* * * * *
_Locomotive Engines_ have been established on the rail-roads near
Philadelphia. The distance of 16-1/2 miles was performed by one of them
going in an hour and thirteen minutes, returning (laden both ways) in an
hour and eight minutes. The last mile was done in three minutes.
_Blacking._--Shoes, among the classical ancients, were cleaned by a
sponge; in the middle ages, by washing. Oil, soap, and grease were the
substitutes for blacking, which was at first made with soot, but shone
with a gloss.
_Cool Tankard._--The custom of the Lord Mayor drinking a "cool
tankard" with the governor of Newgate, on his Lordship's way to proclaim
Bartholomew Fair, is better known to our readers than the precise contents
of the said tankard. In olden times the "cool tankard" was, or nearly
coincided with, the wine mixed with _Burrage_, (so the translators
call the herb) of Plutarch, and the _Herbosum Vinum_ of Du Cange. In
all probability, the "cool tankard" of our times implies a well-appointed
_dejeuné à la fourchette_.
_Hanging_--though as a punishment for thieves, ascribed to the reign of
Henry I., occurs in a charter of Edgar. In hanging for public spectacle,
an iron hoop with a strong chain was put round the body; but the chain
was longer than the halter, so that when the latter was cut, the hoop
slipped to the armpits, and left them suspended. When criminals escaped,
an image of them was often hung up for several days; whence our hanging
in effigy.
_Elections._--Bribery, treating, canvassing, processions of voters at
the heels of the candidate, dancing attendance after the great, forming
factions, and other electioneering arts, occur in the classic ages.
Among us, the candidates were not always present at the day of election,
and under-sheriffs observe, that they mean to return according to the
number of votes, _provided the sheriff does not direct otherwise_. Lord
Chancellor Jefferies went to Arundel on purpose to overawe the electors.
The seats were as much sought formerly as now. The members received
wages as low as Elizabeth's reign.
_Lucretius._--A summary of that part of the system of Lucretius, in
which he describes man emerging from barbarity, acquiring the use of
language, and the knowledge of various useful and polite arts, is
comprised in a few lines of a satire of Horace, lib. i. sat. iii. v. 97.
It has been ingeniously paraphrased by Dr. Beattie:
"When men out of the earth of old,
A dumb and beastly vermin crawled,
For acorns first and holes of shelter,
They tooth and nail and helter-skelter,
Fought fist to fist; then with a club,
Each learned his brother brute to drub;
Till more experienced grown, these cattle
Forged fit accoutrements for battle.
At last (Lucretius says, and Creech)
They set their wits to work on speech;
And that their thoughts might all have marks
To make them known, these learned clerks
Left off the trade of cracking crowns,
And manufactured verbs and nouns."