THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

The proceedings of the Association have been brought to an end this week by excursion trips in the neighbourhood of the place of meet- ing. The members visited Harrowgate, Ripon, Studeley Park, Fountains Abbey, Saltaire, Low Moor, and other places of historical and manufac- turing interest.

There have been the usual evening parties for conversation and scien- tific amusement ; the first was crowded, the second was well attended, but the rooms in the Town Hall were not inconveniently full. On the whole the visit of the sevens has made Leeds very gay ; and the meeting appears to have been in every sense successful. At the meeting of the committee on Monday a series of resolutions were agreed to pointing out that it would be desirable to take magnetic observations at Vancouver's Island, Newfoundland, the Falkland Isles, and Pekin, and proposing that the Government should be asked to establish observatories at these places. At the final meeting on Wednesday grants of money for scien- tific purposes were made. The number of members associated with the Leeds meeting was reported to be 1664.

The meetings in the sections have yielded a good crop of "papers," but a larger proportion than usual are on questions of speculative science, and a less proportion on subjects of general readable interest. Abstracts of some of them, however, may not be found unacceptable. One of the most important of these is a paper communicated to the Statistical Section by Mr. Newmareh "on the Recent History of the Credit Mobilier."

In 18-55, at Cheltenham, he stated to the section his conviction that, not- withstanding the apparent great success of this extraordinary association in Paris, there were many fundamental and grave errors connected with the whole system on which it was founded, and that no long time could elapse before serious mischief might be apprehended. And there were good reasons now for believing that that statement was well founded. After a minute analysis of the prospects held forth by the promoters of the association, when it was founded in 1852, Mr. Newmarch said that it started with a paid-up capital of 2,400,0001., in addition to which, more than four millions had been obtained in the way of deposits, so that what might be called the available capital was about six millions. This was down to the end of 185.5, and they had then invested four millions in French funds, shares, &e. ; and 1,300,000/. were in bonds of various kinds, and about two millions were being employed in trade. So long as there was an almost continuous rise in the French funds, nothing could be apparently more prosperous or free from hazard than this most extraordinary undertaking. At the close of 1855, a profit was shown, and a dividend made, of something like 50 per cent upon the paid-up capital ; but at the close of 1856 the profit announced was barely more than half of that in 1855, while 1857 showed barely more than one- third that of 1856. Indeed, during the last two years, the experience of the society had confirmed the opinion of its early critics very much more than it

