by twenty feet." That would have given a spread upon an anvil and then be struck mass of rock equal to 3300 cubic feet. with a hammer, it will not explode at first, After investigation, however, it was proved and will only do so after the lapse of some that the rock was loosened over a surface time, as the wood-spirit volatilizes. Then, twelve yards wide, eleven feet thick, and again,. the protected material may be reto a depth of about eight yards, the cubic duced or rendered explosive almost instancontents of the rock thus loosened being taneously. This is done by adding water to nearly three times the amount first sup- it, so as to dissolve out the wood-spirit or posed, or about 9504 cubic feet! Regard- methyl-alcohol, the aqueous solution of ing the slate as having the greatest density which rises to the surface and can be drawn which that mineral is found to possess (spe- off with the greatest ease, the explosive cific gravity 2.850), the mechanical effect agent being then again ready for action. exerted in this instance amounts to some- The acquisition of this power over nitrothing like 755 tons, and that simply by one glycerine was certainly a great scientific pound of the nitro-glycerine! Such a strik- victory. ing fact as that cannot fail to arrest the at- Nitro-glycerine has the property of freeztention of people who have no practical or ing or crystallizing at a comparatively high scientific acquaintance with nitro-glycerine. temperature, from 43° to 45° Fahr. The Many people who have had no practical nitro-glycerine which exploded on the Town experience with this wonderful substance Moor of Newcastle, was in a crystallized have talked loudly, or written in strong state, and that fact was chiefly concerned language, of the great danger attending its in causing the panic which immediately sucstorage, conveyance, and use. In addition ceeded the explosion, and as may naturally to the opinions to the contrary already be inferred, the material was in the unprogiven in an incidental manner - opinions, tected state. The conduct of the persons be it observed, of experienced and practical who had in their charge, in the centre of a men-ample proof might be furnished to large town, so large a quantity of this powshow that nitro-glycerine is not only as free erful explosive in the unprotected state, from danger as gunpowder or gun-cotton, will not receive any defence at the hands but that it is even less dangerous than either of the present writer; he considers it highly of them. There is no doubt that it is a culpable, and at the same time he considers dangerous substance to work with, but so the panic that arose to have been very also are all such materials as have been ap- senseless, and to be almost as little entitled plied to blasting purposes with any effect. to defence as the conduct which he has just But Mr. Nobel has reduced the danger and reprobated. In the opinion of persons whose risk to a minimum. To use the illustration dictum on the subject is of far more value of a recent writer, Mr. Nobel gave what than that of any scientific expert who was some persons would call a bane when he in- examined at the coroner's inquest at Newtroduced this nitro-glycerine into the arts, castle, the frozen nitro-glycerine is entitled but he has since provided an antidote. He to at least as good a character for safety as has actually fallen upon a plan by means that which the liquid form of the explosive of which the blasting liquid may be pro- has already received. Ordinary precaution, tected and deprived of its explosive prop- and observance of the rules laid down by erty for any length of time, and this plan is the manufacturer, will enable any person, beautifully simple, and as thoroughly effect- however ignorant, to handle the nitro-glyce ive as it is simple. The plan is simply to rine, in either the liquid or solid form, withmix it with from five to ten per cent. of out any untoward result happening to him. methyl-alcohol or wood-spirit, in which substance it has already been stated that nitro-glycerine is soluble; and this spirituous solution, or protected nitro-glycerine, is always what is sent out now from Mr. Nobel's manufactory at Hamburg. In this state a rifle-bullet may be fired into it, or a percussion-cap may be exploded in it, without the nitro-glycerine showing the slightest tendency to explode. If the protected material be kept exposed to the air, in course of time it loses its alcoholic solvent by evaporation, but the time will vary with the amount of liquid surface so exposed. If a little of the protected nitro-glycerine be Thousands of persons are now engaged in using nitro-glycerine for blasting purposes; and its use is not limited to the Continent, or to America, or to both, but it has extended to our own country, into which it is regularly imported in tons at a time. In slate and granite quarries, in coal and ironstone mines, in railways, &c., it has already gained such a hold that nothing but the most foolish and arbitrary