The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Rural Magazine, and Literary Evening Fire-Side, Vol. 1 No. 4 (1820) by Various.

He whose object is to make an impression on the public mind, must first, as an indispensable preliminary, secure the public attention. Much that is said or written, partakes in so great a degree of an unimpressive and a common-place character, as to be utterly disregarded. To succeed in obtaining the public ear, is as difficult as it is important. This success is perhaps most efficiently promoted, by listening with attention to every remark of criticism, whether good-natured or severe;—by then adopting the counsels of wisdom, and leaning on the solid column of experience. If these papers should fail to acquire popularity, and, like many of their predecessors, sink into undeserved oblivion; it shall not be from the want of a disposition to please, but from the absence of higher powers. It is the peculiar province of genius to render prolific the most sterile soil, to invest with interest the most intractable topic, and to mould into the form of beauty the most unpromising materials. For this rare and brilliant endowment, no adequate substitute can be found.

Should every public speaker, or public writer, be required to confine themselves to what is absolutely original, or strictly relevant to their subject; what would become of a vast majority of the tribe of authors, and ninety-nine out of a hundred of our orators in Congress? Of a speech of three or five hours in length, one effect may be confidently predicted; that those of the audience who do not fall asleep, will be fatigued and justly irritated, by such an unwarrantable trespass on their time and patience. Our national character is not yet completely formed; but some features of it are assuming a permanent shape. Among these, there is one, by no means calculated to elevate us in the estimation of the rest of the world. Instead of that simplicity and Spartan brevity, by which republicans should be distinguished, we habituate ourselves to the unnecessary use of a multitude of words. We are giants in profession, but pigmies in action. It has been confidently asserted, that the speeches of one of the members of our federal legislature, from Tennessee, have actually cost the United States more money, than would defray the entire expense of completing the Delaware and Chesapeake canal.[122] Now that the Missouri discussion is terminated, how honourable to the nation, it is not my present purpose to inquire; it would be desirable to ascertain whether the vote of a solitary member was changed, by the endless speeches which were delivered on the subject. If not, I should presume it was a pretty clear point, that they cost the PEOPLE much more than they were worth; and that such a prodigal waste of the time and treasure of the nation, is highly reprehensible. But instead of arraigning the conduct of others, and exposing their weakness and defects, it may perhaps be the part of prudence to spare our censure for errors to be met with much nearer home. By giving publicity to the following communication, I trust I shall not trespass on the indulgence of my readers; while at the same time I shall evince a spirit of no fictitious candour, by which I wish at all times to be actuated.

"Sir—You will pardon the liberty which, as a perfect stranger, I take of addressing you. I have long cultivated a taste for literature; not that which abounds in circulating libraries, but that which is met with in those "founts of English undefiled," the classical poets and essayists of Great Britain. Of the latter, I have a decided preference for Addison; because his humour is as innocent as it is exquisite; and because his sincere and fervid piety is diametrically opposed to every thing like monastic gloom and austerity. He was a benefactor to mankind during the course of his life; and left them his example in the hour of death—"See how a Christian can die!" I have not trimmed the midnight lamp, in perusing the pages of sentimental and mischievous nonsense; but derive the highest gratification from those books which have long enjoyed the united suffrages of virtue. But to my purpose. You have embarked in an honourable undertaking, and one in which very few have been successful. You should profit, not merely by the wisdom of those that have gone before you, but also by their mistakes. I have read your two first numbers; and unless some improvement shall take place, either in your matter or manner, you will never be a favourite of mine.—There is too much unvaried gravity, and studied elaboration, in them.—When we take up a newspaper, or magazine, we do not expect to meet with a sermon, however well disposed we might be to welcome it on a proper occasion. Permit me to observe, that a long, prosing, lifeless essay, will never be read; and, if frequently met with, will create a distaste for the journal itself, in which it may appear. Being friendly to your success, you will indulge me in repeating, that should you fail to impart a greater degree of vanity and interest, to your future numbers; if you do not more frequently smooth the wrinkled brow of care, and assume the aspect of cheerfulness, you will lose many of the female readers you have at present, and among the rest,

This is a sensible, well written letter; and, if it would not be indecorous to express an opinion as to another feature of it, not overburthened with compliment. I am aware of the force and truth of some of Stella's observations; and will endeavour occasionally to profit by them. Though considerably advanced in the vale of years, I hope never to be insensible to the good opinion of that sex, which can successfully prefer claims to excellence, in every department of virtue; and whose influence on the well-being of society, is so incalculably important. What if my temples be encircled with the frosts of many winters, and the wings of my fancy be enfeebled, by that incurable malady, old age; I still shall be delighted to minister to the pleasure of those, whose approbation is worth desiring—

An outline of the female character has been thus happily and accurately sketched, by the pencil of a poet.—The last couplet is descriptive of a trait in this character, which is as amiable as it is true.

Oh! Woman, in our hours of ease
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade
By the light, quivering aspen made;
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou.

THE VILLAGE TEACHER.

In my younger days, I passed a considerable time in the pleasant village of G——. The society was lively and agreeable; and, as it consisted chiefly of ladies, our usual place of meeting was at the tea table and the evening circle. Literature, the news of the day, and our little amusements, furnished the principal subjects of conversation; and although the society was elegant and well educated, yet the frequency of our meetings often drove us, for variety, to the intrigues and petty scandal of the neighbourhood. The disposition for this kind of entertainment became at last so strong, that we grew ashamed of it; and resolved one evening to create a "Court of Scandal," by which all offences against the good breeding and charity of speech should be tried, and whose decisions we bound ourselves to obey. When I observe how strong is our propensity for scandal, and with what greediness evil-speaking is listened to, I cannot help wishing that there were such a tribunal in every one's bosom. Did it exist, or rather did we suffer the voice which there speaks, to be heard; we should often be humbled at its decisions. If we unmask our actions and our motives, we shall find this propensity at the bottom of much of what is called—virtuous indignation. At one time, it assumes the mock appearance of charity; at another, it tries to hide itself in sallies of wit, or lurks beneath a half whispered insinuation, or a kind doubt, or a malicious inquiry. Its seeds are deeply sown, and take still deeper root in the human breast; and it requires the strictest self-examination, and the greatest candour, to avoid being overrun, if I may so express myself, with this nightshade.

I know of nothing more despicable, than the little mincing scandal which buzzes about in our polite circles. Always on the wing, with honey in its[124] mouth, and poison and bitterness in its trail, it spreads the injurious aspersion, and the doubtful insinuation; and fastens them, like mildew, upon the fairest and purest characters. It is a vice essentially grovelling, and low-minded, and which grows upon us at unawares. It advances imperceptibly through all its various degrees; from idle curiosity to the deep and settled malignity, which has no pleasure but in the weaknesses, the errors, and misfortunes, of those around it. Beware, reader! lest while giving to my description a local habitation in the person of thy neighbours, thou indulgest the disposition thyself, and turnest my counsel into food for thy propensity.—But I have wandered from my original plan, which was, to give some account of our court of scandal, and of the decisions which it pronounced.

The first cause that came before it, was, a complaint from Julia Manners against Miss Busy, who had circulated a report that Julia was about to be married.

Miss Busy lived opposite to Julia's father's; and generally took her morning and afternoon station at the parlour window. She one day espied from thence, a well dressed young man escorting Julia home. Her curiosity was immediately excited; and she sallied out to the next neighbour's, to inquire who the stranger was, and to wonder if he was not a suitor. The answer, It is like enough, was sufficient. She continued her walk, discovered his name at the next place where she inquired, and received some trivial confirmation of her conjecture at a third. From that time forward, she asked all whom she visited, or received, if they had seen Miss Manners' suitor. Conjecture was built upon conjecture, till at last poor Julia was to be married and sent off in the space of a fortnight. After a patient hearing of an hour, the court decreed, that Miss Busy should be interdicted any of our circle for two weeks, and that her parlour windows should be kept closed for as many months.

Miss Lively happening to mention at the tea table, one afternoon, that Maria Harwood had jilted Captain Jones, was immediately called to an account. She blushed, and said it was common rumour, and that she knew nothing but what she had heard. The court decided that this circumstance would not excuse her, for that she thus lent the authority of her name to an idle story which she confessed she had no reason to believe was true. It was declared, that the person who assisted in circulating what was mere rumour, shared in the guilt of the fabricator; and that as Miss Lively was Maria Harwood's particular friend, she had in this instance doubly offended. Miss Lively was therefore examined again as to her authority for what she had said. After much inquiry and prevarication, it turned out, that her mother's chamber-maid had heard Mr. Harwood's cook say, that it would serve such a proud thing right, if Miss Maria would turn him off. The court ordered the fair offender to be reprimanded. The punishment had the proper effect; and for six weeks she could not mention an article of doubtful intelligence, without being[125] asked if it came from Mr. Harwood's cook.

The next cause which I recollect, was of rather a more intricate nature. Julia Manners and Emma Harwood were near neighbours, and lived on terms of close intimacy. Julia was unconcealing, generous, and frank; free in her expressions, and warm in all her feelings. Emma was amiable and correct, but jealous of her dignity; and rather eager in listening to the opinions of others respecting her. Such a disposition always finds some one ready to gratify it; and Emma heard much to excite her jealousy, and alarm her pride. A young lady, a mutual friend, wondered to Emma that she should be so intimate with Miss Manners, and was sure she did not know all that Julia said about her. What? eagerly exclaimed Emma. "She could not say: it was told in confidence, and she did not like to hurt any one's feelings." This only excited more curiosity, and Emma at last forced her half willing friend to confess, that Julia had called her proud and touchy; and said she did not like her half so well as she did her sister. Miss Harwood felt much hurt; and behaved very coolly to her old friend for several weeks. Julia at last complained to the court, and the affair was investigated. We found out, upon examining the witnesses, that Julia had only tacitly assented to these opinions, which had been expressed by the fair informer herself; and had never suffered them to influence her conduct. Emma was thereupon ordered to kiss her old companion, and make an acknowledgment before the company of the injustice she had committed; and we unanimously agreed to banish their mutual friend from our circle.

I had intended to give some further decisions of our court, in which the gentlemen are particularly interested; but my good friends, the Editors, are already looking askance for the end of my paper. In publica commoda peccem—if I longer take up the room devoted to my worthy neighbours, the farmers.

I shall only add, that we found our court of scandal so efficacious, that it restored our conversation in a few weeks to its former tone, and entirely banished the spirit of which I have complained.

"THE STORY OF RUTH."

There are moments in the life of every virtuous man, when the vices and the enormities by which he is surrounded, and above all, the glaring deficiencies which he is compelled to remark, even in those "whom he hath delighted to honour," come back upon the mind with an overpowering force, and spread their disheartening influence over the whole train of his reflections. At such moments, when we have turned with disgust from the corruptions of human nature, and have almost been tempted to seek in "some boundless contiguity of shade," a retreat from their contaminating influence; it is peculiarly delightful to recur to some scene of virtuous enjoyment, or to disperse the gloom which has gathered around us by a[126] reference to the simplicity of other times. While dwelling upon the records of ancient purity, we become conscious of a joyous complacency; the mind is elated in the contemplation of its own capability of happiness, and reposes with delight upon the recollection of those peaceful pleasures, which can only exist among a virtuous people.

There is, perhaps, no narrative to be found among the works of ancient or modern authors, upon which the man who has become weary of the follies of the world, can dwell with more soothing sensations, than upon the story of Ruth. It is not to the unrivalled beauty of its style, nor to the pathetic eloquence which it contains, nor to the affecting nature of its incidents, that it is indebted for its principal attractions. But it is in the delineations of the peculiar practices of a people, who, as yet, had not forgotten the characteristic simplicity of their fathers; and in the striking allusions to their habits of social intercourse, that we feel ourselves most deeply interested. Many have delighted to paint the pleasures of rural life in all their most glowing colours; they have dilated upon its real and its fancied enjoyments; and have laboured to represent it as divested of all that shall darken the lustre of native purity, or detract from the reverence of virtue. But it may well be doubted whether they have ever presented us with so engaging, and yet so perfectly natural a picture, as that which is to be found in the simple and unlaboured narrative of inspiration. In the very salutations between Boaz and his reapers, we seem to have an evidence of that happy equality, and that habitual piety, which are alike the concomitants of untainted simplicity, and the victims of luxury and corruption. "The Lord be with you," was the address of "a mighty man of wealth" to his reapers; "and they answered him, The Lord bless thee." These are doubtless to be considered as the accustomed salutations of the people; and they may frequently have carried with them nothing more than the idea of mere ceremony. But they were salutations which must have originated among a religious people; and it was a ceremony which must have been associated with all that is helpless and dependant in man, and all that is merciful and omnipotent in his Creator.

Most of our readers will probably recollect the amiable and enterprising Elizabeth Fry, who has been for some time past, like the celebrated Howard, engaged in visiting the prisons of England. The peculiarity of the undertaking, for a female, and her unexpected success in drawing the attention of the wretched objects of her care, to something like their native dignity, have excited much interest in the public mind. A copy of the following letter, giving some account of her proceedings in Glasgow, was handed to us, with the privilege of publishing it.—Ed.