had-the hopes of its promoters. In the last two reports it had been admitted in fact,`although not very clearly, that all the railway, gas, and °embus' companies, the lines of postal communication, the steam-packets the Obli gations in Switzerland, Spain, Austria, and Russia—that all these thine; with which the Company had become involved, in carryingout its objects, '11;4 not resulted so profitably as had been expected. The report at the close f 1856 caused the 20l. shares that had been at 701. or 801. to fall to somethbsor like 301.,• and they had risen but very little since then. The report for 1857 was very long, and contained much fine writing ; but the fact was that no dend was declared. At the meeting in April there was an admission that a be. lance in favour of the society—which the report attempted to prove existed iii December, assuming a certain mode of valuation—had then been sweat away. Indeed, in Paris, the question had been and was being again raisea whether it was possible for the society to continue to exist separately, whether it must not somehow be placed in conjunction with the Bank of France, upon which it had so largely depended from the first ? A few figures would show the result of the society's operations. In 1855,- the pro. fits on stocks, shares, and bonds—which appeared to mean the profits from buying on the one hand and selling on the other—was set down at 1,040,0001.; 1856, 457,0001. ; 1857, 180,0001. Profits on commissions- 1855, 57,000/. ; 1856, about the same ; 1857, only 28,0001. Profits on "cos. tinuation "—ISM, 55,0001. ; 1856, 171,0001. ; 1857, 28,000/. Interest on investments (all the railway and other companies it might be presumed) was set down at 121,0001. in 1855; but no item appeared under that head for either of the last two years. One could not but be struck with the extraor- dinary state of things that could allow of the existence for even six years ss so anomalous an institution—one almost entirely at variance with all that had been hitherto recognised as sound principle—which professed to have made a new discovery as to the effecting the greatest results by means of credit upon the 'vastest scale—but which was, in fact, a monstrous stock. jobbing concern, and nothing more. If there had been issued, as at first proposed, twenty-four millions sterling of inconvertible paper, the mis- chievous effects would be incalculable. The society claimed at its origin that it must be unaffected by political council or social. crisis ; yet, supported as it was by many persons who, for some reason, were supposed to be great au- thorities in finance, and supported also by all the force of the Government, the institution is crumbling away, until one is forced to believe that it is in the last stag;es of its existence. It might be asked how he accounted for the fact that during these six years the French finances generally seemed to have been conducted with ease and success, despite constant large expenditure, much of which was wholly unprofitable, and much yield- ing only an inadequate return ? There is reason to believe that du- ring the six years, on railways alone, there had been actually ex- pended in France nearly thirty millions sterling a year—an amount not far short of what led to our railway difficulties. There has also been tin Russian war, a failure of the silk crop and two partial failures of the harvest. How, then, had all this expenditure been kept up ? He believed that the Credit Mobilier had been a positive source of mischief, rather than it had in any way helped towards these wonderful results. Here was the real cause. The official returns showed that since 1845 the balance of trade had been very much more than 100 millions sterling in favour of France; the demand for French goods having come from the United States and Australia, through the gold discoveries. Our own Board of Trade reports shew that during the first half of this year, the declared value of our im- ports from France was more than seven millions sterling ; while the de- clared value of our exports to that country was not more than two millions. We have paid the five millions in gold received from Australia and the United States. This result is as remarkable, as te his mind it is clear and simple ; and it is another illustration of the profound and extensive changes that are being produced upon the whole of the commercial countries by the gold discoveries. The Credit Mobilier is a striking exemplification of the entire powerlessness, except for great mischief, of any institution that aims at great results by any but the most honest and straightforward means. It started with the boast of doing the greatest things by some new device which should relieve men from the obligation of understanding their own affairs—some contrivance greatly to dispense with labour—something to accomplish something, by means which nobody could clearly understand. Its experience is like the experience of all previous similar or analogous at- tempts; and to us it should read the same lesson that a nation can only in- crease its material wealth by relying entirely upon the industry and intelli- gence of its citizens.

In reply to questions put during a short discussion, Mr. Newmarch said he had no doubt the profit claimed to have been made in 1855 was really made, for there was a considerable rise in all kinds of securities, which was precisely the most favourable state of things for the association ; but whether the twenty-four millions of paid-up capital was still intact, must depend entirely upon the mode of valuation of the concerns, bonds, &c., held. Hitherto the Directors had been the valuers.

In the same section Mr. Edward Baines read a paper on the Woollen

Trade, Mr. S. Brown one on Railway Finance, and Dr. Bateman, one on the investments of the working classes. Mr. Edward Baines read a paper sent by M. Van der Maaren, chairman of the International Free- trade Association, "On Free Trade in Belgium." The movement, he stated, is progressing satisfactorily ; and the agitation has had the great collateral object of teaching the people how rightly to use the press. and to adopt practical means for working out the country's constitutional liberties. All the Chambers of Commerce, with the exception of two or three, have heen gained to the cause ; the movement has already resulted in a great reduction in, or the suppression of, the duties upon coal, non, dye-stuffs, &e. ; and 10,000 agriculturists have petitioned for the total suppression of iron duties.