stretch of authority can eradicate it. The authority of Parliament should not be sought to prohibit the carriage and storing of this valuable industrial agent, but rather to regulate them by such intelligent and liberal arrangements as are adopted in Prussia and Austria; nor yet must the march of science and industrial progress be interrupted by panics which are begotten of fear, and are only to be classed amongst the absurdities of the ignorant. From The London Review. A SHORT time since, in reviewing a new edition of Mr. Lover's poetical works, we expressed a wish that he might again write some of those pathetic ballads with which his name was associated. The edition we referred to, however, was the last which was to pass through the author's hands: we learn from the newspapers that Mr. Lover died on Monday last. folios," and dioramas. It consisted of storytelling and music. Mr. Lover's songs were very graceful and pathetic. He had a fine knowledge of certain touching intervals and minor cadences, which were fairly based upon old Irish airs. Even in the humorous ballads the music had a tinge of melancholy, and a sad undertone. It was essentially popular music, but of a very different order from the idiotic popular music which now finds its way into our drawing-rooms. The miserable echoes of "Won't you tell me why, Robin ?" and "Take back the heart," which young ladies sigh and gurgle from the piano, are poor substitutes for "True love can ne'er forget, and "What will you do, love?" Lover never attempted to write classically, but what he attempted he did artistically. His accompaniments were tastefully composed, and writing the words, as he always did, to the songs, his correct musical ear prevented him from endeavouring phrases into his melodies. Even now not a few of his ballads still hold their ground, and in Australia and America they are treated as tenderly as a piece of shamrock brought over from Ireland. But it was not only for the songs that Mr. Lover's entertainments were appreciated. He had a felicitous style of delivery, and could imitate the brogue to perfection. His " brogue" was far superior to Mr. Boucicault's, although the latter has been a careful student of the accent. Mr. Lover had caught the national brogue. Mr. Boucicault invariably talks like a Wicklow peasant, and his mournful sing-song manner would never be heard or recognised in any other part of the island. Mr. Lover was born a year before the Irish insurrection of 1798. He commenced his career as an artist, but soon abandoned to twist nonsensical and harsh-sounding the brush for the pen, as many other artists have done. One of the chief reasons for this change, however, was that the peculiar branch of his profession which he adopted, that of miniature painting on ivory, was destroying his sight, and therefore as a matter of necessity he was obliged to abandon it. He found at that time in Dublin a periodical which we believe was the medium of first introducing Carleton and Lever, as well as Lover, to the literary world. This was the Irish Penny Journal, in which Petrie's archæological papers also originally appeared. Lover's "Legends and Tales illustrative of Irish Character" were received with great favour. He had a good budget of queer stories, and a quaint, hu- Then, again, Lover was happy in his morous way of telling them. In his day choice of subjects, as long, that is, as he the Irish peasant was a much more appro- stuck to Irish subjects. The loves of Patpriate subject for literature than at present. rick and Kathleen, the humours of the faiHe was at once more prosperous and more ries, the warnings of the banshees, the wild picturesque. He was surrounded with the and beautiful legends with which the Irish most extraordinary landlords and squires, peasantry, when they had heart enough left who constantly fought duels with each other, them to tell stories, used to pass the Hallow which he attended as he would a main of eve and the winter nights, were all familiar cocks. Lover's "Handy Andy," fanciful to him, and were set by him with a rare and and exaggerated as it may seem to the Eng- delicate skill. There is a very singular lish reader, was not untrue in its chief in- melancholy in Irish character and in Irish cidents, and was almost literally true in its scenery. It is quite different from the meldelineation of the principal characters, ancholy of the Scotch, or the dull gravity who were taken from the life. "Handy to be found amongst some of the English Andy" made his début in Bentley's Miscel- peasantry. When M. A. Titmarsh went lany, and from its publication Mr. Lover became a regular contributor to the London periodicals. His health, however, at one time failed him, and he relieved the monotony of his work by contriving an entertainment, which was afterwards imitated by a host of gentlemen, with "evenings," "port through the country, filling his sketch-book with clever caricatures as well as sharp truthful pictures of the Irish character, he did not fail to