160 



NOTICE OF AN INDIAN BURYING GROUND. 



[1863 



wedded to Vulcan, but this ill-assorted union was not a happy one, 

 and Venus often rejiented the alliance. 



Take the c;ise of any philosopher, the mo^t separate from 

 hu!nan svnipatliies anil enjoyments, and you will find that fjoui 

 him, tliough not lUrongli him, liave sprung numerous appliances 

 for ibair gratifijatioii. The \ery impersonifieation of abstract 

 Science was Ca\endish, as de?ci-ibed by his biograplier,* although 

 fortunately for the world, such total abstraction from human 

 sympatliies does not frequently exist. "He did not love ; he did 

 not hate; he did not hope; he did not fear; he did not woi-ship 

 as otheis do. He separated himself from his fellow-men, and 

 apparently from God. There was nothing earnest, enthusiastic 

 heroic, or clii\alrous in his natuie, and as little was there any 

 thing mean, grovelling, or ignoble. He w:us almost passionless 

 * * * An intellectual head thinking, a pair of wonderfully 

 acute eyes observing, and a pair of very skilfid hands experiment- 

 ino' or recording, ai-e all that I realize in reading Ijis memorials. 

 His brain seems to have been a calculating-engine; his eyes inlets 

 of vision, not fountains of tears; his liands instruments of manipu- 

 lation, which never trembled with emotion, or never clasped 

 too'ether in adoration, thanksgiving, or despair; his heart only an 

 anatomical organ, necessary for the circulation of blood." Yet 

 this man, destitute of passions and of syni])Hthies, who durimg 

 his body life, poured down light upon, without warming, the 

 world — has by his mind, which still lives, conferred more real 

 material benefit upon industry than any of the so-terme:.l " prac- 

 tical " men who have succeeded him. His discovery of the com- 

 position of water has given to industry a vitality and an intelli- 

 gence, the effects of which it would be difficult to exaggerate. 



I have shown in my former Lecture, that a rapid transition is 

 taking place in Industry; that the raw material, formerly our 

 capital advantage over other nations, is gi-adually being equalized 

 in price, and made available to all by the improvements in loco- 

 motion; and that industry must in future be sup|iorted, not by a 

 competition of local advantages, but by a competition of intellect. 

 All European nations, except England, have recognized this fact; 

 their thinking men have proclaimed it; their governments have 

 adopted it as a principle of state ; and every town has now its 

 schools, in which are taught the scientific pvincijiles involved in 

 manufactures, while each metropolis rejoices in an Industrial 

 University, teaching how to use the alphabet of Science in reading 

 Manufactures aright. Were there any effects observed in the 

 Exhibition from this intellectual training of their industrial popu- 

 lation ? The official reserve, necessarily imposed upon me as the 

 Commissioner appointed to aid the Juries, need exist no longer, 

 and from my personal conviction, I answer without qualification, 

 in the affirmative. The result of the Exhibition was one that 

 England may well be startled at. Wherever — and that implies 

 in alinost every manufacture — Science and Art was involved as 

 an element of progi-es.s, we saw, as an inevitable law, that the 

 nation which most cultivated them was in the ascendant. Our 

 manufacturers were justly astonished at seeing most of the foreign 

 countries rapidly a[)proaching and sometimes excelling us in 

 manufactures, our own by hereditary and traditional right. 

