FACTS AND PROGRESS. 461 subject. A surcharge is made-the tax payer is accused of making a false return—and he is not permitted to know who is his accuser. He meets a paid and practised government agent, whose interest it is to raise difficulties, to press inquisitorial inquiry, to add insult to extortion, in short, to obtain money, whether due or not-as the price of exemption from the ordeal. Bank books may be called for, borrowed capital disclosed, the rate of profit discussed. And this information is extorted, not by a banker, who is about to make advances—not by a creditor of whom forbearance is askedbut by the surveyor of taxes, and the commissioners, in secret conclave to increase taxation and extort money." We quote from a very clever resumé of the whole question which has been issued by a committee of Birmingham merchants and professional men, who have formed themselves into a league for the Reform of the Income Tax. We advise the haters of this unjust oppression throughout the country, to join these Birmingham reformers and make their voices heard in every city and town in England. We feel assured that when once the cry is heard, it will be taken up by the vast majority of those who constitute the middle and monied classes: let only the cry be unanimous, and the House of Commons cannot long be deaf to it. But we must pass from tax-gathering in England to taxgathering in India: the transition does not mend matters, for it is from metaphorical torture at home to actual torture abroad. The almost boundless wealth of the East India Company has become quite proverbial; the very idea of going out in its service suggests the idea of coming home with a fortune; its princely establishments and its munificent salaries bewilder the mind with the thought of the vastness of the resources from which they spring. But if we trace this splendid stream to its first risings-following one tributary after another, until we reach the tiny rillets which come from the obscure villages in the heart of the presidencies, we shall find to our sorrow, that without any show of justice, still less with any show of reason, the unfortunate tax-papers are treated with a ferocity worthy only of the minions of a Verres. We do not rest upon idle reports, but upon the authenticated statements of trustworthy men, who tell us of tortures inflicted on the unoffending "ryots " which make us shudder even to think of. We are very sorry, for the sake of our Eastern empire, that such iniquities have even the shadow of legal sanction; it is a sad political mistake. Never yet has a people submitted to be treated like dogs-never yet has a nation long bowed beneath the yoke of oppression such as this; and we are convinced, if all that Hindoos know of English rule is the pitiless torture of the peon, that we cannot hope for their united sympathy whenever the tide of invasion rolls over our Indian possessions. The invaders would come as the messengers of liberty, proclaiming, "No taxes, no torture!” and where would our sway be when the millions of India rose up as one man to welcome the liberator and to shake off the oppressor? We are very sorry, too, that among the attesting witnesses to these deeds of cruelty are the names of many missionaries, who were compelled to stand by as silent spectators, without the power to stay the hand or to allay the mercilessness of the tormentor. How can we expect India to be evangelized, if its evangelists are identified with a set of oppressors? How can we expect that the labours of our missionaries will prosper, if their first and chiefest task is to mitigate the ills which their countrymen have wreaked on an innocent and unoffending people? It is our duty alike as patriots and as Churchmen to protest with a myriad voices in unison against these scandalous enormities; it is our duty to let the Government know, that the brotherhood of man embraces even the Hindoos, and that Englishmen cannot silently submit to this blot on their national honour-this disgrace to their common Christianity. PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. SCIENCE is not now a mere misty intangible phantom as it once was: it has in process of ages become less fantastical and more practical, it has a lower aim, but it produces far more useful results. Men have long ceased to dream of epicycles and microcosms; chemistry sits in the seat of alchemy, and astronomy in that of astrology. But men have descended much lower still; they have borrowed a little both from Bacon and from Comte, substituting the "how" for the "why," not only in the grander realities of nature, but in the ordinary facts of everyday life. We have to notice that during the past quarter very great advances have been made towards rendering science useful to us socially. It is striving to "pierce into the darker places in the history of life," and some of its most brilliant triumphs spring out of those things which so commonly begirt us in our daily existence, that only a great man could notice them. Meteorology and chemistry have lately summoned several sister sciences to their aid in the investigation of choleraits causes and its cure; the first part of the problem has been FACTS AND PROGRESS. 463 quite solved by the exertions of Mr. Glaisher of Greenwich, Dr. Dundas Thomson, and others, who have demonstrated that its efficient cause is "air and water abounding in organic impurity." This has made Londoners more anxious than before that the Thames should not longer continue a great central sewer, from whose "simmering" waters the heat of the dogdays extracts the pestilential miasma which has saddened such numberless homes with death. Chemistry has lately done us very material service in taking cognizance of edibles and potables of every imaginable kind, and reporting upon their constitution. Many people had long been aware that all things are not exactly what they pretend to be; they were quite prepared to hear that coffee has sometimes 95 per cent. of adulterated chicory in it, but sober tea-drinkers were surprised to find that about 54 per cent. of their favourite beverage is largely mixed with " gum, indigo, vegetable yellow, Prussian blue, carbonate of magesia, sulphate of lime, silica, and carbonate of copper," while the admirers of French chocolate found to their horror that the favourite "vanilla " flavour is obtained by an