observe this, and, in a description of Glendalough, the satirist (who, like every true satirist, possessed a profound sensibility in reserve), gives, in a few sen tences, an account of the effect of this mel- gusto the private theatricals at Kilkenny, ancholy landscape influence upon him, in where Miss O'Neil the famous actress first which he is compelled to resort to those met her husband. He had a large stock of words of poetic colour which include what reminiscences connected with the famous Mr. Ruskin terms the pathetic fallacy. Mr. county of Galway, its stone walls, the Lover was very successful in his songs and "Blazers," the heiresses with fortunes in in his tales in reproducing this sentiment. Chancery, and the extent of cousinship One of his latest, we are not sure but it is which rendered the district almost patrihis latest novel, is replete with a feeling of archal in some respects. We doubt if there the kind. The work we allude to, "Treas-is any Irishman now living who shared Mr. ure Trove," is one of the best Irish novels Lover's knowledge of those odd relics of extant. It is curious that it should not have the past or his power of putting them before been more successful. Without being per- a listener. Therefore it is we regret that vaded by the gloom of either Banim or he did not leave a record of those memoGriffin, or the black-and-white colouring of ries. What he has done, however, will not Carleton, there is a thorough air of acquaint- be soon forgotten by those who take an inance with Irish nature and history about it. terest in. the poetry of Ireland. He has The character of " Phadrig na Phib," an old performed no mean service for his countryblind piper who becomes mixed up with the men in rendering familiar to us here not a fortunes of the Pretender, is brought out few of their sympathies and sentiments, with great steadiness and power. The book which, coming to us in music and verse of a should, however, be read with its illustra- pleasing kind, were welcome guests. He tions, which we believe were from Mr. Lov- cannot have claimed for him the place of a er's own pencil. It contrasts very favoura- great poet, but he has a right to the name bly in many places with Mr. Lever's work, of a singer who was as faithful to his native although it does not show as much care or instincts as any lyrical singer who ever wrote. artistic cleverness. It contains some charm- There is a place for such a man, surely, ing lyrics, which have been reprinted in the amongst the men who have been a credit to late edition of Mr. Lover's poems. Ireland, and it would be a deserved recognition of this if the Irish were to erect some memorial to a writer whose works were racy of the soil on which he was born. not a It is to be regretted that Mr. Lover was more industrious author, as it is more than probable he could have written better books than he has left us. But we believe his health was one cause of this, and another, we should think, was a personal failing of interest for a country out of which he resided for so long a time, and for whose political condition he entertained a sort of pity mingled with contempt. He used to miss the signs, from what he heard, even of the poetic spirit which was once rife amongst the peasantry. His recollections went back to the period of the St. Omer priest, when Maynooth was not heard of, and when Dublin was a city of some social as well as national consequence. He could remember the time when Buck Whally threw open for three weeks his house in College-green to any ladies or gentlemen who chose to walk in for luncheon, dinner, or supper. Buck Whally lived magnificently in Paris, and described himself as an Irish gentleman who had come to the Continent "to retrench." Absenteeism was then comparatively little known, except in the fashion to which Buck Whally was reduced. Mr. Lover had numberless stories and anecdotes of those days, of the duels fought in the Park, of the Hellfire Club, of the wonderful elections at which the attorneys used to regularly charge for "going out" in the bill of expenses. He used to describe with great humour and From The Spectator. CONQUERING ADVENTURERS. DEAN STANLEY has assented to the interment of Rajah Brooke in Westminster Abbey, and a subscription is in course of collection to pay the expenses of the ceremonial. Some statue or tablet or other stone thing is necessary, we presume, to the perfectness of the honour, or we could have dispensed without regret with the begging element in an affair which ought at least to have the external appearance of a national recognition. Englishmen would, however, we believe, have thought a subscription to pay St. Peter's entrance fees to Heaven quite a natural and honorific proceeding, and it is well that the bones of the old Rajah should rest, on any terms, in the British Pantheon. Personally he was quite deserving of the honour. Apart from a slight taint of the vulgar British form of the crave for distinction, as shown, for example, in the hunger for