Letter to Mrs. Fletcher, from a
friend in Glasgow.

Mrs. Fry's manner and voice are delightful; her communications, free and unembarrassed.—She met, by appointment, several of the magistrates, Mr. Erving, and a number of ladies, at Bridewell. She told them, with much simplicity, what had been[127] done at Newgate; and proposed something similar, if practicable, in Glasgow.

She entered into very pleasant conversation with every one. All were delighted when she offered to speak a little to the poor women: but the Keeper of Bridewell said he feared it was a dangerous experiment; for that they never, but by compulsion, listened to reading, and were generally disposed to turn all into ridicule. She said she was not without fear of this happening; but she thought it would give pleasure to some, and would serve to show the ladies what she meant. The women, about a hundred, were then assembled in a large room; and when she went in, seemed astonished, misdoubting, and lowering. She took off her little bonnet, and sat down on a low seat, fronting the women; and looking round with a kind and conciliating manner, but with an eye that met every one, she said—"I had better just tell you what we are come about." She said "she had had to do with a great many poor women, sadly wicked; more wicked than any now present, and how they had recovered from evil."

Her language was often Biblical, always referring to our Saviour's promises, and cheering with holy hope those desolate beings. "Would you like to turn from that which is wrong? Would you like if ladies would visit you, and speak comfort to you, and help you to be better? Would you tell them your griefs? for they who have done wrong have many sorrows."

As she read them the rules, asking them always if they approved, they were to hold up their hands if they acceeded. At first we saw them down, and many hands were unraised; but as she spoke, tears began to fall. One beautiful girl near me, had her eyes swimming in tears; and her lips moved as if following Mrs. Fry's. An older woman, who had her Bible, we saw pressing upon it involuntarily, as she became more and more engrossed. The hands were now almost all ready to rise at every pause; and these callous and obdurate offenders were, with one consent, bowed before her. At this moment, she took the Bible, and read the parables of the lost sheep, and the pieces of silver, and the prodigal son.—It is not in my power to express the effect of her saintly voice, speaking such blessed words. She often paused, and looked at the "poor women," as she named them, with such sweetness, as won all their confidence, and she applied with a beauty and taste such as I had never before witnessed, the parts of the story—His father saw him when he was afar off, &c.—A solemn pause succeeded the reading. Then, resting the large Bible on the ground, we saw her on her knees before the women. Her prayer was soothing and elevating; and her musical voice, in the peculiar recitative tone of her sect. I felt it like a mother's song to a suffering child.

Esteemed friend—I avail myself of a leisure hour to communicate my opinion on the subject on which we[128] had some conversation when thou wast at my house. I allude to the importance of a more general use of mill feed for cattle in the neighbourhood of cities and towns, where hay almost always commands a high price.

We will, in the first place, view the subject at the cost of the respective articles in your market at this time.—Shorts can now be had at 30 cents per double bushel, weighing about 35 lbs.

Here there is a difference of $9, 12 cents, in favour of shorts, in a given weight of each; but I am quite confident, in my own opinion, that, taking an equal weight of each, there is double the sustenance in the shorts; and if this opinion be correct, it shows the following important result:

But it appears to me there is another important saving would result to the farmer, from the introduction of mill feed. It would enable him to keep his stock of horses at a great deal less expense than he now keeps them. They would be more healthy, and all his hay might be saved for the horned cattle. By a very slight mixture of shorts with cut straw, or cut corn-stalks, it would make very palatable food; and the result in this method, compared with foddering on hay, would be as follows.

One hundred bushels of shorts would be ample to mix with two tons of straw, and two tons of stalks.

Thou wilt readily perceive, without my dwelling on it, that the above method would answer equally well for store cattle as for horses. By the present mode the corn stalks are almost wholly lost, and a great proportion of the straw trodden under foot in the barn-yards. One benefit that would result from the change of feeding, and which must be obvious to every one, would be its enabling every farmer to keep a larger stock; and thus increase his manure,—the grand secret, after all is said, in farming well, and doing it to advantage.

If it is alleged that my calculation of hay is too high, it may be observed, that the shorts are also estimated at a price higher than they often command in the Philadelphia market. I have known them as low as 20 cents; and 25 cents is a very common price in the fall of the year. They may safely be put in bulk in the 11th mo. and will keep sweet until the ensuing spring.—I have thus hastily thrown my ideas together on this subject. If thou canst glean from them any thing of importance, I shall be glad.

Treatise on Agriculture.

SECT. II.

12. The climate and soil of Great Britain and Ireland, are particularly favourable to husbandry; nor is her geographical position less auspicious—placed, as she is, on the longest line, and amidst the most important markets of the continent of Europe. If to these advantages be added the laborious, enlightened, and enterprising character of the nation, we cannot but expect results the most favourable to agriculture: yet is the fact notoriously otherwise. To show that this opinion is neither hasty nor unfounded, we must enter into details, which may not be unprofitable.

The surface of England is estimated at 37,265,853 acres, which are distributed as follows:

The lands, in wheat and rye, yield on an average of ten years, three quarters per acre, or 6,000,000 quarters; yet there is an annual deficit in England of 1,820,000 quarters, which must be drawn from foreign markets.[1]

There is certainly nothing very flattering in this view of English agriculture; but it may be said to be one of statists and politicians, and probably underrated. Let us then see what their own most eminent agriculturists, their Young and Sinclair, and Dickson and Marshall, say on this subject—"A very small portion of the cultivated parts of Great Britain, is to this day, submitted to a judicious and well conducted system of husbandry; not in fact more than four counties, (Norfolk, Sussex, Essex, and Kent:) while many large tracts of excellent soil are managed in a way the most imperfect and disadvantageous."[2]

Nor is her management of cattle better. "Considering the domestic animals in a general way, we find each species, and almost every race, capable of great improvement, and, with a few exceptions, the sheep much neglected. In some districts are whole races of cattle incapable of improvement (within a reasonable time) in the three great objects which they are expected to yield, viz. milk, flesh, and labour."[3] We now add some of the causes to which this defective husbandry has been ascribed: "to enumerate all would be impossible, from their number and complication."[4]

"1st. The commons, or unenclosed grounds, which in many places amount to near one half of the whole arable land, and which are submitted to the most absurd and ruinous system of culture."[5]

"2d. The terms (amounting to personal servitude) under which many of the lands are held."

"3d. The shortness of leases given by corporations (civil and religious) and by individuals, and which seldom[130] exceed three, five, or seven years, excepting in the counties of Norfolk, Sussex, Essex, and Kent, where (with great advantage to both landlord and tenant) they are frequently extended to twenty-one years."

"4th. The tithes in kind, paid by the farmers to the church; a tax highly vexatious in its character, and oppressive in its effects: and

"5th. The poor tax, which has become enormous, and of which the yeomanry pay three fourths. Of this tax it has been truly said, that it is a powerful instrument of depopulation—a barbarous contrivance for checking all national industry."[6]

To these causes, assigned by British writers, may be added the increase of population, common to every nation of Europe, and which in Great Britain is beyond all proportion greater than the progress of agriculture; the augmentation of cattle, which occasions that of pasturage, and the diminution of tillage;[7] the establishment of great farms at the expense of small ones, and the multiplication of parks and pleasure grounds; and lastly, the attraction of great cities, and the continual drafts made upon the agricultural population, for the army and navy, and for commerce and manufactures.

SECT. III.

Theory of Vegetation.

Vegetables may be regarded as the intermediate link in the great chain of creation, between animals and minerals. The latter grow by mere chymical affinity, and by additions, sometimes analogous and sometimes foreign from their own nature; while plants, like animals, have an organization that enables them to receive their food, digest and assimilate it to their own substance, reproduce their species, and maintain an existence of longer or shorter duration. Thus far the learned are agreed, but at the next step they differ.

What is this food that gives to plants their developement, and maturity, and powers of reproduction? Lord Bacon believed that water was the source of vegetable life, and that the earth was merely its home, its habitation, serving to keep plants upright, and to guard them against the extremes of heat and cold. Tull, on the other hand, (and after him Du Hamel) pronounced pulverized earth the only pabulum of plants, and on this opinion built his system of husbandry. Van Helmont and Boyle opposed this doctrine by experiments: the former planted and reared a cutting of willow in a bed of dry earth, carefully weighed and protected against accretion by a tin plate, so perforated as to admit only rain and distilled water, with which it was occasionally moistened. At the end of five years the plant was found to have increased one hundred and sixty-four pounds, and the bed of earth to have lost, of its original weight, only two ounces. Boyle pursued a similar process with gourds, and with a similar result. Notwithstanding the apparent conclusiveness of these experiments, their authority was shaken, if not subverted, by others made by Margraff, Bergman, Hales, Kirwan, &c. &c. The first of these showed, that the rain water employed by Van Helmont, was itself charged with saline and other earthy matter;[131] Bergman demonstrated this by analysis, while Kirwan and Hales proved that the earth in which the willow cutting was planted, could absorb these matters through the pores of the wooden box which contained it, and that a glass case could alone have prevented such absorption. Hunter, finding that oil and salt entered into the composition of plants, concluded that these formed their principal food, and accordingly recommended, as the great desideratum in agriculture, an oil compost. Lord Kaimes attempted to revive the expiring creed of Lord Bacon, but finding from Hales' statics, that one third of the weight of a green pea was made up of carbonic acid, he added air to the watery aliment of the English philosopher—but entirely rejected oil and earth, as too gross to enter the mouths of plants, and salt as too acrid to afford them nourishment. Quackery, which at one time or other, has made its way into all arts and sciences, could not easily be excluded from agriculture. Hence it was, that the Abbe de Valemont's prolific liquor, and De Hare's and De Vallier's powders, &c. &c. were believed to be all that was necessary to vegetation, and found the more advocates, as they promised much and cost little. But before the march of modern chymistry, quackery could not long maintain itself; and from the labours of Bennet, Priestly, Saussure, Ingenhouz, Sennebier, Schæder, Chaptal, Davy, &c. &c. few doubts remain on this important subject.—These will be presented in the course of the following inquiry.

Of six or eight substances, which chymists have denominated earths, four are widely and abundantly diffused, and form the crust of our globe. These are silica, alumina, lime, and magnesia.—The first is the basis of quartz, sand and gravel; the second, of clay; the third, of bones, river and marine shells, alabaster, marble, limestone and chalk; and the fourth, of that medicinal article known by the name of calcined magnesia.—In a pure or isolated state,[8] these earths are wholly unproductive; but when decomposed and mixed,[9] and to this mixture is added the residuum of dead animal or vegetable matter,[10] they become fertile, take the general name of soils, and are again specially denominated, after the earth that most abounds in their compositions respectively. If this be silica, they are called sandy; if alumina, argillaceous; if lime, calcareous; and if magnesia, magnesian. Their properties are well known: a sandy soil is loose, easily moved, little retentive of moisture, and subject to extreme dryness; an argillaceous soil is hard and compact when dry, tough and paste-like when wet, greedy and tenacious of moisture; turns up, when ploughed, into massive clods, and admits the entrance of roots with great difficulty. A calcareous soil is dry, friable and[132] porous; water enters and leaves it with facility; roots penetrate it without difficulty, and (being already greatly divided) less labour is necessary for it than for clay. Magnesian, like calcareous earth, is light, porous and friable; but, like clay when wet, takes the consistency of paste, and is very tenaceous of water. It refuses to combine with oxygen, or with the alkalies; is generally found associated with granite, gneiss, and schiste, and is probably among the causes of their comparative barrenness.[11]

In these qualities are found the mechanical relations between earths and vegetables. To the divisibility of the former it is owing, that the latter are enabled to push their roots into the earth; to their density, that plants maintain themselves in an erect posture, rise into the air, and resist the action of the winds and rains; and to their power of absorbing and holding water, the advantage of a prolonged application of moisture, necessary or useful to vegetable life. But besides performing these important offices, there is reason to believe that they contribute to the food of vegetables. This opinion rests on the following considerations and experiments:

1. If earths do not contribute directly to the food of plants, then would be all soils alike productive; or in other words, if air and water exclusively supply this food, then would a soil of pure sand be as productive as one of the richest alluvion.

2. Though plants may be made to grow in pounded glass, or in metallic oxides, yet is the growth, in these, neither healthy nor vigorous; and,

3. All plants, on analysis, yield an earthy product;[12] and this product is found to partake most of the earth that predominates in the soil producing the analyzed plant; if silica be the dominant earth, then is the product obtained from the plant silicious; if lime prevail, then is the product calcareous, &c. &c. This important fact is proved by De Saussure.

1st Experiment.

Two plants (the pinus abies) were selected, the one from a calcareous, the other from a granitic soil, the ashes of which gave the following products;

2d Experiment.

Two Rhododendrons were taken, one from the calcareous soil of Mount de la Salle, the other from the granitic soils of Mount Bevern. Of a hundred parts, the former gave fifty-seven of carbonate of lime and five of silica; the latter, thirty of carbonate of lime, and fourteen of silica.

3d Experiment.

This was made to determine whether vegetables, the product of a soil having in it no silica, would, notwithstanding, partake of that earth.—Plants were accordingly taken from Reculey de Thoiry, (a soil altogether calcareous) and the result was a very small portion of silica.

