

 der modified phrases. We have never found, in ancient astrologers, such 

 impudent pretensions as those which have been published in London in our 

 own day. If the members of the Stationers' Company, who still continue to 

 publish an astrological almanac, could see this trash, and could know that 

 there are shops in London which sell nothing else, and that there are per- 

 sons who make a trade of imposing on the ignorant, and who doubtless 

 quote their authority, we suppose they would not allow any consideration of 

 profit to induce them to lend their names to the continuance of so vile an 

 imposition. We should recommend them never again to do what they have 

 done in Moore's Almanac for the present year, namely, insinuate that un- 

 belief in astrology is infidelity, and denial of the providence of God. This is 

 an oversight, arising from an unskilful attempt at imitation of the old 

 almanacs ; it must show the Stationers' Company that if they will play with 

 edge tools, andjcall it sport, they ought to]be very careful how they use them." 

 The note referred to in the above extract is as follows : — 

 " We quote our ground for this charge from Moore's Almanack for 

 IS 15. The iialics, when mixed wilh Roman, are our own." 



'Astrological Predictions. Judicium Astrologicum, pro anno 1845. Vox 

 Calorum, fox Dei : The Voice of the Heavens is the Voice of God. He 

 speaketh in all the Changes of the Seasons and of the Times. — Courteous 

 Keader, — In this my annual production, I have a long time sounded the 

 aiove important truth in your ears, and I trust not in rain. It is, however, 

 to be lamented that there is a great deal of infidelity upon tbe face of the 

 earth, and even no small portion thereof cleaves to the skirts of Britannia. 

 .... That wonder-working Hand, which placed each mighty orb. ... is clearly 

 manifest in our earth by the changes of seasons Let those who are dis- 

 posed to deng the existence of Divine Providence reflect on these words of 



holy writ. Not a sparrow falleth ' — Such an innuendo would have been 



loo bad for the sixteenth century." 



The following extract is taken from a foot note, p. 17. 

 " Those who observe that Boyle has let Melancthon off for bis astrology 

 with two words and a reference, would hardly imagine the lamentable extent 

 to which this weakness was his master. On his death-bed, he half predicted 

 that be should die on tbe day on which a conjunction of Mars and Saturn 

 would take place : and on one occasion, being seen bathed in tears, and 

 showing every sign of the greatest grief, it was found on inquiry tliat cm 

 looking at the stars in his evening's walk, he saw that a dreadful war was 

 going to burst upon Germany. 'The first story is from his most accredited 

 biographer, Melch. Adam ; the second from a less respectable source, tbe 

 " Jocorum atque Seriorum Centuriae" ofOtho Melander, whose grandfather, 

 Dion. Melander, was the person who asked Melancthon what was the matter 

 with him. This same Otho relates a severe rebuke which Melancthon re- 

 ceived from Luther, for saying that persons liorn when Libra was in the 

 ascendant must be miserable through life: and a ridiculous attempt to cast 

 the nativity of an infant child of his (Otho's) grandfather, whom he sup- 

 posed to be of the male sex, and to whom be promised learning, honours, 

 and religious contests. Being told that the child was a girl, he was out of 



* At least Rremen is called Premis and Premen in contemporary cosmopraphies : but 

 it may be tb.it these priests were of Parma, and that Parmcuscs was altered into Pre- 

 menses Tor the joke's sake. 



countenance for a time, and at last said — then she will rule her husband. 

 But on second thoughts he cast a new scheme, in which be condemned her 

 to death at seven years old, and staked the validity of his art upon the pre- 

 diction. The girl lived, however, till the age of fourteen. Otho was of the 

 reformed church, and was therefore free from one bias against Melancthon, 

 at least." 



The paper of Prof, de Morgan is followed by a very useful article on 

 foreign exchanges, and some elaborate tables of the fluctuations of tbe" 

 funds. We sliouhl have liked to have made some extracts from the tables 

 of the " statistics of crime," as the subject is intimately couuected with 

 one for which we have frequently endeavoured to enlist the attention of 

 our readers — the sanatory conditions of large towns. We must, however, 

 for lack of 'space, pass on to a subject more immediately connected with 

 the objects of this work, "the railways of Great Britain." Under this 

 head there is a brief abstract of all the railway acts passed during last 

 session — forming a synopsis somewhat similar to that which appears in 

 our present number, excepting that no notice is taken of tbe amalgama- 

 tions and other private arrangements of companies. The following ex- 

 tract is likely to be read with interest, as giving a good compendium of 

 parliamentary proceedings respecting railways during the past year. 