a baronetcy revealed in his private letters, the man was a great man, an adventurer of the old strain, and something more. The first idea of his life was to acquire a new domain for civilization, the second, that | organization has imparted a strength supethe domain should be British; and had he rior to that of any individual. Of great lived but fifty years earlier, had he not desolate regions without proprietors there made one sleepless and powerful enemy, are none, of great savage regions few. had he even been able to impress Lord Pal- Suppose an Englishman, or American, with merston as he impressed smaller men, Sir a goodly armed vessel and five hundred James Brooke would have added a new obedient desperadoes, to set out to found Australia to the sovereignty of great Brit- a kingdom, where is he to go? The two ain. With the aid of a single regiment and Americas are occupied, after a fashion. a couple of gunboats he would have founded He might, perhaps, seize Patagonia; or if a new Indian Empire, as vast, as rich, and a citizen of the United States, carve out for hereafter to be as populous as the old. himself some dominion in Spanish America, There was in him throughout his life a po- as the brave and able agent of the slavetential Clive. It was not to be, but in holders, Walker, so nearly succeeded in striving towards his great object the daring doing. Twenty years hence, perhaps less, adventurer did little evil and much good, a better than Walker may interest his counspread civilization as far as he had the trymen in a similar effort, and build on the means, conciliated savage tribes, and with banks of the Amazon a society which will all the force of his strong nature loved and rival that now rising on those of the Missispursued justice. It was stern justice very sippi. But he will hardly be an Adventurer often, but so is the justice of Heaven; and in the true sense of the term, will be aided we believe the English Cortez really loved by his State, and will be compelled to cast it, would have secured it had justice been the realm he founds into a stereotyped form, as fatal to his own interests as it was bene- to abstain from being original,—as we must ficial to their advancement. The man who in justice remark the Conquistadores aboffered a continent, justly won, to England stained. They had not even originality and civilization deserves the recognition of enough to weld the civilized and semi-civiboth; and he had another, though more ac-lized worlds together, as we are doing in cidental, claim upon the guardian of the Asia, and to-day white man and dark man historic cemetery. He was in all human in Spanish America stand apart, obedient to probability the last of his race and kind. separate laws, with different objects and With him ended, we fear, the list to which wide disparities of social order. There England has contributed so many names, will be conquering adventurers in South the list of the Conquering Adventurers, of America of Walker's sort, no doubt, but we the men who have won, partly by violence, doubt if they will enchain human imaginapartly by audacity, and partly by force of tions as their, prototypes did, if they will character, great regions of the world to civ- add much to our knowledge, or anything to ilization and order. It begins in our civilization. Then Formosa may be seized, modern world with the greatest of modern and Formosa might be an England; or men, the patient Italian hero who dis- New Guinea, and New Guinea is a possible covered America, and had immortality Ceylon exaggerated into a small continent; stolen from him by a lieutenant; and it ends, or Madagascar, the island Italy; or point we fear, with a man who, though far below after point along the eastern and western Columbus in force of character, yet pos- coasts of Africa. A genius at the head of sessed many of his qualities, the haughtily the Transvaal Republic, with the art to secalm Englishman who, ruling Malays, in cure the reverence of nomads or to import five years rendered murder a forgotten an Arab tribe, might even now build up in crime. The career of discovery is still open, Africa an Empire very great, as great as though few discoveries will now add much that of the Moguls, and slowly create an to the world's resources; but the career of original civilization. Central Africa is no the conquering adventurer, of the supreme harder to people than India was when Rama man who was discoverer, conqueror, ruler, enlisted the monkeys, i.e., the aborigines, all in one, who was sailor, sergeant, and on his side. A Russian or a Pole may Sultan together, who could stop a leak, or found something in the East of Central found a capital, or compel millions to ac- Asia, suppose Siberia revolts, or a knowledge that among them had lighted a Frenchman like De Bussy may wander out born king, has, we fear, ended for ever. from Saigon to build between that settleAll manner of circumstances are against ment and Canton a kingdom. But in the his revival. The world, or the