These experiments, says Chaptal, leave little if any doubt, but that vegetables derive the earthy matter they contain from the soil in which they grow.[13]

Seeds placed in the earth, and in a temperature above the freezing point, and watered, will develope; that is, their lobes [14] will swell, their roots descend into the earth, and their stems rise into the air. But without humidity, they will not germinate; or deprived of humidity after germinating, they will perish. When germination is complete, and the plant formed, its roots and leaves are so organized as to absorb water. The experiments of Hales prove, that the weight of plants is increased in wet and diminished in dry weather; and that in the latter, they draw from the atmosphere (by means of their leaves)[15] the moisture necessary to their well being.—Du Hamel (and after him Sennebier) has shown, that the filaments that surround the roots of plants, and which has been called their hair, perform for them in the earth, the office that leaves perform in the atmosphere, and that if deprived of these filaments the plants die.

It would be easy, but useless, to multiply facts of this kind tending to establish a doctrine not contested, but which after all does not assert, that water makes part of the food of plants. On this point two opinions exist—the one, that this liquid is a solvent and conductor of alimentary juices: the other, that is itself an aliment and purveyor of vegetable food at the same time. The first opinion is abundantly established. Water when charged with oxygen, supplies to germinating seeds the want of atmospheric air, and saturated with animal or vegetable matter in a state of decomposition, or slightly impregnated with carbonic acid, very perceptibly quickens and invigorates vegetation. The second opinion is favoured by some of De Saussure's experiments. On these, Chaptal makes the following remark, which expresses very distinctly an approbation of the doctrine they suggest:—"The enormous quantity of hydrogen (which makes so large a part of vegetable matter) cannot be accounted for but by admitting (in the process of vegetation) the decomposition of water, of which hydrogen is the principal constituent; and that though there is nothing in the present state of our experience that directly establishes this doctrine, yet that its truth ought to be presumed, from the analysis of plants and the necessary and well-known action of water on vegetation.

Correction.—In copying the second section, page 55, an error escaped in relation to the Tuscan plough; the passage should have read thus—"The plough of the north of Europe, like that of this country, has the power of a wedge, and acts horizontally—that that of Tuscany has the same direction, but very different form. With the outline of a shovel, it consists of two inclined planes, sloping from the centre, and forms a gutter and two ridges.

Review for the Rural Magazine.

This is an ingenious and interesting pamphlet. It is written with much force and originality; and we think we shall do the public a service by laying before our readers some of the author's remarks. There is no vice which steals upon us in so many attractive and deceitful shapes as that of intemperate drinking. In this country it is a national sin and infects every class of society. We meet its temptations in our social intercourse, at our public festivals—in the resorts[134] of business; we see it indulged in by men of eminent character; spirituous liquors are kept in every sideboard, and brought forth upon almost every occasion. One class of society imitates the practice of another, and habitual drunkenness has become the stigma and disgrace of our country.

The pamphlet before us, remarks (page 6) that "the existence of this vice is now generally acknowledged, its progress marked, and its effects deplored. It is traced to the grog-shop where many of its most degrading effects are discovered, and mistaken for causes, and the remedy attempted to be applied."

"Though I am not disposed to become the advocate of grog-shops, or to avert from them any portion of merited animadversion—or inclined to become the apologist of those who, under colour of keeping a tavern, follow the business of dram-selling; I am not willing that these places should be considered either as the primary or principal cause of the evil under review. The current opinion that such is the case, is incorrect, as I shall endeavour to shew. And I am induced to do this, from the conviction that the mistake is calculated to stop investigation short of the true source, and thus prevent the remedies from reaching the fountain-head of the evil. It happens in this, as in too many other instances, that the little sinners become the subjects of censure, while those whose crimes differ from them only in magnitude, are overlooked, or treated with complaisance. Is it wrong to sell liquor by the glass, to those who drink it—and is it not wrong to sell it by the hogshead, for the purpose of being so disposed of? Are both these culpable, and shall those who import and sell it by the cargo, escape obloquy? And does the distiller differ from all those, in any other respect, than that he makes while they sell the poison for the purpose of its being drank? It is not my intention to censure the latter any more than the former class of dealers in ardent drink; and justice forbids that blame should attach itself exclusively to either. They are all particepes criminis, inasmuch as they all contribute facilities to the practice of intemperate drinking, and thus aid the continuance and increase of the evil. But its most prolific sources are not to be found among those classes of our fellow-citizens, considered in the business character. They only conform to the customs and habits of the community in which they live. They find their neighbours in the practice of using ardent drink, and profit by their folly. No one would be so weak as to invest his money in ardent liquor with the expectation of learning people to drink. It is the already acquired habit, which constitutes the basis of his calculations of profit. So far, therefore, from grog-shops being the primary or principal cause of intemperate habits, the reverse of the position approaches nearer the truth. The habit of intemperance is the cause of grog-shops.

"As the vice under consideration did not originate at those places, it is not limited to the class of people who drink there. The customers of coffee houses, hotels, and other taverns, and the sideboards and wine-cellars of private houses, prove the truth of this position. The landlords of those establishments would take it in dudgeon, to be told that their customers were of the lowest grade of society; and the proprietors of well stored sideboards and wine-cellars, would be highly offended at the imputation of drinking, or learning to drink, at grog-shops. If the practice of tippling was confined to the lower order of society, it could not with any propriety be regarded as a national sin. The character and habits of that class of the community can never alone constitute national character. Admitting, therefore, that intemperate drinking is justly attributed to us as a feature[135] of our national character, it follows irrefutably, that the causes which produce that effect are not confined to the purlieus of bar or tap-rooms. The upper classes of society never follow the examples of the lower: but the latter do, as far as they are able, imitate the customs of the former. Had the habit of intemperance originated in the lower class, it would not, in all probability, have extended beyond it. As its prevalence is so general as to become a reproach to the nation, the inference is conclusive, that it is the progeny of higher parentage than grog-shops."

"The radical sources of the evil" says judge Herttell, "are in the fashions, customs, and examples, of what are called the upper or wealthy classes of the community."

After remarking the common practice that intoxicating liquors are universally used as a table drink, he proceeds, "Such being the practice, the parents of a family must, of necessity, adopt one of the two following measures:—The children must be permitted to partake of the common table beverage, or they must not. In the first case they are reared from their childhood to the habitual use of ardent drink. If the other course is pursued, and the use of the liquor interdicted to the children, while the parents daily drink it in their presence, he is very little acquainted with human nature, who does not know, that the value of the article is thereby arbitrarily enhanced—the disposition to enjoy it increased,—and, that as soon as the restraints of the parents are removed, and an opportunity presents, the forbidden fruit will be tasted, with as much avidity as if both conscience and justice demanded satisfaction for lost time and pleasures. Under such circumstances, how vain is it to hope that children will not acquire the habit of intemperance—and how weak is it to wonder at their becoming drunkards! Parents can hardly be said to have arrived to years of discretion, who shall expect that their admonitions against intemperance will be heeded, while their daily example is counteracting their influence. How ridiculous is it for them, while drinking wine and brandy in the presence of their children, to attempt to persuade them, that it is not good for them! Should it happen, that in a family of half a dozen sons, there should be a sober man, the merit is his, and not his parents'; nor are they to be pitied, except for their folly, should they all be drunkards; and such is frequently the result. Thus, almost every family becomes a school for intemperance, and a nursery of customers for taverns and grog-shops.

"Again; inebriating liquors have become the medium universally adopted by society for manifesting friendship and good will, one to another. It need only to be mentioned to be admitted, that it is the common practice, when friends or even strangers visit each other, they have scarcely time after being seated, to make the usual inquiries about health, and the common place remarks on the weather, before they are invited to drink intoxicating liquors. The welcome is deemed kind and sincere, in proportion to the frequency, and earnestness of the importunities to drink—liberal in proportion to the variety of the liquors; and their richness and profusion add to the other temptations to drink. Not to offer them would be deemed unfriendly, mean, or unmannerly. Not to accept them, would be attributed to ill-nature, or a want of politeness. Hence, the visitor drinks to reciprocate good will for the proffered kindness, or in self-defence against the imputation of ill-breeding. And the visited, takes a glass for the company's sake, as it is called; and to evince his satisfaction on seeing his hospitality accepted in the spirit in which it is offered. In this way do the laws of fashion and custom constrain people to drink, who otherwise would have[136] no inclination, or who have acquired that inclination, from the frequent if not daily occasions which occur, for tendering and reciprocating through the customary channel, sentiments of hospitality and good will to their associates, friends, and strangers. Thus is the vice of intemperate drinking ingrafted on the virtue of hospitality; and so long as that virtue is cherished, and ardent liquors continue to be tendered as evidence of its existence, so long will the use of that article as a drink continue, and the vice of intemperance grow out of it. This unnatural blending of virtue and vice, together with the practice of using inebriating drink as a table beverage, are the radical sources of that intemperance, which is said to be "the crying and increasing sin of the nation." It is at the family table, the first rudiments of intemperance are taught; the first examples set, and the first essays at tippling attempted. The practice is continued by the frequent display of hospitality and politeness, through the medium of ardent drink. The acquired habit, shows itself on holy-days, at dining and other parties, and on all convivial occasions—is pursued at taverns, and at last, descends to, and terminates its career at grog-shops. Look at the catalogue of family misfortunes, and few will be found to have escaped the direful disease of intemperance; few which have not had their prosperity and happiness blighted by the extreme of that vice, in some one or more of their members." No doubt it is in the opulent that many of the vices of society originate. Their weaknesses and errors are palliated; their example imitated and their indulgences eagerly craved by the poor. While therefore, the general practice of using ardent spirit continues among them, our author reasons that the popular remedy of curtailing the number of grog-shops, though it would lessen the practice would not destroy the habit of intemperance. Should there remain a solitary place where liquor can be procured, the sin of intemperance will continue to be committed, and its associate vices and immorality entailed on society.

"What!" says he, "it may be asked by the reader, are we required to relinquish the use of wine and ardent spirits, in order to prevent their abuse by others? Shall we deny ourselves the reasonable enjoyment of them, because others become intemperate? Are we to be interdicted the moderate use of them, because others drink to excess and get drunk? As well say the querists, might it be expected that we should extract our tongues, because others back-bite their neighbours!

"In the first place, permit me to remark, that I have not uttered a word against the moderate or reasonable use of ardent liquors. But before we go farther, it may be proper to analyze the terms, moderation and intemperance, as they relate to the use of inebriating drink. There can be no objection to its reasonable, necessary, and moderate use. But I do contend, that the use of it by any person in a full state of health, is at all times unnecessary. The effect of strong drink, is to excite the animal spirits to a preternatural action.—When taken by a person in full health, it raises the animal spirits above the healthy standard. This is unnecessary—and inasmuch as it creates a deviation from a state of real health, it produces disease, and hence its use is immoderate, intemperate. The indirect debility which succeeds the exhausted stimulant, is another and a worse state of disorder, which goes to confirm the truth, that the first draught of ardent drink taken by those in full health, is unnecessary, unreasonable, and excessive. Nor is this all—this indirect debility prompts a repetition of the draught—and now the practice of drinking has commenced. The animal spirits having sunk as far below as they have been raised above the[137] healthy standard, an increased quantity is required to raise them as high as before. Thus the habit of intemperance progresses. The spirits, now ebbing lower than before, demand increased support, the yielding to which demand, confirms the habit of intemperance. But it unfortunately happens, that the term moderate, when applied to intoxicating drink, by those who use it, is as unmeaning as the word enough in the mouth of a miser, when speaking of his money. Each drinks according to his taste and strength of habit, and calls it moderate. Thus every grade of drinking, from the single glass of the novice, to the full bottle of the initiated, is termed moderate. And every degree of excitement, from moderately merry to moderately drunk, is honoured with the same name. The real truth is, it is a poor apology for a bad practice; and a moderate degree of reflection would lead those not slaves to the habit, to view it in that light."

"I have the authority of distinguished physicians for remarking, that next to intemperate eating, intemperate drinking engenders more bodily diseases, than any other single cause. That more die of disorders occasioned by drinking, before they become drunkards, than live to extend their intemperance to that extreme. That the constant exercise of the labouring class, procrastinates, while the want of exercise tends to facilitate the fatal effects of intemperance in the other class of society—and hence it is, that the moderate drinking, as it is modestly termed, of the latter, destroys at least as many as the drunkenness of the former, and in that ratio is as injurious to the community. The reason these facts are not subjects of general observation, is, that when people who are not reputed drunkards, die of complaints brought on by drinking, their death is imputed to the disorder, while that escapes being attributed to its true cause—whereas, reputed drunkards stand little or no chance of dying by any other means; for be they drowned by accident or hanged for murder, their end is generally, and perhaps too often, correctly ascribed to intemperate drinking."

"It is really wonderful to witness how fertile is the love of ardent liquor, in excuses and pretences for its gratification. It is drank at one time, because the weather is warm—at another, because it is cold. It is drank with enemies "to reconcile them"—with friends, "because they don't meet every day"—on all festive, anniversary and other holydays, "because they only come once a year." And if at any or on all those times, the bounds of moderation are exceeded, it is allowed to be excusable, "because they are all extraordinary occasions!" Real or pretended disorders are also often plead as an apology for drinking ardent liquor; and instances are not rare where, though it may have been regularly prescribed for medical purposes, and may have cured the disorder, it has finally killed the patient. It is doubtless for this reason, that distinguished gentlemen of the faculty have admitted, that the internal use of ardent liquor, even in cases in which it is indicated as a medical remedy, is often productive of far more hurt than good.