 Thougii certainl}' very superior in our eommun cutleiT, we could 

 not cla.m decided superiority in that applied to surgical instru- 

 ments; and were beaten in some kind of edgetools. Neither our 

 swords nor our guns were left with an unquestioned victory. In 

 our plate-glass, my own opinion — and I am sure that of many 

 others — is, that if we were not beaten by Belgium we certainly 

 were by France. In flint-glass, our ancient prestige was left very 

 doubtful, and the only important discoveries in this manufacture 

 were not those shown on the English side. Belgium, which has 

 deprived us of so much of our American trade in woollen manu- 



* " Life of Cavendish," by Dr. Wilson, p. 185. 



factures, found herself approached by competitors hitherto almost 

 unknown ; for Russia had risen to an eminence in this branch 

 and the German woUens did not shame their birthplace. In 

 silveremith work we had introduced a lai-ge number of foreign 

 workmen as modellers and designers; but, nevertheless, we met 

 with worthy competitors. In calico-printing and paper-staining 

 our designs looked woderfuUy Fi'ench ; whilst our colours, thougli 

 generally as biilliant in themselves, did not appear to nearlj' so 

 much advantage, from a want of harmony in their arrangement. 

 In earthenwai-e we were masters, as of old ; but in china and in 

 porcelain our general excellence was stoutly denied; although 

 individual excellencies were very apparent. In liardware we 

 maintained our superioritv', but were manifestly surprised at the 

 rapid advances making by many other nations. Do not let us 

 nounsh our national vanity by fondly congratulating oureelves 

 that, as on the whole we were successful, we had little to fear. I 

 believe this is not the opinion of most candid and intelligent ob- 

 server. It is a grave matter for reflection, wdiether the Exhibi- 

 tion did not show very clearly and distiuctl}' that the rate of 

 industrial advance of many European nations, even of those who 

 were obviously in our rear, was at a greater rate than our own; 

 and if it were so, as I believe it to have been, it does not require 

 much acumen to perceive that in a long race the fastest-sailing 

 ships will win, even though they are for a time behind. The 

 Exhibition will have produced infinite good, if we are compelled 

 as a nation to acknowledge this truth. The Roman empire fell 

 rajiidly, because, nourishing its national vanity, it refused the les- 

 sons of defeat, and construed them into victories. All the visitio;, 

 both foi'eign and British, were agreed upon one point, that, 

 whichever might be the first of the exhibiting nations, regarding 

 which there were many opinions, that certainly our great rival, 

 Fiance, was the second. Let us hope that in this there is no his- 

 torical parallel. After the battle of Salamis the generals, thougli 

 claiming for each other the first consideration as to generalship, 

 unanimously admitedthatThemistocles deserved the second; and 

 the wcirld ever since, as Smith remarks, has accepted this as a 

 proof that Theraistocles was, beyond all question, the fii-st general. 

 Let us acknowledge our defeats when the_y are real, and our 

 English character and energy will make them victories on ano- 

 ther occasion. But our great danger is, that in our national 

 vanity, we should exult in our conquests, forgetting our defeats ; 

 though I have much confidence that the truthfulness of our nation 

 will save us from this peril. A competition in Industry must, in 

 in an advanced stage of civilization, be a competition of intellect. 

 The influence of capital may purchase you for a time foreign 

 talent. Our Manchester calico-printei'S mav, and do keep foreign 

 designera in France at liberal salaries. Our glass works may, and 

 do, buy foreign science to aid them in their management. Our 

 potteries ma)-, and do, use foreign tiilent both in management and 

 design. Our silversmiths and diamond-settei's may, and do, de- 

 pend much upon foreign talent in art and foreign skill in execu- 

 tion; but is all this not a suicidal polic}-, which must have a ter- 

 mination, not for the individual manufacturer, who wisely buys 

 the talent wherever he can get it, but for the nation, which, 

 careless of the education of her sons, sends our capital abro.ad as 

 a premium to that intellectual progress which, in our present 

 apathy, is our greatest danger ? 



Notice of an Indian Burj-ingr (-ronnd. 



BV EDWARD VAN COTRTLAND, EVTOWN. 



In the summer of the year 1S43, whilst some workmen were 

 engaged in digging sand (or the mortar used in the construction 

 of the piers of the wire suspension bridge at Bytown, suddenly 

 came in contact with a number of human bones, and having 

 been apprized of the circumstance, I lost no time in proceeding 

 to the scene of their operations. A very little investigation serrei 