An interesting discussion afterwards took place in the Mechanical

Section " On the Construction and Laying down of the Atlantic and other Submarine Telegraph Cables." Mr. Mackintosh explained a plan of forming an Atlantic cable that would, he conceived, be free from the objections to which the existing one is liable. He proposed to combine with the gutta percha, or India-rubber.insulator, strong fibres of other substances placed parallel to the conducting wire, so as to prevent stretching, and he would immerse it in a solution by which the gaga percha might be vulcanised and protected from the action of salt water. A wire of this kind would be sufficiently strong without requiring Ti external covering of iron wire, which he considered an obstruction in laying down, and, indeed, an absurdity in the deep water of the Atlantic. Mr. Newell afterwards explained the circumstances of the construction of the Atlantic cable already laid down, and maintained that the con-_ ducting wire is much too thin to conduct efficiently for a distance of 2000 miles, and that the insulating covering is not sufficiently thick. He described the successful laying down of the Malta and Corfti cable, ex- tending a length of 1000 miles in water as deep as the Atlantic, through which he said eighteen words a minute are transmitted ; and if the

, Atlantic telegraph cable had been constructed on the same plan, and paw

out in the same manner, he felt assured there would have been no diffi- nit,. • laying it down and the results would have been satisfactory. c photography was noeforgetten among the chemists. Mr. Sykes Ward, ".„ amateur photographist of Leeds, who has been very successful with the dry collodion process, explained the means by which he operates, par- ularly the manner of preserving the sensitiveness of the plates ; and he tlibited some excellent photographs taken by him in Dublin with plates ,repared in Leeds. One of the objects of Mr. Ward's experiments has ecn to obtain a preparation that will be impervious to the action of light after the image has been properly impressed on the plate, so that the process may be used for practical purposes by unskilled persons. He exhibited some stereoscopic views, in which one view had been exposed twice as long in the camera as the other without any perceptible differ- cam in the effects. Mr. Lyndon Smith, a photographist, who exhibits many beautiful specimens in the Leeds Exhibition, read a paper on the adaptation of different processes, in which he advocated the wet collodion process, and contended that true artistic effects cannot be obtained by the dry process.

Ihe most important communication, however, was one from Mr. Mer- cer, who exhibited photographs in colours. The coloured photographs were not the natural colours of objects impressed directly on the paper, but they were produced afterwards by a process similar to dyeing. The impressed image acts as a mordant, and when it is dipped into the de- veloping fluid all the lights and shadows are brought out in various shades of colour, according to the menstruum used. The per-oxylate of iron is one of the agents employed by Mr. Mercer in his processes. Numerous specimens in various colours were exhibited and distributed among the company. By this application of photography it would be possible to print cotton goods from nature, of almost any colour required.

Competitive Examination was largely discussed in the statistical section, apropos of elaborate papers by Mr. J. Heywood and Mr. Edwin Chad- wick. Its advocates were the more numerous, and stoutly maintained their views. Mr. Monckton Mikes led the opposition.

As a sort of pendant to the meeting of the British Association the Leeds Mechanics' Institute held a soiree on Wednesday. Lord Goderich was the chairman • the Earl of Carlisle, at home once more in the West Riding, Sir Roderick Murchison, Dr. Booth, and Mr. Monckton were the chief orators ; the pretext for speechmaking being the proposal of "sentiments." The two reported speeches not local in their topics and illustrations are those of Sir Roderick Murchison and Mr. Milnes. The great geologist told anecdotes illustrative of the spread of knowledge.