"The most common pretence, however, is, that the water is bad, and requires a little spirits to qualify it; and hence it is infused with a poison of a more deleterious quality than any it naturally possessed. This qualifying of the water, has been the means of disqualifying many a valuable man, for nearly every purpose, except to bring disgrace, ruin, and misery on himself, his family and connexions."

"I have taken no pains to ascertain the authority by which retailers of ardent drink are permitted to fix stands and booths at the Park and other places, on days of public parade and festivity. The concentrating of so many grog-shops at times and places[138] of the greatest collection of people, tends rather to produce tumult and confusion, than to preserve good order. These places not only tempt men to indulge to excess, but boys are often seen in them following the example—and it has been remarked, that more of this youthful class are seen disguised with liquor on those days, than in all the year beside. Indeed, it very rarely occurs that a boy is seen thus degraded on any other occasion. Should these travelling taverns be permitted only on condition that ardent spirits should not be carried to them, or sold, or given gratis there, it would remove the greatest objection which can be urged against them. The public would then be accommodated with every necessary refreshment, without jeopardizing their peace by means of intemperate drinking.

"It would essentially benefit the community, should the inducements to frequent taverns be lessened. This may be done in a variety of instances. It is usual in the country towns, to muster the militia at or in the immediate vicinity of taverns. This practice tends neither to improve the morality or discipline of the men—and if they must continue as now to be mustered at those places or not mustered at all, I have no hesitation in saying, that the public would sustain no material injury, should the latter course be adopted; for it is certainly true, and the reason is obvious, that many of the men, at the close of their exercise on those parade days, are not so well qualified to serve their country, as when they come to the rendezvous. Much of the evil of the present practice would be obviated, should military officers, vested with power to muster any corps of militia, in the country towns, for the ordinary purposes of exercise or inspection, be bound by law to locate the parade ground at least a mile from any tavern or retail grocery. The carrying of ardent liquor to the rendezvous, and the selling it there, or giving it gratis to any person, especially the soldiers, should be interdicted, under proper penalties, and provision made for due execution of the law. Other refreshments than ardent drink, being as usual permitted, all the reasonable conveniences of taverns would be enjoyed, and many of those disgusting instances of riot and disturbance, occasioned by intemperate drinking, and which often convert our militia parades in the country, into scenes of disorder and insubordination, rather than schools for military instruction and discipline, would be done away.

"The legislature should prohibit justices' courts being held at taverns. The disgraceful scenes which are too often the consequences of trials at those places, would thereby be prevented, and the cause of morality, and not unfrequently, that of justice, essentially benefited. The same objection lies, though perhaps not with equal force, against sheriff's courts being held at those places. If the Court House is not at hand, it must be a beggarly office which would not afford the appropriating of a room for the performance of its duties in the dwelling of its incumbent, or pay for the use of a convenient place elsewhere for the purpose. The practice of holding trials at taverns, before referees, appointed by order of the court, is not exempt from serious objections.—These, however, being less frequent, are not so productive of evil, and, perhaps, are more difficult to be obviated.

"The holding of auction sales at taverns, as is frequently the case in the country, is pregnant with mischief sufficient to justify legislative interposition.—Those who have witnessed, can best describe them—I only know them by description. On these occasions, the number who go to buy, is but small, compared to those who attend from other motives. The owner of the property for sale, is seldom backward in circulating the glass freely[139] at his own expense, because he is like to receive more than cent. per cent. profit from the consequent indiscretion of those who become affected with the spirit of bidding. Many are thus led on to buy unnecessarily and dear; and frequent instances occur, where people bid off more than they have means to pay for—and thence law-suits, trials, at taverns, family distress, the insolvent act, and perhaps poverty and pauperism close the account. These are only the outlines of the picture, which those who have seen the original, are best qualified to fill up with neglect of domestic concerns—horse-racing and jockeying—profane swearing—drunkenness—quarrelling, and sometimes fighting, and a variety of other amusements, not unusual on such occasions.

"The lamentable consequences of holding the polls of our political elections at public houses, are too generally known to require particular description. Suffice it to say, that the noise and tumult—the heated, irritating and useless discussions which frequently occur, and which go to impair the respectability of the electors, and the credit of the elective franchise, are oftner the result of the spirit of liquor than the spirit of patriotism. As far as legislative provisions can obviate the evil, it ought to be done. The expense would be small and the benefit great, should each ward in the cities, and each town in the country, build a house or room for the purpose of elections. The profit which might accrue from its use on other occasions, would, in many instances, more than pay the interest on its cost. It is a little remarkable, that the sagacity which prompted the interdiction of military parades on the days of election, as dangerous to the freedom of the elective franchise, did not foresee and guard against the evils consequent on locating the election polls at public houses.

"It is hoped that the good sense of the community will operate to abolish the custom of giving extravagant entertainments, on any occasion, in honour of distinguished characters. This practice, by leading many to taverns, and tempting them to indulge freely, is productive of more mischief than benefit to society. As an example, it is bad. People, in the lower walks of life, cannot be taught, that it is wrong to get drunk in company with, and out of mere good humour to their friends, while they see too many of the upper circles retire from those feasts, not exactly sober. I humbly conceive it would be manifesting far higher respect for a great man, to compliment him with a written address, approbating his character and conduct, accompanied with a medal, a piece of plate, or other present, embellished with appropriate insignia and inscriptions.—These would be lasting testimonials of character and worth. Being always visible, they would act continually as a stimuli to urge others to emulate the honourable course by which they were acquired;—whereas, those public entertainments are scarcely noticed beyond the day they are puffed in the newspapers—and if they were, the honoured guest could derive no great satisfaction in the reflection, that his friends had eaten and drank immoderately, in honour of his virtues. There is a strong family likeness between these dinners and those eaten ex-officio by our city corporation.

"The meetings of self-created societies at taverns, cannot, perhaps, at all times, be well avoided. There doubtless are many of those institutions which are useful—but that there are many which do more hurt than good, is equally true. They ought, indeed, to be productive of great benefit, to counterbalance the evil tendency they have, to draw their members to taverns at night. Many a good citizen has, in this way, unwarily contracted irregular habits—and many a deserving wife, and family of innocent babes, have had reason to lament[140] the truth of this remark. It will be a great pity, if those societies cannot be prevailed on, to procure places at which to hold their meetings.—This might easily be effected, unless too strong a predeliction for tavern meetings should counteract so reasonable a proposition."

"In the year 1740, Admiral Vernon commanded the British fleet in the West Indies. His undress coat was made of grogram, a cloth fabricated of silk and worsted. He was very unpopular in the fleet, and the sailors, in allusion to his coat, nick-named him Old Grogram; and afterwards, by way of shortening it, they called him Old Grog. When ardent liquor was first given to sailors, and until the time above-mentioned, it was drank raw—but being found to produce many fatal bodily diseases, and the naval service thereby much injured, the Admiral directed that the rum should be weakened with water. The men were highly displeased at having their drink thus spoiled, and in derision of the admiral, called it by his abbreviated nick-name, "Grog." This is the reason that rum, mixed with water, bears that name. Let it be observed, because the raw rum was found to produce deleterious effects on the health of the sailors, the Admiral ordered that it should be mixed with water. Now, as it probably could not require many years to make that discovery, it is fair to conclude, that the first use of ardent spirits, as a daily drink on ship-board, could not have been a very great length of time anterior to the year 1740."

"On another occasion, I have mentioned, and will here repeat, that the baleful practice of giving ardent liquor to labourers, ought to be exploded. This custom has so powerfully aided other causes of intemperance, that there is scarcely to be found among the labouring class, any who do not drink, and drink too much. It is unquestionably owing, in a great measure, to this, that the apprentices to many mechanical branches, are initiated into the habit of intemperance, before they acquire a knowledge of their trade; and it is certainly owing to the same cause, that many do not gain a perfect knowledge of their business. Here, too, we see a powerful objection operating, to prevent many respectable parents from putting their sons to mechanical occupations. Hence, many a promising mechanical genius is smothered in the warehouse, or doomed to add a useless member to the already over-run and over-rated learned professions. This serves to degrade the honourable calling of mechanics, which suffers another depression from the necessity which these circumstance create, of taking apprentices from the lower circles of society, whose want of the requisite education disqualifies them for attaining an adequate knowledge of their trade. In addition to this, the master mechanic, growing wealthy by his business, too often becomes infected with the follies and fashions of upper life—in which sphere some are fitted only to appear ridiculous. Their sons, forsooth, must be above their fathers' business. They must be brought up gentlemen—and, of course, reared in idleness and extravagance, or become professionable men or merchants.—Thus, by their conduct, they give countenance to those whose weakness may dispose them to undervalue mechanical occupations.

"The great number of public holy-days (as they are termed) which are generally observed, are not without their pernicious influence on the morals of society.—Was the manner of their celebration such as to honour the events they are intended to commemorate, their observance, if not useful, would at least be innocent in their consequences. But were we to judge their objects solely by the manner in which they are kept, and the[141] effects they produce, we might be led to the erroneous conclusion, that they were instituted to subserve the causes of vice and immorality. The general suspension of useful employment on those days, is followed by an increased indulgence in drinking; and this accounts for there being more crimes committed on those days, than in any other equal period of time. On the authority of a gentleman who was on the Grand Jury which sat in the present year, I state, that far the greatest portion of the business of that Jury, grew out of crimes and disorders committed during the Christmas and New-Year holy-days. When it is observed, that the court for the trial of criminals is held once a month, and crowded with business, it would be superfluous to add arguments to such facts.

"The custom of giving wine and other liquors at funerals, is not at all calculated to increase the solemnity of those occasions. The practice is bad, and ought to be discountenanced by those whose example may influence others to follow it. Instances have happened, where the effects of this ill-timed hospitality, have been very justly lamented. How such an absurd custom was first introduced, is not, perhaps, so evident as the impropriety of its continuance.

"To conclude—'To what purpose,' an inconsiderate though well-intentioned friend, has said, and others as thoughtless, may say, 'do you attempt to write down the use of ardent drink? Notwithstanding all you have said, or may say, people will continue to drink as usual.' In the first place, I answer, I am not sure of that—and in the next place, I am sure, that if they will continue to use spirituous liquor as a daily table drink, and give and receive it as the token of friendship and good will, thereby associating the vice of drinking with the virtue of hospitality—if they will accustom their children to the use or witness the use of ardent drink, and rear them in idleness and extravagance, with the mistaken idea of thus making them ladies and gentlemen—if they will continue to 'have wine in their (public) feasts,' and license taverns by thousands, and create a thousand temptations to frequent them—if they will persist in the practice of giving strong drink to the working class of society, and thereby contribute to degrade their character, and bring useful industry into contempt—if they will continue to celebrate their anniversaries by a course of unrestrained intemperance—then, I again repeat, I am sure, that notwithstanding all their professions of patriotism, morality, philanthropy and religion, they cannot escape the imputation of loving ardent spirits more than the work of reformation: and moreover, cannot avert, and will merit all the ills which are flowing, and must continue to flow, from the demoralizing influence of intoxicating drink. Intemperance, the reigning sin of the nation, will go on 'increasing to increase,' till immorality, spreading far and wide, shall debase the people, corrupt their rulers, and destroy the liberties of our country. Then dark illimited despotism, with its genial concomitant, blind superstition, weak-minded bigotry, and black-hearted fanaticism; while forging the chains, preparing the wheel, and igniting the faggots of unholy and merciless persecution, will rear its head, and impiously exult in the downfall of the only government on earth, the existence of which, is not a reproach to the common sense of mankind."

A view of Botany Bay.

In the 63d number of the Edinburgh Review, for July last, we find an interesting account of the settlement called Botany Bay in New South Wales, discovered by the Dutch in 1616, and taken possession of by the British in 1770. On the close of[142] the war by which the United States obtained their independence, the government of Great Britain, at a loss for a receptacle for convicts sentenced to banishment, at last selected this remote country, and made the first settlement there in 1778. This colony, now a very flourishing one, was thus planted with the rogues of England, Ireland and Scotland, sent thither, in exile, as a punishment for their crimes—transportation to that distant and savage land being more dreaded there, perhaps, than our penitentiary is here, from which escapes are made with so much facility—the certainty of punishment deterring from the commission of crime more than its severity. The criminals landed in this southern clime, finding themselves placed in a new situation, where little could be got by theft, and having a better chance than in the mother country of earning a comfortable subsistence, often changed their habits, and became industrious, if not honest men. They are probably destined to be a great nation, having an abundant scope of territory, 2,700 miles in length, and 2,000 in breadth, (three-fourths the extent of Europe,) and will, at a future day, in imitation of America, cast off the shackles of colonial subjection, and assert the prerogative of self-government.