infusion of coal-tar. These things are now very rightly to be put down by legislative enactment; it is a noble triumph for chemical analysis to have shewn so irrefutably that (to quote Tennyson's Maud,) "the spirit of murder works in the very means of life." Baron Leibig has been applying his marvellous knowledge of chemistry to similar subjects; he has published a plan for improving ordinary bread both in quality and quantity, by the addition of a small quantity of lime. A very useful addition has been lately made to the popular stock of metals; M. St. Claire Deville has succeeded in producing Aluminium, a metal of the highest value for common uses, being extremely malleable, and yet extremely beautiful; it will enable the working classes to have for common use, utensils much superior to, yet much resembling, those made of silver. Another eminent Frenchman, M. Favre, proposes a submarine railway to connect Dover and Calais, to consist of a double archway, one of bricks and the other of iron. The only great difficulty appears to be the impossibility of admitting air, but M. Favre declares that the usual openings in tunnels are not requisite. Meanwhile, a contract has been entered into for stretching a submarine telegraph wire from Ireland to Nova Scotia, before the expiration of two years, so that we may literally expect soon to gird the earth with a zone of lightning. Whilst we are writing this, the British Association for the advancement of science is holding its twenty-fifth meeting, at Glasgow. We have seen a report, prepared by a committee, of which Lord Wrottesley is the chairman, which bears very materially on our prefatory remarks-the application of science to sociology. It treats of three questions: "I. How can the knowledge of scientific truths be most conveniently and effectually extended? "II. What inducements should be held out to students to acquire that knowledge; and after the period of pupilage has expired, to extend it and turn it to useful account? "III. What arrangements can be made to give to the whole body of competent men a due influence over the determination of practical questions, dependent for their correct solution on the accurate knowledge of scientific principles?" The manner in which these questions are handled in the report gives us great hope that something very practical will soon be done; it would be premature to speculate on its precise character or its various phases, but we feel sure that the British Association cannot fail to do great good in removing the flimsy gossamer-threads of superficial knowledge on which so many have built up an infidelity, and in leading men from the true knowledge of Nature to the true knowledge of Him who is Nature's Lord. REFORMATORY SCHOOLS FOR YORKSHIRE. THE Act of Parliament which was passed last session has given a beneficial impetus in the establishment of Penal Reformatory Schools for Juvenile Criminals. The magistrates of various counties have taken the first steps towards availing themselves of its provisions. Such institutions may be set on foot by the voluntary benevolence of private individuals, and when placed under Government inspection, and certified by the Home Secretary, the magistrates may sentence offenders under sixteen years of age to fourteen days' imprisonment, and also to two years' discipline in a certified Institution. The Treasury will also pay for the maintenance of the culprit during the period of his instruction, which the act authorises the magistrates to levy the amount of the offender's cost on the parents, or step-parents, if they can be found. Encouraged by this countenance from the Legislature, the magistrates of Northampton and Sussex have made many preliminary inquiries; those of the West Riding of York FACTS AND PROGRESS. 465 shire have held repeated meetings, which have resulted in three of their number undertaking the initiory expenses with the hope of soon arriving at the desired result. The East and North Ridings have united with the town of Hull and the city of York, in promoting the same object. An influential public meeting has been held at Hull, and another will be held in York, during the month of October, under the Presidency of the Earl of Zetland, one of the Lords-Lieutenant. The acting Committee, of which the Rev. Canon Harcourt, is Chairman, and the Rev. T. Myers, Vicar of Sheriff Hutton, Secretary, have paid visits to Reformatory Institutions already in operation. They are preparing a report upon the statistics of juvenile crime in the county, and on the best means of diminishing its enormity. It is expected that the family system, recommended by the Rev. Sydney Turner, of Red Hill, will be adopted. Provision will be made, at first, for about forty inmates. From thirty to forty acres of land will be required to carry out the industrial occupations so strongly recommended by Mr. Baker, of Hardwicke Court, Gloucestershire, and Mr. Wright, of Buxton, near Norwich. The moral agency, and the active supervision, will be provided by a resident superintendent and schoolmaster, who will have under his controul a farming man as labour-master; and thus the moralizing effect of the hayfield, the fold-yard, and the garden, will be tried upon these wild Arabs of the city, who are trained to theft and robbery, and all ungodliness. The transforming influence of Christian superintendence will not be neglected, as in choosing a site it is intended to place it within reach of some clergyman who may exercise that soothing influence of Divine benevolence, which has reformed the most abandoned, and softened the most hardened offenders. Large subscriptions and donations have already been contributed; the chief nobility of the two Ridings have given £100 each; others £50, £25, and smaller sums, besides numerous annual subscriptions of one guinea each. The annual income required for even fifty juvenile criminals will probably amount to £500, especially if the plans of the French "Agricultural Colonies are fully carried out. The Legislature has taken a very important step; and should the voluntary benevolence of the country prove adequate to the occasion, the Government may probably be induced to grant its aid most liberally towards such hopeful experiments. Similar efforts are in progress in Wiltshire, under the direction of the leading nobility of the county. VOL. XXXVIII. H H |