The chairman had introduced him as President of the Geographical So- ciety, but his particular dealings in the scientific world had always been with the hammer in his hand. He was a geologist by profession, and was the di- rector of the geological survey of Great Britain. He mentioned this fact in order to announce that he was, as director of that institution, really the president of a mechanics' institute, and he would tell them how. The pro- fessors of the establishment had volunteered to give lectures upon carious branches of science to the working men of the metropolis : they had suc- ceeded in a most remarkable manner- and he mentioned it to the credit of the working men of London, that when the tickets were to be issued the 600 were applied for in leas than three hours, and such was the desire to obtain them that it required two or three policemen to keep order. This is a re- markable feature of our times, strongly showing there is a thirst for know- ledge. The working men who attended the lectures obtained from them an amount of information which might be most valuable to them in their vo- cation. At all events, they acquired a fund of knowledge which would be a source of gratification to them through life. As a Scotsman and a High- lander he felt proud of his country in having produced such a man as Hugh Miller, and he was rejoiced to be able to state that there was very shortly tobe erected in Cromarty, near to where that distinguished man was born, a monument to his memory, and a monument constructed of true old red sandstone. But in pursuing his observations in the Highlands, and going beyond Sutherland and Caithness, it was his gratification a second time to meet with a remarkable man in the town of Thurse, named Robert Dick, baker by trade, whom he was proud to call his distinguished friend. When he went to see him he spread out before him a map of Caithness, and pointed out its imperfections. Mr. Dick had travelled over the country in his leisure hours, was thoroughly acquinted with its features, and delineated to him, with flour on a board, not simply its geographical features, but cer- tain geological phenomena which he desired to impress upon his attention. Here was a man who was earning his daily bread by his hard work, who was obliged to read and study by night, and who yet was able to instruct the Director-General of the Geographical Society. But this was not half of what he had to tell them of Robert Dick. When he became better ac- quainted with this distinguished man and was admitted into his sanctum, he found the busts of Byron' of Sir Walter Scott, and other poets, and he found also books carefully and beautifully bound, and which this man had been able to purchase out of the savings of his single bakery. He also found that Robert Dick was a profound botanist. He found, to his infinite humilia- tion, that this baker knew infinitely more of botanical science—aye, ten limes more than he did, and that there were only some twenty or thirty species of flowers which he had not collected. Some he had obtained as pre- sents, some he had purchased, but the greater portion had been accumulated by his own industry in his native country of Caithness. These specimens were all arranged in most beautiful order, with their respective names, and he Was so excellent a botanist that he might well have been a professed orna- ment of Section D. He had mentioned these facts in order that the audi- ence might deduce a present application. ("Hear hear !" and applause.)

In the course of the evening Lord Goderich d4tributed the medals and certificates obtained by successful candidates from the Leeds Mechanics' Institute at the recent competitive examination of the Society of Arts.

The distribution of the prizes and certificates to the successful candi- dates in the Oxford middle-class examination at Leeds on Saturday, took Place in the presence of the Mayor, Mr. M. T. Baines, Professor Owen, Dr. Hook, Lord Goderieh, Sir John Herschel', and other notables, who quitted the attractions offered by the British Association to support by speeches and votes the cause of middle-class examination. They regard

e experiment as "satisfactory with respect to the past and hopeful

m an earnest of the future." But the system is capable of improvement, and doubtless will be iinproyed. It has shown, not that the plucked are grossly incompetent, but that the system of middle-class educe- Fort is seriously defective. Yet, asked Professor Owen "what country in the world is more concerned in giving her children a knowledge of the Iriches of the earth, of the characters of the vegetation which grow n that earth, their qualities in relation to food, in relation to the 1 and in relation to medicine—a knowledge of the properties of the 'Whole world, and the characteristics of the external nature about them—

what country, he asked, is more concerned in, or can get a greater and a quicker reward for such teachings than Great Britain ? " Earlier in the week, Lord Goderich had attended a tea-meeting of the Knaresborough Literary Institution, and showed, in a common-sense speech, that these institutions are calculated to promote the social, moral, and intellectual wellbeing of the whole community, by bringing men together in friendly intercourse, removing them from debasing pursuits, and enabling those who desired to do so to obtain instruction and instruct themselves. Children should be well grounded in elementary instruc- tion, and not shoved on for the sake of display ; they should be taught the use of the tools with which they will have to make their way in the world ; the real business of education is not to pump a lot of facts into a man as if he were a cylinder, but to develop, educe, and lead out his natural qualities. He should try to know one subject well rather than try to know many. Thoroughly acquainted with one thing, a man can more easily acquire the next. We have made great progress since 1800, but the future history of England depends upon nothing so much as upon what may be the future history of public education,