The climate of Botany Bay is represented to be equal to any in Europe, but rather Asiatic than European—Favourable on the whole to health and longevity. December, January, and February, are the summer months of that country, and then the heat, which at noon is at 80 deg. is tempered by a strong sea-breeze. The winter months, June, July, and August, have very cold nights, and fire through the day is comfortable.

The Reviewer humorously calls this colony "a land of convicts and kangaroos," and sportively observes, that, "in this remote part of the earth Nature (having made horses, oxen, ducks, geese, oaks, elms, and all regular and useful productions, for the rest of the world) seems determined to have a bit of play, and to amuse herself as she pleases. Accordingly, she makes cherries with the stone on the outside; and a monstrous animal, as tall as a granadier, with the head of a rabbit, a tail as big as a bed-post, hopping at the rate of five hops to a mile, with three or four young kangaroos looking out of its false uterus to see what is passing. Then comes a quadruped as big as a large cat, with the eyes, colour, and skin of a mole, and the bill and web-feet of a duck—'puzzling Dr. Shaw' and rendering the latter half of his life miserable, from his utter inability to determine whether it was a bird or a beast. Add to this a parrot, with the legs of a sea-gull; a skate with the head of a shark, and a bird of such monstrous dimensions that a side bone of it will dine three real carnivorous Englishmen; together with many other productions that agitate Sir Joseph, and fill him with mingled emotions of distress and delight."

Sydney, the principal town and seat of government, has a population of 7000 souls; it has a newspaper, a bank, and many public and private buildings, that would not disgrace the best parts of London—So says Mr. Wentworth, a native of Botany Bay, who has lately published a statistical, historical, and political description of the country.

The attention paid to the education of the children, by their "larcenous forefathers," is worthy of commendation and of imitation in other[143] parts of the world, where the morals of the parent stock are less depraved. "The town of Sydney contains 2 good public schools, for the education of 224 children of both sexes. There are establishments also for the diffusion of education in every populous district throughout the colony: the masters of these schools are allowed stipulated salaries from the Orphans' fund. Mr. Wentworth states, that one-eighth part of the whole revenue of the colony is appropriated to the purposes of education: this eighth he computes at 2500l. Independent of these institutions, there is an Auxiliary Bible Society, a Sunday School, and several good private schools. This is all as it should he: The education of the poor, important every where, is indispensable at Botany Bay. Nothing but the earliest attention to the habits of children can restrain the erratic finger from the contiguous scrip, to prevent the hereditary tendency of larcenous abstraction. The American arrangements respecting the education of the lower orders, is excellent. Their unsold lands are surveyed, and divided into districts. In the centre of every district, an ample and well selected lot is provided for the support of future schools. We wish this had been imitated in New Holland; for we are of opinion that the elevated nobleman, Lord Sidmouth, should intimate what is good and wise, even if the Americans are his teachers. Mr. Wentworth talks of 15,000 acres set apart for the support of the Female Orphan schools; which certainly does sound a little extravagant; but then 50 or 100 acres of this reserve are given as a portion to each female orphan; so that all this pious tract of ground will be soon married away. This donation of women, in a place where they are scarce, is amiable and foolish enough. There is a school also for the education and civilization of the natives, we hope not to the exclusion of the children of convicts, who have clearly a prior claim upon public charity."

Great exertions have been made in public roads and bridges. Toll gates have been established on all the principal roads. The general average of unimproved land in the neighbourhood of the town is 5l. sterling per acre. The inhabitants of New South Wales have suffered greatly from the tyranny and caprice of the rulers placed over them by Britain. There is no sufficient check on the Governor of the colony—far from the parent country, there is no Council to restrain his excesses, nor any Colonial Legislature to assert the rights of the people. There is no trial by jury. The Governor imposes what taxes he pleases.

INTELLIGENCE.

His Majesty George the Third, was born on the 24th of May, 1738, which since the alteration of the style, has become the 4th of June. At his death, therefore, he had reached the advanced age of eighty-one years seven months and twenty-six days. He was proclaimed king on the 25th of October, 1760.—On September 8th, 1761, he was married to her late majesty, and had issue seven sons and five daughters, of whom six of the former and four of the latter survive him. His royal highness the Prince of Wales was appointed Regent on the 6th of Feb. 1811, and from that time he has been virtual sovereign, acting in the name and on the behalf of his majesty. His majesty, from the appointment of the Regent, remained in retirement at Windsor Castle, under the guardianship of a council, who met every month, or more frequently as occasions might require, and issued a report of the state of his indisposition.

After the death of his late majesty had been formally announced, the following instrument was prepared and signed.

"Whereas, it hath pleased the Almighty God, to call to his mercy our late sovereign lord, king George the 3d. of blessed memory, by whose decease the imperial crown of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, is solely and rightfully come to the high and mighty prince, George prince of Wales: We, therefore, the lords spiritual and temporal of this realm, being here assisted with those of his late majesty's privy council, with numbers of other principal gentlemen of quality, with the lord mayor, aldermen and citizens of London, do now hereby, with one voice and consent, of tongue and heart, publish and proclaim, that the high and mighty prince, George, prince of Wales, is now, by the death of the late sovereign, of happy memory, become our only lawful and rightful liege, lord George the 4th. by the grace of God, king of Great Britain and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. to whom we do acknowledge all faith and constant obedience, with all hearty and humble affection; beseeching God, by whom kings and queens do reign, to bless the royal prince, George the 4th with long and happy years, to reign over us.

The king's fourth son, Edward Guelph, duke of Kent, &c. died at Sidmouth, after a short but very severe illness on the 23d of January. He was born November 2, 1767.

The interment of the king of England, took place on the 16th of February; and on the following day, both houses of parliament convened according to adjournment. A message from the new king was received and read, and an address of condolence and congratulation was adopted in the house of lords.

A new parliament is to be summoned; and great activity every where prevails in preparing for the approaching general election.

Ancient Custom.—On the day that the present King was to be proclaimed as George the Fourth, a procession was formed fronting the Palace of Carlton-house, and proceeded for the city, when, on the cavalcade arriving at Temple-bar they found the gates, according to ancient custom, closed. "The City Marshall was sent forward to the gate, intimation having been given to the lord Mayor that there was a loud knocking at the gate, and a demand of admittance from some persons outside. The Marshall went to the gate, and asked, 'Who knocks,' and was answered, 'The Herald King at Arms. I attend with a warrant to proclaim King George the Fourth. Open your gates.' The City Marshall answered, 'I shall inform the Lord Mayor that you are waiting at the gate.' The Marshall then rode back to the Lord Mayor, and having informed him that the Herald King at Arms was in waiting for admission, to proclaim George the Fourth, King of England, was directed by his Lordship to give the admission required, which was to be limited to the Herald King at Arms. The Marshall upon going to the gates, said to the officers, 'Open one side of the gates and admit the Herald King at Arms, and him alone.' The Herald then rode in, supported by his guards, and was accompanied by the City Marshall to the Lord Mayor. The Herald King at Arms presented the warrant.—The Lord Mayor immediately said, 'admit the whole procession into our city of London.'"

George the 4th was proclaimed as King, at Liverpool, without parade, on the 31st of Jan. but was proclaimed[145] there again on the 19th of Feb. with much pomp and ceremony.—There was a grand military and civil procession; and among the latter, all the mechanic professions, each with appropriate standards.

We have received this morning the Paris papers of Tuesday. They are, of course, painfully interesting, for they communicate a variety of facts connected with the assassination of his Royal Highness the Duke de Berri. Among the most important of these is the undeniable one, that the atrocious crime was committed from political motives. This alarming truth was distinctly admitted, not only by the Members of the two Chambers, who met to address his Majesty, upon the mournful occasion but it is recognized by the King himself, in the concluding sentence of his answer to the Address of the Deputies.—"The Chamber cannot doubt," said his Majesty, "that, feeling as a man, and acting as a king, I shall adopt every necessary measure to preserve the State from dangers, of which I am but too forcibly forewarned by the crime of this day." The assassin himself, indeed, according to the letter of our private correspondent, upon being interrogated, avowed that he had exterminated the Duke, as the youngest of the Royal Family, "knowing that nature would soon relieve him from the necessity of abridging the days of the King."

The Duke of Berri was in his 42d year, and was, next to his aged father, Count d'Artois, heir to the throne.

"The assassin is about 30 years of age; his name is Louvel. It appears he was one of those who went and returned with Bonaparte from Elba, and has since been employed, up to the very time of the fatal deed, in his Majesty's hunting establishment.

A vessel has arrived at Portsmouth from St. Helena, which place she left on the 10th of December. Bonaparte, at that time, was well, and continued his out-door exercise, in the grounds attached to Longwood. "His new house was nearly ready for his reception, and it is in every respect a most spacious and commodious mansion; containing, with a ball room, 17 excellent rooms."

MISCELLANY.

From a late report of the Secretary of the Treasury it appears that the banking capital of the United States, including the United States' bank, and excluding all banks incorporated since 1817, amounts to $125,000,000.

A curious circumstance occurred on Monday week at Market Levington, Wilts. A person named Jane Webb attended divine service attired precisely in the same suit of mourning for our late sovereign George III. as was worn by her for king George II. The singularity of its make, attracted much notice. This venerable and frugal spinster has attained her 76th year.

An oil spring has been discovered in the county of Morgan, Ohio, which is stated to yield an inexhaustible quantity of this liquid. It sells for fifty cents a gallon. It is used for lamps, for currying leather, for mixing in medicines, &c. Whether it is calculated for mixing in paints had not been ascertained.

Worm in a Horse's eye.—Dr. William Scott, of Madras, has extracted a worm from the aqueous humour of a horse's eye to which he gave the name of Accaris pellucidus.

The legislature of New Jersey has passed a law for incorporating a company for the purpose of embanking and draining the salt marsh on Barbadoes neck in that state.

In the British Quarterly Review, mention is made of a British statute[146] now in force, in which the punishment of a certain offence is transportation for 14 years; and on conviction, one half thereof is to go to the informer, and the other half to the king! Did ever an Irish parliament make such a blunder as this?

Virginia is much engaged in laying out works of internal improvement; especially with a project of uniting the waters of James river with those of Kenawha.

The Bordeaux ship of discovery, (says a New York paper) has arrived at Bordeaux, after an absence of three years and a half. This ship has traversed the Pacific Ocean, and collected at the Sandwich Islands, some interesting accounts of the fate of La Peyrouse and his companions. A London paper states, that the account will soon be published.

Arrival from New York!—The Steam Boat Manhattan, from New York, arrived here this day, 30 days from New Orleans. She brings consignments for two houses in this place, from the city of New York. Freight three dollars only.

The Maine and Missouri questions are at length settled. Both districts of country are admitted into the Union, as states; the former, from its population, requiring no restriction of slavery; and the latter admitted on the same terms—4 majority in the house of representatives in favour of the bill as it has passed. The bill, however, excludes slavery from all the territory North of 36¹⁄₂ deg. of N. latitude, Missouri excepted.

From a respectable correspondent in Pauling, Duchess county, we have the following singular case. Mr. Luther Brownwell of Beekman, in that county having, in the month of April 1815, a sow with a litter of five pigs, and she dying when they were only two days old, he appropriated the milk of one of his new milch cows for their support. The cow was milked four or five times a day for this purpose, and the pigs were learned to drink the milk. When pasturing time came, they were put in the field where the cow with nine others was kept. At the age of two months, the pigs had the sagacity to single out this cow from the rest, and when hungry would come round her, root at her legs, squeak, and exhibit the usual signs of their wants. The cow at length learned to lay down, and let them suck what they wanted. In this way they grew very rapidly until some time in September, when they were put up to fatten, and were killed the November following. Their average weight was 240lbs. or 1200lbs. of pork, which he sold for $8,50 a hundred.

Aside from the singularity of this case, the inquiry naturally presents itself, could the milk of the cow have been put to a more profitable use? Is it not probable that her milk made an addition of at least 600lbs. to the quantity of pork? [Plough Boy.

An apprentices' library is about to be established in New York, on the same plan as the one in this city and in Boston. The library in Boston consists of about 1000 volumes, principally of books on the mechanic arts, of history, travels, and other useful knowledge, and on moral and religious subjects.

Steam Boats.—Among many interesting articles in the second number of the German Correspondent, published in New York, we find the following:

"The steam boat Blucher was lately launched at Potsdam. Several members of the royal family were present, and Prince Albseeth conferred the name. This is probably the largest steam boat in Europe, the whole length being 200 feet. It draws but 20¹⁄₂ inches of water. The boat contains[147] two engines, which perform exceedingly well. The utmost precaution is used against accidents by fire. As this vessel will carry merchandize of great value, and in large quantities, the hold has been divided into nine compartments by water proof partitions, so that, in case it should spring a leak, there is every probability that the vessel would not fill—besides, by means of tubes there is a communication between these chambers and the locations of the engines, which are so arranged as to pump any quantity of water out of the divisions where the leak may exist. This improvement appears to be well calculated for the steam boats on the Mississippi."

Sagacity of a bear.—A bear which had stolen a sheep, being closely persued by several dogs, promptly resorted to a most ingenious expedient. He tore the sheep in pieces, and threw the dogs one of the hinder legs; and while they were partaking of this repast, had full time to escape.