ownership richest and most enticing regions of the of the world, has, to begin with, been world the day of the conquering adventurer pretty nearly parcelled out, and parcelled is over. Civilization has prohibited pri -- out among communities to whom a scientific vate war. If a hero invaded Morocco he career. and means conquest. A thousand Rajah Brookes could not land on the Nicobars while that patient sepoy sentry is walking perpetually by the white flagstaff with the slightly tattered Union Jack. would be reminded that, though Morocco | under this or that pretty name, and with might need conquering, Moroccan Consols this or that of admissible object, includes were quoted on the Bourses of Europe, and sooner or later the Bourses control Chassepots and Sniders. The two Americas are guarded by the terrible Republic which claims them both in reversion, and keeps them wildernesses until her preparatory Is it a good thing or a bad thing that this surveys are complete. France eyes North groove for human effort should have been Africa with a feeling that she will not con- closed up? We suspect, on the whole, it quer the old granary, and that no one else is a bad thing; that the sword is an instrushall. North-East Africa-the best chance ment of advance for the world, as well as for an adventurer with Arabs to help him-is the plough; that Papua, for example, is not protected by English jealousy of any attempt the nobler, but the less noble, for her indeto make the Isthmus European-anybody pendence; that “ private enterprise" was may have the cellars, but we fight for the a readily available form of conquest; that house-door key,—and South Africa is ours. there are men and will be men whose highOver the whole of Northern Asia the shadow est function is to "found" in the highest of the Czars has fallen, preventing private sense of that great word, who will henceenterprise, except when headed by a Ya- forward find that for their special function koob Beg, or other Mahommedan leader, there is in the scheme of the world no scope. not intent mainly on advancing the world's In the end, when the present period of inChina is too populous for a filibus-difference has terminated, and statesmen, ter, though Mr. Lay might have built an once more convinced that there are ends Empire, and an European adventurer may yet carve out a State; and in the extreme South of Asia the British, French and Dutch Viceroys wield powers before which adventurers quail. If Australia were independent, and wanted dependencies, some Cortez of Melbourne or Pizarro from Brisbane might shake the Dutch dominion, and make of the Archipelago such a dependency, so varied, so rich, and so accessible, as the world has not yet seen, but to-day the Dutch flag can be braved only by a State. The Pacific is similarly protected. Except New Guinea, there is hardly an island on earth we know of worth having, where the Viking could raise his flag, and say, This is mine," without being assailed by some patient, white-faced person in a black coat, with an intimation that his enterprise must be abandoned, an intimation, if disobeyed, to be followed after years of paralyzing talk by an irresistible storm of shell. Civilization has failed in many things,- for example, in making London habitable,- but in this it has not failed, it has covered itself with an armour which no genius or daring or inventiveness may pierce. What it wills may not always be done, but what it forbids can never be done; and it forbids successful private war, the adventure which 66 From The Argosy. A WELCOME TO SUMMER. worth gaining, settle down again to their work, the business of conquest may be resumed under another form, and these men will again be utilized; but for the present their groove is, we fear, blocked up. The spirit of adventure which never perishes till manliness has perished also must expend itself in other ways, better ways, perhaps, softer, more Christian, less full of sovereign volition; but still pettier and slower ways, which if they raise, will nevertheless not attract or enchain mankind. There is heroism in Dr. Livingstone, heroism also in the Arctic voyagers, and we doubt not their chance of Heaven is far better than that of Prince Henry the Navigator, or of the fierce bastard who bade human sacrifice cease on the American Continent; but there is still a touch of wild blood in us Englishmen which will make us all instinctively regret the closing of that long line of daring and dangerous instruments of Providence to which we have in our history so largely contributed. Great is the cotton mill, and greater the telegraph; but after all both have arrived mainly because one Welf,-barbarian from whom springs Queen Victoria,- was, as Rajah Brooke of his day, not afraid to invade. Flash down by my window where trumpet vines cling: THE Summer has come! oh, the Summer has I see the bird sipping the bright dew which fell come! The roses are blooming, the honey-bees hum; Last night in the cup of each scarlet-hued bell. fly?" |