CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
CONTENTS
A POSSIBLE EVENT.
BARTHOLD GEORGE NIEBUHR.
THE TATTLETON ELECTION.
SAILORS' HOMES.
UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.
FORTUNES OF A LITERARY GOLD-SEEKER.
LACON'S BOAT-LOWERING APPARATUS.
IGNORANCE THE GREAT CAUSE OF POVERTY.
A WEE BIT NAME.
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'SINFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
| No. 453. New Series. | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1852. | Price 1½d. |
A POSSIBLE EVENT.
Occupied as most of us are with our respective worldly concerns, andaccustomed to see the routine of common events going on smoothly fromage to age, we are little apt to reflect on natural events of atremendous character, which modern science shews might possiblyhappen, and that on any day of any year. We think of the land as afirm and solid thing—as terra firma, in short—not recollectingthat geology shews how it may rise or sink, so as to pass into newrelations to the enveloping sea; how it may be raised, for instance,to such an extent as to throw every port inland, or so far lowered asto submerge the richest and most populous regions. No doubt, therelations of sea and land have been much as they are during historicaltime; but it is at the same time past all doubt, that the last greatgeological event, in respect of most countries known, was asubmergence which produced the marine alluvial deposits; and when wefind that Scandinavia is slowly but steadily rising in some parts atthis moment, and that a thousand miles of the west coast of SouthAmerica rose four feet in a single night only thirty years ago, wecannot feel quite assured, that the agencies which produced thatsubmergence, and the subsequent re-emergence, are at an end. Welikewise forgot, in these cool districts of the earth, that we are notquite beyond the hazard of subterranean fire. There are numberlessextinct volcanoes in both Britain and France; there are some on thebanks of the Rhine; indeed, they are thick-sown everywhere. Now, anextinct volcano is not quite so safe a neighbour as many may suppose.Vesuvius was an extinct volcano from time immemorial till the year 63,when it suddenly broke out again, and soon after destroyed Pompeii andHerculaneum; since which time it has never again subsided into entireinactivity. Suppose Arthur's Seat, which is '