This fact is formally certified, by a game-keeper in Transylvania, where there are a great many bears. The most remarkable circumstance was, that from that time the dogs would never attack any of these animals, but on the contrary, received them in the most friendly manner, as if they expected a dinner. The owner of the flock was obliged to have the dogs shot, that he might not have those hungry guests always about him. [German Paper.

PHENOMENON.

I lately read an account of the figure, which, under some peculiar state of the atmosphere, appears on the Hartz mountain, in Germany. It reminds me of an extraordinary illusion to which I was once exposed; if it have interest enough for publication, it is at your service. About seven years since, I was one evening, in the month of October, returning late from a friend's house in the country, where I had dined, to the neighbouring town, about a mile distant: the night was exceedingly dark, and I had been requested to take with me a lantern; a pocket one could not be found, and I was provided with that which the servants generally carried swung in the hand. I had to pass through some fields over high ground: soon after I had entered the second of these, I observed something large moving along with me. I placed the lantern on the ground, and walking toward it, saw a gigantic figure retiring with astonishing speed. I immediately perceived it was my own shadow on a fog, which I had not before observed. The appearance of retiring was phantasmagoric, and arose from my interruption of the rays of light from the lantern, at a lesser angle, as my distance from the light increased. My return to the light was terrific; the figure appeared to advance upon me with frightful rapidity, till it seemed forty feet high. If I had been ignorant of the cause of this appearance, the effects might have much alarmed me, and led to my telling such stories as I should not have gained credit by relating: but aware of the cause, I was delighted with the singularity of my situation; and might have been thought mad by an observer, for every fantastic attitude and action I could assume I did, to be mimicked by my new and shadowy acquaintance. I am, sir, your obedient servant,

English vegetables.—In the former part of the reign of king Henry VIII. there did not grow in England a cabbage, carrot, turnip, or other edible root—and even Queen Catherine could not command a sallad for dinner, till the king brought over a gardener from the Netherlands.—The artichoke, apricot, and damask rose, then made their first appearance in England.

Coaches.—Coaches were introduced in 1585; before which time, Queen Elizabeth rode, on public occasions, behind her Lord Chamberlain.

Ladies' Charity.—In the letters of Madame D. upon England, which have just been published, we find the following passage, which shows how little a woman used to the coteries of Paris can appreciate the purest of our Christian charities.—"The most elegant women in London have a certain day, upon which they go to a large room surrounded with counters, at the end of Argyle Street; they go in person, to sell, for the profit of the poor, the trifles, which they amuse themselves in making during the course of the year. You may imagine that a young gentleman who pays his court to a young lady, is not permitted to hesitate at the price of the work of her fair hands. In fact, I saw several who were really foolishly extravagant, and the bank-notes were showered down on the counters of these ladies.

"I observed in this assembly the prettiest young women I ever saw in my life; all the men loiter delighted before her counter, and it was she whose stock was the soonest disposed of.

The last man who stopped at it took a handful of bank-notes, and exchanged them for a watch-ribbon. I departed, enchanted with this scene."

Chimnies.—In the age next preceding Queen Elizabeth, there were few chimnies, even in capital towns: the fire was laid to the wall, and the smoke issued at the roof, or door, or window. The houses were wattled, and plastered over with clay; and all the furniture and utensils were of wood. The people slept on straw pallets, with a log of wood for a pillow.

"The wisdom of Catwg—The seven questions proposed by Catwg the wise to seven wise men in his college at Llanfeithin, with their answers.

"2 What shews transcendent wisdom in a man? To refrain from injuring another when he has the ability.

"7. What is the greatest folly in a man? The wish to injure another without having the power to effect it."

Antediluvian oak.—In digging the capacious drain in Bilsby parish, connected with the new work of sewers near Alford, at the depth of thirty feet some oak trees have been found, which are at this time the subject of examination by the curious. They are as black as ebony, but the heart is firm wood, notwithstanding the trees are believed to have been deposited for several thousand years. The conjecture formed by those best qualified for considering the subject of similar discoveries in other situations is, that they existed before Noah's flood.

Nugæ Antiquæ.—From a household book of the Earl of Northumberland in the reign of Henry VIII. it appears, that his family, during winter, fed mostly on salt fish and salt meat, and with that view there was an appointment of 160 gallons of mustard. The Earl had two cooks, and more than 200 domestics.

Holinshed says, that merchants, when they gave a feast, rejected butchers' meat as unworthy of their table: having jellies of all colours, and in all figures, representing flowers, trees, beasts, fish, fowl and fruit.

The streets of Paris, not being paved, was covered with mud; and yet for a woman to travel those streets[149] in a cart was held an article of luxury, and prohibited by Philip the Fair.

An old tenure in England binds the vassal to find straw for the King's bed, and hay for his horse.

It was a luxurious change of wood platters for pewter plates, and from wooden spoons to those of tin.

Holinshed says, "when our houses were built of willow, then had we oaken men? but now that our houses are made of oak, our men are not only become willow but, many, through Persian delicacy, crept in among us, altogether of straw, which is a sore alteration."

Reproof.—A person was remonstrating with a friend, inclined too much to dandyism, on the absurdity of following such foppish fashions. "They are really contemptible, (said he,) and I am sure all who see you must think you ridiculous." "I don't value the opinion of the world, (answered he,) I laugh at all those who think me ridiculous." "Then you can never give over laughing," drily observed his mentor.

Anecdote.—When the English Court interfered in favour of the protestant subjects of Louis XIV. and requested his majesty to release some who had been sent to the gallies, the king asked angrily, "What would the king of Great Britain say were I to demand the prisoners of Newgate from him?" Sir, (replied the ambassador,) my master would give every one of them up to your majesty, if, as we do, you reclaim them as brothers.

If you think this little anecdote worth a place in the Rural Magazine, you may be assured of its authenticity.

A singular instance of the truth of this saying occurred a few days ago, in Market Street. A sharper, under pretence of buying some small article in a store, managed to take from a countryman present, his pocket book, and having secured, as he supposed, his booty, paid his little bill and retired. The honest storekeeper discovering he had given him too little change, immediately went to the door and called him to stop. The fellow supposing himself detected, took, to his heels. The croud in the street observing the circumstances cried stop thief! stop thief! He was soon overtaken and brought back, when the pocket book, which had not been missed by the owner, was found on him, and he taken before the proper authority.

A Newly discovered, cheap and durable Paint.

I send you for publication in the Rural Magazine, a receipt for a newly discovered paint, it is cheap and will no doubt be useful to some of your readers.

To a common 3 gallon pail of whitewash, add 1 pint of cheap molasses and 1 pint of white table salt. The best store lime should be selected and boiling water used in slaking it. It should be frequently stirred as you put it on. Two thin coats will be sufficient to cover the weatherboards of out-buildings. It will not wash or scale off like common whitewash and is beautifully white. For other colours mix ochres of various kinds.

Air Jacket.—Mr. Charles Kendal lately made an experiment on the Thames, of the efficacy of his jacket, or Life-preserver, which completely succeeded. He went from the southwark Bridge through London Bridge with great ease and on to the London Docks in 20 minutes, walking upright in the water accompanied by his man all the way.

A new and cheap conductor of lightning and fluid.—Mr. Capostolle, Professor of Chemistry in the departments of the Somme, affirms that a rope of straw supplies the place of the expensive metal conductors. The experiments, which he[150] has made in the presence of many learned men and which have been repeated by them, confirms as he says that the lightning enters a rope of straw placed in its way and passes through it into the ground so gently that the hand of a person holding the rope at the time does not perceive it. Mr. Capostolle brings the following proof of this assertion. It is well known says he that a severe shock is received by a person who immediately touches the Leyden vial. But if a person takes a rope of straw, only seven or eight inches long, in his hand, and touches, with the end of this rope a Leyden vial, so strongly charged that an ox might be killed by it, he will neither see a spark, or feel the slightest shock. According to Mr. Capostolle's opinion, such conductor made of straw, which would not cost alone three francs, would be able to protect an extent of sixty acres of ground from hail; and if the houses and fields were protected in this manner, neither hail nor lightning could do any damage to them.

Economy of Nature.—In the sunshine vegetables decompose the carbonic acid gas of the atmosphere, the carbon of which is absorbed, and becomes a part of their organized matter, but the oxygen gas, the other constituent is given off; thus the economy of vegetation is made subservient to the general order of the system of nature. Again, Carbonic acid gas is formed in the respiration of animals, and as yet no process is known in nature by which it can be consumed, except vegetation. Animals thus produce a substance which appears to be a necessary food for vegetables;—vegetables evolve a principle necessary to the existence of animals: the two kingdoms seem to be thus connected together in the exercise of their functions, and, to a certain extent, made to depend upon each other for their existence.

Legible Writing.—The Grand Duke of Baden has issued an ordinance, enjoining all public functionaries in his dominions, who sign their names in an illegible manner, through affectation, to write them in future so that they can be read, under the pain of having any document illegibly signed, thrown back on their hands.

While Mr. Samuel Chandler was boring for salt near Zanesville, Ohio, he found a metallic substance six feet three inches thick, which being analysed, was found to be silver, nearly as pure as the common coin. This singular account is attested in the National Intelligencer by a member of Congress.

Square Mile.—It may be thought wonderful that the whole population of this country could stand on considerably less than a square mile. Allowing six men to a square yard, the mile would accommodate eighteen millions five hundred and eighty five thousand six hundred men!

Latitude of Trees in Sweden.—From the researches made in Sweden on the different kinds of wood indigenous to the country, it has been ascertained that the birch reaches the farthest north, growing beyond the 70th degree; the pine reaches to the 69th; the fir tree to the 68th; the ozier, willow, aspen and quince, to the 66th; the cherry and apple tree to the 63d; the oak to the 60th; and the beech to the 57th; while the lime tree, ash, elm, poplar and walnut, are only to be found in Scavia.

Singular Anecdote of the Spider, by Capt. Bagnold.—Desirous of ascertaining the natural food of the scorpion, I enclosed one (which measured three fourths of an inch from the head to the insertion of the tail) in a wide mouthed phial, together with one of those large spiders so common in the West Indies, and closed it with a cork, perforated by a[151] quill, for the admission of air: the insects seemed carefully to avoid each other, retiring to opposite ends of the bottle, which was placed horizontally. By giving it a gradual inclination, the scorpion was forced into contact with the spider, when a sharp encounter took place, the latter receiving repeated stings from his venomous adversary, apparently without the least injury, and with his web, soon lashed the scorpion's tail to his back, subsequently securing his legs and claws with the materials. In this state I left them some time, in order to observe what effect would be produced on the spider by the wounds he had received. On my return, however, I was disappointed, the ants having entered and destroyed them both.

Spontaneous Combustion.—From the Baltimore Morning Chronicle.—At my mills there was an iron kettle used for holding ashes—it had remained with ashes in from the 5th to the 9th month at which time flaxseed oil was by accident spilled into the ashes; in about 24 hours the ashes were found to be on fire, and wishing to have it fully ascertained, whether it was the oil which occasioned the ashes to take fire, I filled a kettle with cold dry ashes, in which I poured a pint of flaxseed oil, and in 24 hours I examined it, and found that, as far as the oil had penetrated the ashes were in a state of combustion, and, applying some shavings and chips of wood, it immediately caused them to blaze.

From an apprehension that many buildings have been consumed by fires from the foregoing cause, I have been induced to give publicity to the fact.

Spontaneous Combustion.—Sir I observe, in your paper of yesterday that your correspondent Davyana has made an unsuccessful experiment, to verify the account given by Mr. Atkinson of a Spontaneous Combustion, produced some time ago, at his mills near Baltimore, by the accidental mixture of linseed oil and wood ashes.

An experiment has also been made, with a similar view, at the Mint of the United States. The ashes employed were chiefly from hickery wood, well sifted, and cold; and the quantity of linseed oil, one pint. No change of temperature was perceived, till about 46 hours after the oil had been poured on the ashes, when the mixture was fairly ignited, and in a short time emitted flame, which continued upwards of an hour. After the flame had ceased, the ignition continued for about 18 hours, and the ashes were then poured out of the vessel.

Gas lights.—The number of gas lights already in use in the metropolis of London amounts to upwards of 51,000. The total length of mains in the streets through which the gas is conveyed from the gas light manufactories into the houses now measure 288 miles.

Seed Potatoes.—It has been recently ascertained from the most decisive experiments, that late potatoes, or such as are not ripe, were the best seed, and that planting such restores a degenerated variety to its original qualities. The discoverer of this fact recommends the planting of seed from cold and late situations, and to plant so late as June and July, taking up those unripe, and preserving them as seed for the following year.

London.—The consumption of sheep and lambs in London, during the last twelve months, amounted in number to one million, sixty-two thousand, seven hundred. The number of horned cattle slaughtered, was one hundred and sixty-four thousand—and by the inspector's return, it appears, that the number of horse hides produced at Leadenhall market,[152] amounted to twelve thousand nine hundred.

Boring legalized.—Last week we mentioned that a silver mine was said to have been discovered near Zanesville, in Ohio. By the last Columbus papers we are informed that the bill incorporating the "Muskingum Silver Mining Company" has passed the legislature.

