The first light-vessel was moored at the Nore in 1732. Since that date, to the untechnical eye, the change in the outward appearance of a lightship has not been great; but the efficiency of the light has been increased, since 1837, from about 1,500 candles to about 20,000 candles. The Spurn Lightship shows a light of the power just named, and in foggy weather sounds a powerful siren in place of the old-fashioned gong.
It was impossible for the Government to allow this sort of stuff to be circulated among an excitable peasantry, smarting under imaginary wrongs and real distress and armed to the teeth; but the existing law contained no provisions framed to stop it. The Prime Minister, therefore, introduced and passed what is known as the Treason Felony Act, making written incitement to insurrection a crime punishable with transportation, and enabling the Executive to imprison persons charged with contravention of it. Mitchell was arrested at once, but Smith O’Brien continued to hold armed meetings in various parts of Ireland: matters looked threatening, and there was grave apprehension in England as to the result. On the morning of August 7 it was turned into mirth by the arrival in London from Liverpool of one of the first telegraphic despatches of importance ever published in this country. |Smith O’Brien’s Rebellion.| Rebellion had actually broken out: Smith O’Brien in person had led a considerable force to attack a body of fifty or sixty police, who defended themselves in the house of one Widow Cormack, near Ballingarry, in Tipperary. A good deal of firing took place but very little bloodshed; thanks, on the one hand, to the indifferent arms carried by the rebels, and, on the other, to the forbearance of the police, who could easily have shot O’Brien, so theatrically did he expose himself during the brief contest. |Widow Cormack’s Cabbages.| The chief damage was done to the poor widow’s cabbages, which the Confederates trampled to pieces in the garden adjoining the house. The affair was soon over: the patriots, not relishing a few rounds from the muskets of the police, melted quickly away, and the heroic O’Brien was arrested in the act of taking his railway ticket at Thurles station. It is unlucky for any cause—it is worse, it is fatal to it—when it becomes ridiculous, and people have never since been able to mention Smith O’Brien’s cabbage garden without a grin. But the general state of Ireland had grown to be no laughing matter. |The Special Commission.| The number of persons arrested for complicity in seditions, or for the frequent murders of landlords, agents, and policemen far exceeded what the ordinary tribunals of the country could deal with, and a special Commission of judges was appointed to try them.
THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.
The present Lighthouse was erected in 1881, when Smeaton’s celebrated tower was removed to the Hoe at Plymouth, except the lowermost courses, which are shown in the picture and still remain on the rock. The lantern sends out a series of flashes of 79,000 candle-power.
THE SMALLS LIGHTHOUSE IN 1837.
With the exception of Smeaton’s tower at the Eddystone and that on the Bell Rock, this was the only rock Lighthouse on the coast of Great Britain in 1837. It was built on oak piles, and in stormy weather rocked like a ship. Its lantern was furnished with twenty-seven argand lamps with reflectors, giving a light of about 3,000 candle-power. It was superseded by the present granite tower in 1861.
The spirit of revolution was astir in many lands besides Ireland in the year when Louis Philippe was forced from the throne of France. In England the Chartist movement was sympathetically inflamed into renewed activity. |Revival of the Chartist Movement.| A Chartist convention assembled in London in spring and made arrangements for a monster demonstration to be held on Kennington Common on April 10. But the Convention had hardly begun deliberating before disunion appeared in its councils. There were two parties among the Chartists—the constitutional Radicals and the physical force party. The latter were for assembling on Kennington Common under arms; but the venerable leader of the whole movement, Feargus O’Connor, would have nothing to do with unconstitutional or violent proceedings. The consequence of this was a rupture in the camp. Every preparation was made by the authorities to protect London from the ravages of a mob: the troops were under arms: the police mustered in great force: thousands of special constables were sworn in, and the Chartist procession was prohibited. But about 20,000 Chartists did assemble on the Common to listen to harangues by O’Connor and others. O’Connor then went to the Home Office, interviewed Sir George Grey, and told him the meeting had taken place without disorder. “Are you going back to it?” asked Grey. “No,” replied O’Connor, “I’ve had my toes trodden on till I’m lame: my pocket has been picked, and I’ll have no more to do with them.”
