I had a ticket offered me for the banquet, but I preferred being outside among the people. I have had enough of dinner-speeches in my time, although this occasion was one of peculiar interest. The Park continued to be crowded to excess; and as the company arrived, they were greeted by the people and the bands of music stationed here and there. But what sound is that? They are drinking toasts within; and one is now given which stirs the vast multitude like an electrical shock. I cannot hear at first, the roar is so deafening: but presently I am able to analyse the sounds that have caused the commotion; and I confess it is with a beating heart, and a sort of choking sensation in the throat, I hear every lip repeat'The Queen of England!' and every band in the Park take up from the music in the tent our own national strain, till the whole atmosphere
vibrates with God save the Queen! The effect was magical, and I felt gratified beyond measurenot alone at the compliment to our country, but as evidence that the Anglo-Saxons are still one great community, and that the proceedings of that day would rivet between the two countries the bond of common blood. The day closed as happily as it had begun, and the streets were crowded up to a late hour. I was in all the thickest of the press, and I know that there was not a single accident, nor did I see or hear of any instance of drunkenness or disorder. All was harmony and good-humour.
I would mention, as a strong proof of the growing interest felt for the old country here, in New England especially, that almost every family is desirous of being known to be connected with it. They have all English names; and a numerous society have employed a gentleman of skill in such matters for the last ten years in England in tracing out the English branches of the different families, in the State, so as to have the genealogy complete. This has become a passion; and I have found every person I met who could trace his descent from the mother-country proud of it. I fell in, the other day, with a highly intelligent American, who told me with quite a feeling of pride, that his grandfather and grandmother were English, and his wife's father a Scot.
THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON
January 1852.coup d'amitié
First of all, among the discussions and communications at the Astronomical Society, it is stated that the term 'meteoric astronomy' is one which we shall shortly be able to use with almost absolute certainty, as M. Petit of Toulouse has succeeded in determining the orbits of meteors relatively to the sun as well as to the earth. His conclusions are considered valuable, especially with respect to the meteor of August 19, 1847, which, it appears, came 'from the regions of space beyond our system;' having, as is estimated, occupied more than 373,000 years in passing from its point of departure to its fall in the North Sea, near the shores of Belgium! This is another addition to our knowledge of meteoric phenomena which affords promise of further results. Certain members of the same society are still at work on what has been a tedious taskthe restoration of the standard yard, rendered necessary, as you will remember, by the destruction of the original in the Parliament-House conflagration, more than ten years ago. The work proceeds slowly but surely, as the extremest pains are taken to insure accuracy, the measurements, bisections, and graduations being read off with a microscope. When finished, it will be centuplicated or more, if necessary, and, as is said, a copy deposited in every corporate town in the kingdom. This restoration of the standard is not so easy a task as would be commonly supposed, for apart from the determination of the yard with mathematical accuracy, alternations of heat and cold have to be taken into account; for, as is well known, a strip of metal which measures thirty-six inches long in a temperature of 70 degrees, will not measure the same in 50 degrees. Connected with this subject, it was stated at one of the meetings of the society, that the ancient Saxon yard was nearly identical with the modern French mètre ; whence a suggestion of 'the possibility of the Saxon yard being actually derived from a former measure of the earth, made at a period beyond the range of history, the results of which have been preserved during many centuries of barbarism.' Be this as it may, we are now given to understand that the Egyptian Pyramids, whether originally erected for purposes of sepulture or not, are, at the same time, definite portions of a degree of the earth's surface in the meridian of Egypt; and it has been proposed, as these mighty structures are far more durable even now than anything which we could build in England, that when our standard shall be re-established, the length shall be cut on the
side of one of the pyramids, together with such explanatory particulars as may he necessary, so as to preserve the record for all coming time. Modern science thus availing itself of the labours of the past, would be a remarkable incident in the history of philosophy.