It is said that the rock about twenty feet below the surface of the earth, extends under nearly the whole territory of Ohio; that the silver was found after penetrating the rock about 100 feet; and that, therefore, there is an even chance that this stratum of silver, near 7 feet in thickness, is as extensive as the state.

Verily, should this prove to be the case, what an alteration would it make in our affairs! Neighbouring states would supply Ohio with corn and whiskey—her keen speculators would become lazy nabobs—Yankee pedlars might venture to drive their trade there, without danger of being bitten—her rag banks, notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, would prove to have had at all times, a specie foundation: and Owl Creek and Cincinnati bank notes command a premium over eastern funds.

Capt. Symmes has long expressed great anxiety to get into the earth, and, as it is a long journey to the north pole, (where there is certainly a hole big enough for Capt. Symmes to get in) and the Captain says he cannot undertake the journey for the want of "disposable means,"—now, therefore, this may be entirely a manœvre of the captain's, or of his friends, to get a cheap passage into the earth, whereby he may embark near home, and without expense in the outfit. At any rate, we hope the company will persevere in boring—it is a good subject—for should they either find silver or provide a passage for Capt. Symmes, they will silence the hungry complaints of many speculators—both in real estate and in the learned and fashionable ologies of the day.

State of Missouri.

Boundaries.—Beginning in the middle of the Mississippi river, on the parallel of 36° N. lat.—thence west to the St. Francois river—thence up the middle of the St. Francois, to 36° 30' N. lat.—thence west till it intersects a meridian line, passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas river, where it empties into the Missouri—thence, from said point of intersection, due north to the intersection of the parallel of latitude which passes through the Rapids of the river Des Moines, (making this line correspond with the Indian boundary)—thence east from the point of intersection last mentioned, to the middle of the main fork of the Des Moines—thence down the middle of that river to the Mississippi—thence, down the middle of the Mississippi to the beginning.

By the 8th section of the law authorising the people of Missouri to form a state government, slavery is for ever prohibited in all the territories of the United States, west of the Mississippi, north of 36° 30' except so much as is included in Missouri.

The Convention to form the constitution is to consist of 40 representatives, from the respective counties, as follows: Howard 5, Cooper 3, Montgomery 2, Pike 1, Lincoln 1, St. Charles 3, Franklin 1, St. Louis 8, Jefferson 1, Washington 3, St. Genevieve 4, Madison 1, Cape Girardeau 5, New Madrid 2, Wayne and Lawrence 1.

Red Snow.—Mr. Francis Bauer from a number of accurate observations, with microscopes of great power on the Red Snow, in a melted state, from Baffin's Bay pronounces the colouring matter to be a new species of uredo (a minute fungus) to which he proposes to give the name nivalis.

Lapland.—The greatest water-fall in Europe has been recently discovered[153] in Lapland. It is on the river Latting; it is half a mile broad, and falls in a perpendicular descent of four hundred feet.

Portugal.—The weather has been so severe at Lisbon, that in one night, thirty-five fishermen and three sentinels were frozen to death. The ice formed three inches thick in one night, a circumstance unprecedented at that place.

Russia.—It has been so cold in Russia, the past season, that all the public places of amusement had been closed. The thermometer at St. Petersburg, stood at 35¹⁄₂ below Zero.

The frost has been severe in France and England. At Paris on the 11th, the thermometer of the engineer Chevalier, stood at 11 below 0. The Seine was frozen over.

Petitions are getting up in Ireland, in favour of a dissolution of the union with Great Britain!

It had been colder in the month of January in England, than was ever known before in that country. In the city of London the thermometer stood twenty-three degrees below the freezing point. At Islington, the silver in the barometer on the 14th, was down into the bowl.

Upwards of 2,200,000 eggs were imported into England from France the last three months.

Extraordinary produce of a potato.—A single potato was cut into eyes, and planted in the garden of C. Moore, esq. at Woodbridge, Suffolk; and the produce was the surprising quantity of a bushel skep without being heaped, and it weighed 64lbs.—The potatoes are remarkably fine and clean.

Brownsville, (Penn.) March 13.

Accident.—On Thursday last, the chain bridge over Dunlap's creek, between Brownsville and Bridgeport broke down with a wagon and six horses upon it. The wagon fell on the bank, this side of the stream, the horses in the water. The driver, who was on the saddle horse, was pitched between the two middle horses, where he was held entangled in the gears, until relieved by the citizens. He received no material injury, but two of the horses were killed. The team, we understand, was the property of a person named Hackney, near Winchester, (Va.) The distance from the floor of this bridge to the surface of the water, must have been at least 30 feet.

Leeches.—The Montrose (English) Review of January 1st, states that a gentleman examining two bottles containing 3 leeches each, found the water a complete mass of ice, with the leeches frozen. He dissolved the ice gradually before the fire, when he found the whole 6 alive, and very animated.

Abstract of the exports of cotton and tobacco from New Orleans from the 1st of October, 1818, until the 31st of the same month, 1819.

Fall of rain.—An account of the water that fell in rain and snow, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1812 to 1819, inclusive, and the number of days, in each year, in which there was falling weather.

London Breweries.—The Breweries of London, (says a late traveller over the British Island,) "may justly be ranked amongst its greatest curiosities, and the establishment of Messrs. Barclay &. Co. is one of the most considerable. A steam engine, of the power of 30 horses, does the greatest part of the work; for although there are nearly two hundred men employed, and a great number of horses, these are mostly for the out-door work; the interior appears quite solitary. Large rakes with chains moved by an invisible power, stir to the very bottom the immense mass of malt in boilers 12 feet deep; elevators which nobody touches, carry up to the summit of the building 2500 bushels of malt a day, thence distributed through wooden channels to the different places where the process is carried on.—Casks of truly gigantic sizes are ready to receive the liquors. One of them contains 3000 barrels. Now, at 8 barrels to a ton, this is equal to a ship of 375 tons. By the side of this are other enormous vessels, the smallest of which, containing about 800 barrels, are worth when full 3000 pounds sterling each. All this immense apparatus is so arranged that every part is accessible, and the whole is contained under one roof. The stock of liquor is estimated at 300,000 pounds; the barrels alone in which it is carried about to customers cost 80,000 pounds; and the whole capital is not less than half a million sterling; 250,000 barrels of beer are sold annually, which would load a fleet of 150 merchantmen, of the burden of 200 tons each. The building is incombustible—walls of brick, and floors of iron.

Africa.—Several attempts are now making to explore the interior of this country, and a scheme for opening a grand commercial intercourse with Tumbuctoo and Sudan, has been planned, which promises success through the protection of the emperor of Morocco.

London Nov. 30.—We learn by a letter from the celebrated Italian traveller, M. Belzoni, that he has recently performed a journey into the deserts of Lybia, to examine there the environs and ruins of the temple Jupiter Ammon. This journey lasted 50 days, during which time he saw different ruins, several temples and other remarkable objects. After having traversed the desert, he arrived at the place where the temple is supposed to have existed. The country was fertile, and he found some villages, but the inhabitants of the country, where, perhaps, for several centuries a European had not been seen, were very savage, and would not suffer him to pass, because they imagined that he was looking for treasures in their country. The ruins of the[155] temple he discovered had been employed in the construction of another temple, which is already in part destroyed, and in forming the foundation of the cabins of a village. The most remarkable thing, however, discovered by M. Belzoni in those environs is a spring of living water, of which Herodotus makes mention, warm in the morning and evening, cold at noon, and boiling hot at midnight. M. Belzoni has brought away some of this water for the purpose of analysing it.

A Hint to Smokers.—The city of New York, is said to contain 130,000 inhabitants. Let 50,000 of them smoke only three Spanish segars a day, and it will amount in the year to the enormous sum of $1,095,000; a sum sufficient to pay the salary of the President and Vice-President of the United States, the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, of war, and of the Navy, and of the Attorney, General, for 20 years, 10 months, and 8 days.

Extraordinary Longevity.—Dr. Knott Martin, of Marblehead, who died at the age of 88, left seven children by his first wife, who are now living, at the following ages, viz:—

Thomas, aged 88—Knott, aged 87—Eleanor, aged 80—Hannah, aged 77—Richard, aged 73—Arnold, aged 71—and Mary, aged 69. The aggregate of the seven being 554, and the average 78 years.

Also, by his second wife, Betsey, aged 53, and Bartholomew, aged 51. He had three other children, one of whom died in infancy, and the other two at an advanced age.

Eight of the nine now living reside at Marblehead, the other at Beverly, and all of them have a numerous posterity.

Sir—As I do not know that you have positively interdicted all communications from farmer-esses, I must ask you to record a grand discovery, which I consider myself to have made, in the noble art of—raising poultry.

It may save much trouble to my sister housewives, to whom, according to the order prescribed by the lords of the creation, this department of domestic economy has been assigned. It is well known, that in this branch of our humble duties, the greatest difficulty arises from our poultry houses being so much infested with vermin; or, to be more plain, in the slang of the poultry yard, with chicken lice. Now, I have proved, by long experience, that they will not resort to houses wherein the roots, nest boxes, &c. &c. are made of sassafras wood. You may smile, and ask me, the reason of it: I am no philosopher, but I tell you, sassafras wood will keep lice out of hen houses: I know it to be a fact, and when you will tell me why it is that chips of cedar wood or tobacco will keep woollen free from moth, then I will endeavour to tell you why it is, that sassafras wood will keep away chicken lice—one is universally known to be true, the other no less true, though less known.

The London Globe, of Jan. 29, says—"We understand that the lords of the treasury have given directions to allow mechanics, artificers, &c. to emigrate from Great Britain to any country and in any ship.

At Brighton, the wildest of the feathered tribe have been so punished with the frost, that they have left the woods, for warmer shelter in the habitations of men. Black birds, starlings, larks and thrushes have been pursued by boys, at mid-day, and easily taken by the hand.

MARRIED.

On the 6th of March, Rubens Peale, of Philadelphia, to Eliza Patterson, of Chesnut-Hill.

At Washington City, Samuel Lawrence Gouverneur, Esq. of New[156] York, to Maria Hester Munroe, youngest daughter of James Munroe, President of the United States.

On the 2d ult. at the Friends' Meeting House, Alexandria, D. C. J. Ellicott Carey, of Baltimore, to Ann H. Irwin, daughter of Thomas Irwin, Esq.

In December last, at New-Castle, (England) Mr. Silvertop to Mrs. Pearson. This lady has been married three times. Her first husband was a Quaker, the second a Roman Catholic, and the third is of the established church. Every husband was twice her own age; at 16 she married a man of 32, at 30 she took one of 60, and now at 42, she is united to a man of 84.

In England, on the 16th of Jan. last, William Wilberforce, Esq. eldest son of the honourable and philanthropic William Wilberforce, M.P. to Miss Mary Owen, second daughter of John Owen, A. M. Rector of Pagelsham.

DIED.

On Monday afternoon, the 13th of March, after a lingering and painful illness, Mrs. Margaret Webb, being in her ninetieth year.

On Monday night, between 6 and 7 o'clock, after a confinement of two months, William Wayne, sen. in the ninetieth year of his age.

In England, 22d Nov. aged 95, John Spooner, who had been for more than thirty years successively the stranger's attendant at Brimham Rocks, in the county of York.

At Perth, Scotland, 1st Feb. widow M'Lean, aged 102 years. Although infirm, she had the complete enjoyment of sight, and never required the use of spectacles.

At Inverfolla, Scotland, 5th of November, Donald M'Intyre, aged 101. He was the last of the followers of Prince Charles, in that district to whose interests he was ardently devoted, so much so, that amidst the infirmities of old age he seemed "strong with the vigour of youth" at the mention of his favourite's name, and the remembrance of his misfortunes.

In Curracoa, A. D. M. Senior, aged 85, the oldest member of the Hebrew community, and one of the oldest inhabitants of the island.

At New Orleans, 4th of Feb. Don Felipe Fatio, Consul of Spain, formerly secretary of the Spanish legation at Washington.

Near New Orleans, Mr. Etienne Borrie, the first person that succeeded in cultivating the sugar cane on the Mississippi.

In the city of Trenton, (N. J.) on the 8th of March, Samuel Leake, Esq. in the 73d year of his age, formerly one of the most distinguished advocates at the New Jersey Bar.

In Vincent township, Chester County, on the 3d of March Mr. James Evans, in the 94th year of his age.

At Boston, on Tuesday, the 22d of Feb. the Rev. James M. Winchell, Pastor of the first Baptist Church of that city.

In January, at Grant's Braes, near Haddington, the venerable mother of the Scottish Bard, Robert Burns, in her 88th year.

In Hesse, Hamburg, Frederick Louis William Christian, Landgrave of Hesse Hamburg, aged 72, leaving a very numerous offspring, one of whom is married to Princess Elizabeth, of England.

In Hesse, Wilhelmina Caroline, wife of the Elector of Hesse Cassel, aged 73. She was a daughter of Frederick V. king of Denmark.

