Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 002.djvu/736

thought that some of them have been mutilated some days before the trick was discovered. The profit on account of so much trouble to the destroyer is only trifling, while the loss to the proprietor is considerable. They were all stolen in the course of the last moon light.

Mr Ballantine of Ayton Court, Glasgow, has invented a lever, which gives a retrograde motion to machinery; and it is so constructed, that by its action on wheels it doubles its powers; it could be applied to machinery of any description; to steamboats, and not occupy one half of the room of the present machinery, and to working ship pumps. A forcing pump is added to a model which he has constructed, and which, with much greater effect, will supply the place of fire engines, and, being of a simpler construction, can be wrought at less expense, and easier kept in order.

North Bridge Buildings.—At a Meeting of the Committee of the inhabitants of Edinburgh, regarding the buildings on the west side of the North Bridge, held within the Royal Exchange Coffee-House, on Thursday the 12th February 1818, Sir James Fergusson, baronet, in the chair; Mr Stuart reported, that, agreebly to the directions of the last meeting of the Committee, held on the 4th inst. he had on that day transmitted to the Lord Provost a letter, of which we can only give the following abstract:—"That their object, from the beginning, had been the reduction of the height of the buildings on the west side of the North Bridge, with the least possible sacrifice to all parties concerned, and not to adhere pertinaciously to what they conceived to be their rights, if their waving them could contribute to prevent the permanent injury to the city. That they had been ready to incur some degree of responsibility to their constituents, that they might be able to prove to them, and to the public, that their measures had been pursued with that regard to moderation which their constituents had recommended to them. That it was now Mr Stuart's duty to inform his lordship of the resolutions of the committee, and he trusted he would find them to be dictated by the same spirit of conciliation which had hitherto marked their conduct. They were willing to withdraw all legal proceedings, on condition that the Town Council and the feuars should agree that there should be only a building not higher than fifteen feet above the causeway of the bridge, with a flat roof; that the southmost tenement, only lately begun, and the most objectionable of the whole, should not be erected and that the building to remain the south front of the presently erected, southmost building, and building to be erected with a proper sweep or turn on the east side of Mackay's hotel, should be finished agreeably to a plan to be settled, with a due regard to the interest of the public and of the builders, by the Lord President, the Lord Justice Clerk, Sir William Rae, bart., Henry Mackenzie, Esq., one member of the Town Council, to be named by them, and one member of the committee, to be named by the committee. In case this arrangement should be adopted, it would fall on them to be responsible that the suspenders should withdraw the suits. They were happy to find, by Mr Claud Russell's report to the Court of Session, dated 12th November last, and which was now in their hands, that the Town were possessed of a sum amounting to between £9000 and £12,000, applicable solely to the improvement of North Bridge Street. This sum, and the amount of the feu-duty, which they formerly understood the Town was willing to abate, would, they had no doubt, go far to indemnify the town for the claims of the feuars on them, supposing this agreement to be gone into."

This letter, of which we have given the purport above, Mr Stuart said, had remained unanswered until the evening of the 10th instant, when he received a letter in the following terms from Messrs M'Ritchie and Murray, agents for the Town, enclosing a minute of the feuars and sub-feuars referred to in it, in which they offer to reduce the houses one story; and to leave it to the Lord President, Lord Justice Clerk, and Lord Chief Commissioner, to determine whether a reduction to the top story, or if one story only, be most expedient.

Messrs M'Ritchie and Murray's letter declares, "that unless the committee and the other gentlemen for whom they act, are willing to undertake the burden of indemnifying the feuars and sub-feuars, with the aid of such definite sacrifice as the city might be warranted to make, the Lord Provost takes it for granted that the suspension must proceed, and that the question will be brought to trial before the Lord Ordinary without any unnecessary delay. The balance in the hands of the trustees for building the South Bridge, is appropriated to various works to be executed by the Magistrates of Edinburgh. Looking forward to that balance, the Magistrates have laid out a very large sum in carrying the acts into execution, and after giving credit for the balance arising out of this fund, a very considerable sum will still remain due to the city."

The Meeting regret to find, that the communication from the agents of the town seems to leave them no alternative but to proceed with the discussion of the legal question. The Meeting regret the determination adopted by the Lord Provost, the more, because the chief obstacle which was previously understood to exist has now been removed, as the Committee cannot doubt, from the terms of the resolutions of the feuars and sub-feuars, that all questions with them, supposing the Town willing to provide for their indemnification, would at one meeting be removed, either by a compromise or by arbitration. The Committee would have been well pleased that the Lord Provost had adopted the suggestion of the feuars and