" On the 31st of December tbe Railway Department of tbe Board of Trade 

 issued the first of a series of reports upon the schemes thus examined by 

 them, in which reports, after enumerating all the projected lines in a certain 

 district, they expressed their intention to repnrt to parliament in favour of 

 certain schemes and against some others, while they recommended tbe post- 

 ponement to a future period of such as they considered might be modified to 

 advantage, or might be rendered unnecessary by the introduction of better 

 or more comprehensive schemes. The more detailed reports in which they 

 explained the reasons which had influenced their selection, were not, in most 

 cases, published until some weeks after tbe announcement of their decision. 

 In selecting from a mass of rival, or partially rival, projects, the Board 

 usually gave their recommendation in favour of the new lines projected in 

 friendly connection with, rather than those in opposition to or competition 

 with, already existing lines ; and in cases where the engineering features of 

 two or more rival schemes were essentially different, they entered, in their 

 detailed reports, at considerable length into such questions as the compara- 

 tive merits of the locomotive and atmospheric systems of propulsion, of 

 different systems of gradients, of width of gauge, and other peculiarities of 

 construction. In consequence of an idea that such reports would decide the 

 fate of railway bills, some projects which had been prepared for parliament 

 were withdrawn in deference to the recommendations of the Board of Trade; 

 but in many instances the promoters determined to proceed with their bills 

 in the face of adverse reports, a course which appears to have been by no 

 means disapproved by parliament, since many such schemes were successful 

 in obtaining their acts, while some of those most warmly supported by the 

 Board of Trade were defeated in Committee upon their merits, and others, 

 in consequence of informalities (resulting, in some cases, from the impossi- 

 bility of preparing the requisite parliamentary plans and sections by the 

 appointed day, or of submitting them to the searching examin.ation necessary 

 for the detection and correction of clerical errors, when the demand for 

 surveyors, levellers, draftsmen, and engravers was so urgent as in the autumn 

 of 1844), were thrown out for non-compliance with Standing Orders. It 

 being very evident that, whether the Railway Oflicers of the Board of Trade 

 had or had not exceeded the powers committed to them, their recommenda- 

 tions were distasteful to tbe Select Committee of tbe House of Commons, 

 upon whose right of decision they appeared to trench, the Railway Depart- 

 ment has been completely remodelled by a minute of the Lords of the Com- 

 mittee of Privy Council for Trade, dated the 10th of July, 1845, by which 

 the distinct Board constituted by the minute of tbe 6th of August, 1844, 

 was discontinued, and it was determined that in future all railroad business 

 should be transacted by the Lords of tbe Committee of Privy Council for 

 Trade in the same manner as the ordinary business of that Committee. 



In the House of Commons, the enormous amount of railway business 

 formed the most remarkable feature of the session, and such of the Standing 

 Orders as relate to the composition of the Committees on private bills were 

 suspended, so far as railway bills were concerned, it being impossible, under 

 such extraordinary circumstances, to adhere strictly to the usual practices of 

 the House. Railway bills were, at tbe commencement of the session, 

 divided by a " Classification Committee" into groups, each of which was 

 referred to one Select Committee, who were allowed to sit during any ad- 

 journment of the House, in order to get through the immense mass of 

 business before them. Notwithstanding every exertion, many competing 

 schemes failed, from want of time, to obtain a hearing; and some bills 

 which were virtually passed, were necessarily left over to next session, a 

 special arrangement having been made to allow the privilege of i^e-intro- 

 ducing in 1846, and carrying on from the point where the proceedings left 

 off in 1845, such bills as bad been ordered by the House of Commons to be 

 ingrossed. Before the close of the session some alterations were made in 

 the Standing Orders, by which the additional maps and statements required 

 by the minute of the Board of Trade above quoted, are required to be de- 

 posited, and the amount of deposit required before presenting a petition for 

 a railway bill is again increased to ten, instead of, as in the last session, five 



