ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 638, 13 September 1851, Page 3

ENGLISH NEWS.

The Plymouth Herald of 12th April states that it is likely upwards of sixty ships will sail horn London and Plymouth, with emigrants for the Australian colonies during the coming twelve months. These ships will convey upwards of 12,000 emigrants. An insurrection had broken out in Portugal, headed by the Duke of Saldanha. It was caused by the unpopularity of the Thomar ministry. The Government has decided on making Deptford and Plymouth the emigration deptits. The Seulh-Western Railway Company offered to convey emigrants and all their luggage from London to Southampton, and place the whole on board ship in Southampton Docks, at 6d. per head, if Government would'make Southampton the depot, and enable the emigrants to avoid the dangers and delay of that part of the Channel voyage between the Thames and the Isle of Wight. Dress of the Army.—Great alterations will shortly take place in the dress of the army. It is in contemplation to supersede the scarlet shell jacket of the infantry by a frock coat of the same colour, and the “ bobtailed” coats of the heavy cavalry by a fullskirted one. An order has been received to supersede the red stripes of the undress of the dragoon guards and heavy dragoons by yellow ones; except in the case of the carabineers, who are to wear white. It is a curious incident that for two centuries a Lord Clonbrock never lived to see the majority of his heir. His lordship’s son will be of age in a few months, and the circumstance has so preyed upon Lord Clonbrock as to throw him into a very dangerous state.

M. Charles Frederick Meyer, one of the wealthiest merchants of Sweden, has just died at Copenhagen, aged 84. He has left a fortune of 22,000,000 f., which goes to his five children. He was possessed of 32 vessels, two dockyards, a spinning factory, and a sailcloth manufactory ; he worked mines of copper, iron, and alum ; be was the chief of a bank at Carlshamn, and the principal partner tn one of the most important bauKing-uouses at Hamburg.

Sale of the Cabinet Cyclopaedia.— On Wednesday Mr. Hodgson offered for sale the stock, copyright, stereotype, steel plates, and woodcuts of this extensive work, projected by Dr. Lardner, and carried out with the assistance of Sir James Mackintosh, Sir John Herschell, Sir Walter Scott, Bishop Thirlwall, and many other eminent men. The series included copyrights, in sixty printed works, for which, and an unpublished manuscript by Mr. T. Roscoe, £40,000 had been paid. The stock consisted of 46,000 volumes. A considerable number of publishers were present. The property was put up in one lot, and the first offer was £3000; the biddings were continued with spirit until the sum of £9500 was attained, at which price it knocked down to Messrs Longmfon & Co.~—UuDy News, The Rotation of the Earth rendered visible. —The experiment now being exhibited in Paris, by which the diurnal rotation of the earth is rendered palpable to the senses, is certainly one of the most remarkable of the modern verifications of theory. Although the demonstration by which the rotation of the earih has been established be such as to carry a conviction to the minds of ail who are capable of comprehending it to which nothing can be imagined to add either foice or clearness, nevertheless even the natural philosopher himself cannot regard the present experiment without feelings of profound interest and satisfaction ; and to the great mass, to whom the complicated physical phenomena by which the rotation of the earth lias been established are incomprehensible, Avnarimonf ic involnahln At thp CODtFS* miu •"* — -- - of the dome of the Pantheon a fine wire is attached, from which a sphere of metal, four or five inches in diameter, is suspended so as to bang near the floor of the building. This ap-

paratus is put in vibration after the manner ol a pendulum ; under, and concentrical with it, is placed a circular table, some 20 feet in diameter, the circumference of which is divided into degrees, minutes, &c., and the divisions numbeied. Now, it can be shewn by the most elementary principles of mechanics, that, supposing the earth to have the diurnal motion upon its axis which is imputed to it, and which explains the phenomena of day and night, &c., the plane in which this pendulum vibrates will not be affected by this diurnal motion, but will maintain strictly the same direction during twenty-four hours. In this interval, however, the table over which the pendulum is suspended will continually change its position in virtue of the diurnal motion, so as to make a complete revolution round its centre. Since, then, the table thus revolves, and the pendulum which vibrates over it does not revolve, the consequence is, that a line traced upon the table by a point projecting from the bottom cf the ball will change its direction relatively to the table, from minute to minute and from hour to hour, so that if each point were a pencil, and that paper were spread upon the. table, the course formed by this pencil during twenty-four hours, would form a system of lines radiating ,from the centre of the table, and the two lines formed after the interval of one hour would always form an angle with each other of 15deg., being the twenty-fourth part of the circumference. Now this is rendered actually visible to the crowds which daily flock to the Pantheon to witness this remarkable experiment. The practised eye of a correct observer, especially if aided by a proper optical instrument, may actually see the motion which the table has in common with the earth under the pendulum between two successive vibrations. It is, in fact, apparent that the ball, or rather the point attached to the bottom of the ball, does not return precisely to the same point of the circumference of the table after two successive vibrations. Thus is rendered visible the motion which the table has in common with the earth. It is true that, correctly speaking, the table does not turn round its own centre, but turns round the axis of the earth ; nevertheless, the effect of the motion relatively to the pendulum suspended over the centre of the table is precisely the same as it? would be if the table moved once in 24 hours round its owu centre ; for although the table be turned in common with the surface of the earth round the earth’s axis, the point of suspension of the pendulum is turned also in' the same time round the same axis, being continually maintained vertical above the centre of the table. The plane in which the pendulum vibrates does not, however, partake of the motion, and consequently has the appearance of revolving once in 2T hours over the table, while, in reality, it is the table which revolves once in 24 hours under it. — Globe.