Whether the result of education and early associations, or derived immediately from Nature herself, there is excited in every bosom possessed of sensibility, a sensation of awe and veneration, when approaching the mansions of the dead. Here the storm of passion subsides into peace; and even savage ferocity, when contemplating the house appointed for all living, is moulded into mildness and mercy. Who does not delight to behold the verdant hillock, which designates the spot, where the remains of a dear friend or relative are deposited, decorated with vernal beauty, and alike protected from the withering inroads of neglect, and the rude approach of violence? There is a chord in every feeling heart, which vibrates in unison with the magic touch of memory when delineating in vivid colours, some departed object of our love and affection. The GRAVE-YARD furnishes a scene, in which memory is necessarily a prominent actor.

THE GRAVES OF MY FATHERS.

Evergreen be the spot where in silence reposing,
The bones of my fathers so tranquilly sleep,
Let no hostile foot-step with rudeness imposing,
Disturb the fond vigils affection shall keep.

Leave to monarchs their pageants of pomp and of glory,
To heroes their laurels all dripping with tears,
Give to Jackson his fame in the pages of story,
Where the wrong of the Indian abhorrent appears;

Let the relics of princes whose names are enshrouded,
In the gloom and the darkness of Egypt's long night,
Be distinguish'd by tombs on whose summits beclouded,
The eagle seeks rest in her towering flight:

But spare, oh but spare me, that hallow'd enclosure,
Which spring will soon visit with aspect serene,
Where the earliest sunbeam to April's exposure,
Shall bespangle with flow'rets her favourite scene.

While the songsters of nature with voices in chorus,
Attuned to those feelings which nature inspires,
And that moss-cover'd temple arising before us,
Will quell all those rebels—our vicious desires:

Where the pure gospel fount so transparent in beauty,
Oft in silence refreshes with gladness the soul,
Which in humble devotion to heaven and duty,
Seeks through faith and repentance a glorious goal.

Evergreen be the spot where in silence reposing,
The bones of my fathers so tranquilly sleep,
Every tye of affection their virtues disclosing,
While the dew drops of eve shall in sympathy weep.

AULD AGE.

Is that Auld Age that's tirling at the pin?
I trow it is, then haste to let him in:
Ye're kindly welcome, friend; na dinna fear
To shaw yoursel', ye'll cause na trouble here.
I ken there are wha tremble at your name,
As tho' ye brought wi' ye reproach or shame;
And wha, "a thousond lies wad bear the sin,"
Rather than own ye for their kith or kin;
But far frae shirking ye as a disgrace,
Thankfu' I am t' have lived to see thy face;
Nor s'all I ere disown ye, nor tak pride,
To think how long I might your visit bide,
Doing my best to mak ye well respecked,
I'll no fear for your sake to be neglecked;
But now ye're come, and through a' kind of weather
We're doomed frae this time forth to jog the-gither,
I'd fain mak compact wi' ye firm and strang,
On terms of fair giff gaff to haud out lang;
Gin thou'lt be civil, I s'all lib'ral be,
Witness the lang lang list o' what I'll gie;
First, then, I here mak owre for gude and ay,
A' youthfu' fancies, whether bright or gay,
Beauties and graces, too, I wad resign them,
But sair I fear 'twad cost ye fash to find them;
For 'gainst your dady, Time, they cou'd na stand,
Nor bear the grip o' his unsonsy hand;
But there's my skin, whilk ye may further crunkle,
And write your name at length in ilka wrunkle.
On my brown locks ye're leave to lay your paw
And bleach them to your fancy white as snaw.
But look na, age, sae wistfu' at my mouth,
As gin ye lang'd to pu' out ilka tooth!
Let them, I do beseech, still keep their places,
Though, gin ye wish't ye're free to paint their faces.
[158] My limbs I yield ye; and if ye see meet,
To clap your icy shackles on my feet,
Ise no refuse; but if ye drive out gout,
Will bless you for't, and offer thanks devout.
Sae muckle was I gi' wi' right good will,
But och! I fear that maer ye look for still,
I ken by that fell glow'r and meaning shrug,
Ye't slap your skinny fingers on each lug;
And unca fain ye are I trow, and keen,
To cast your misty powders in my een;
But O in mercy, spare my poor wee twinkers,
And I for ay s'all wear your chrystal blinkers!
Then 'bout my lugs I'd fain a bargain mak,
And gi' my hand, that I shall ne'er draw back.
Well then, wad ye consent their use to share,
Twad serve us baith, and be a bargain rare—
Thus I wad ha't when babbling fools intrude,
Gabbling their noisy nonsense, lang and loud;
Or when ill-nature well brush'd up by wit,
Wi' sneer sarcastic takes its aim to hit;
Or when detraction, meanest slave o' pride,
Spies out wee fau'ts and seeks great worth to hide;
Then mak me deaf as deaf as deaf can be;
At a' sic times my lugs I lend to thee.
But when in social hour ye see combin'd
Genius and Wisdom—fruits of heart and mind,
Good sense, good humour, wit in playfu' mood,
And candour e'en frae ill extracting good;
Oh, then, auld friend, I maun ha' back myhearing,
To want it then wad be an ill past bearing.
Better to lonely sit i' the douf spence
Than catch the sough o' words without the sense.—
Ye winna promise? Och ye're unco dour,
Sae ill to manage, and sae cauld and sour.
Nae matter, hale and sound I'll keep my heart,
Nor frae a crum o't s'all I ever part:
It's kindly warmth will ne'er be chilled by a'
The cauldest breath your frozen lips can blaw.
Ye need na' fash your thumb, auld carle, nor fret,
For there affection shall preserve its seat;
And though to tak my hearing ye rejoice,
Yet spite o' you I'll still hear Friendship's voice.
Thus, though, ye tak the rest, it shan'na grieve me,
For ae blythe spunk o' spirits ye maun leave me;
And let me tell you in your lug Auld Age,
I'm bound to travel wi' ye but ae stage:
Be't long or short, ye canna keep me back;
And, when we reach the end o't, ye maun pack.
For there we part for ever; late or air.
Another guess companion meets me there:
To whom ye—nill ye will ye, maun me bring;
Nor think that I'll be wae or laith to spring
Fra your poor dosen'd side, ye carle uncouth,
To the blest arms of everlasting youth.
By him, whate'er ye ye've rifl'd sto'wn, or ta'en,
Will a' be gi'en wi' interest back again:
Froze by a' gifts and graces, thousands moe
Than heart can think of, freely he'll bestoe.
Ye need na wonder, then, nor swell wi' pride,
Because I kindly welcome ye, as guide,
To one sae far your better. Now as tauld,
Let us set out upo' our journey cauld;
Wi' nae vain boasts, nor vain regrets tormented,
We'll e'en jog on the gate, quiet and contented.

"DREADFUL HARD TIMES."

Yesterday I walked down, to that part of the town,
Where people collect at the sign of the Tun,
To discuss and debate the great matters of state,
And show how things that go wrong should be done:
There was ragged Sam Bent, who is not worth a cent,
There was idle Dick Lawless, and noisy Jack Grimes,
And swaggering Jim Bell, who has nothing to sell,
All cursing the Banks, and these dreadful hard times.

There was old daddy Slop, who has lost his last crop,
By neglecting to mend up some gaps in his fence;
There was shabby Ned Thorn, who had planted his corn,
But had never put hoe, no, nor plough to it since;
There was dashing Bill Sutton, with his fine dandy coat on,
Who was ne'er out of debt, nor was worth twenty dimes:
They too join'd the throng, and still kept up the song,
A curse on the Banks, and these dreadful hard times.

Next came in Dick Short, who was summon'd to court,
For some hundreds of half pints of whiskey and rum;
He had brought the last sack of his grain on his back;
Tho' his children were crying with hunger at home;
Here, landlord, said Short, come, bring me a quart;
I must treat these, my friends, Sir, and merry Jack Grimes;
I've the corn, sir, to pay, there's no booking to-day;
Then he fell to cursing the Banks, and hard times.

Next came in Tom Sargent who had lately turn'd merchant,
And bought a full store, I can scarcely tell how!
But this much I know, about twelve months ago,
That the Constable sold at the post, his last cow;
Yet Tom dash'd away, spending hundreds each day,
Till his merchants brought suits for their dry goods and wines;
So Tom join'd the throng, and assisted the song,
With a curse on these Banks, and these dreadful hard times.
[159]

Next appear'd Madam Pride, (and a beau at her side)
With her silks, spread with laces, quite down to her trail;
Her husband that day, unable to pay
For the dress she then wore, had been lock'd up in jail;
She turn'd to the throng, as she tripped it along,
And she "hop'd that the merchants would swing for such crimes
"As to make people pay their old debts, in this way;"
And she curs'd all the Banks, and these dreadful hard times.

Now said I, Mr. Short, you are summon'd to court,
And must soon go to jail for these long whiskey scores;
And you, Mr Drew, aye, and you sir, and you,
Who are hanging round taverns, and running to stores;
And you madam Pride, must your silks lay aside,
And you, Mr. Idle and you, Mr. Grimes,
Must all to your labours, like some of your neighbours,
And you'll soon put an end to these dreadful hard times.

WINTER.

Though now no more the musing ear
Delights to listen to the breeze
That lingers o'er the greenwood shade,
I love thee, Winter! well.

Sweet are the harmonies of Spring,
Sweet is the Summer's evening gale,
Pleasant the Autumnal winds that shake
The many coloured grove;

And pleasant to the sobered soul
The silence of a wintry scene,
When Nature shrouds her in her trance,
In deep tranquillity.

Not undelightful now to roam
The wild-heath sparkling on the sight;
Not undelightful now to pace
The forest's ample rounds;

And see the spangled branches shine,
And snatch the moss of many a hue
That varies the old tree's brown bark,
Or o'er the grey stone spreads.

The clustered berries claim the eye,
O'er the bright holly's gay green leaves;
The ivy round the leafless oak
Clasps its full foliage close.

TO ——.

When the bloom on thy cheek shall have faded away,
When thine eye shall be closed in the grave,
Thou shalt dwell in my heart like the last gleam of day.
That purples with twilight the wave.
And if souls are allowed in a happier sphere
To watch o'er the spirits they love,
Be the guardian—the friend that thou wert to me here,
Be my guide—my protector above.
I know thou must die, and the cold earth will hide
The form I shall ever adore;
But in death, as in life, it will still be my pride
Such virtue as thine to deplore.
And, oh! when I gaze in the stillness of night
On those orbs that bespangle the sky,
I will think there thou dwellest an angel of light,
And hearest thy sorrower's sigh.
It will sooth me to feel, though a wilderness grows,
This lone world all unpeopled for me;
That, though drooping and withering, there still is one rose
In this wilderness blossoms for thee.
Though it will not be thine its last blushes to greet,
To weep o'er its bloom to decay;
If worthy such bliss, in a world we shall meet
Where thou'lt chase every dew-drop away.

The following versification was from the pen of a very young, and interesting woman, in reply to the solicitations of her family not to accompany her unfortunate husband into exile.

The lovely author of these lines, whose beauty can only be exceeded by her retiring modesty, is wholly unconscious of their publication, and we well know will blush at celebrity which the accomplishments of her mind, the graces of her person, and the misfortunes of her destiny, have rendered inevitable.

INSCRIBED TO ———

Where'er thou goest, I will go,
O'er Egypt's sands, or Zembla's snow!
Where'er thy weary eyelids close.
There will thy Charlotte seek repose;

Though on the naked earth we lie,
While tempests rule the darkning sky,
Still, still undaunted will I be,
And find the holiest calm with thee.

That people whom thou call'st thy own,
Shall only to my heart be known,
And our great Father, God, above,
With equal warmth we both will love.

Where'er thy last expiring breath,
Is yielded to relentless Death,
On that same spot will Charlotte die,
And in the tomb, thy Charlotte lie.

The Lord do this, and more to me,
If more than this, part thee from me,
As living, but one heart we own.
So dying we will still be ONE.

The Peasant and his Wife.

The long, long day, again has pass'd
In sorrow and distress:
I strive my best—but strive in vain,
I labour hard—but still remain
Poor, and in wretchedness.

Nay, we have health—you love your wife—
And she returns its flame;
Want still is absent from our cot,
God gives us breath to sooth our lot,
What more can you desire?

I wish'd to earn a little sum,
My dearest wife for thee;
I wish'd, by toiling day and night,
To gain some wealth that might requite
Thy fond fidelity.

No wealth repays fidelity,
Nor gold nor monarch's crown;
My heart which doth to thee incline,
Finds all its love repaid by thine,
And smiles at Fortune's frown.

But ah! to see thee live in want,
It fills my soul with care.
That thou so noble just and good,
Must slave and toil for daily food,
That drives me to despair.

I gaily work [God knows my heart]
Contented at your side:
More joys than wealth can give I prove,
To share thy sorrows and thy love;
Thy faithful heart's my pride.

But who, when I am snatch'd from thee
Will hush thy trembling sighs?
And when our babe shall weeping say,
"Oh mother! give me bread I pray!"
Who then will heed its cries;

God! whom the worm and sparrow shields,
Man in his need can aid;
He'll be my comfort when thou'rt fled—
The orphan's sire will give him bread—
O! be his will obey'd.

Wife of my heart, how great thou art!
Thy love is all my weal;
I feel so proud of one like thee—
Thy love and thy fidelity
Inspire me with fresh zeal.

AGRICULTURE.

Thou first of arts, source of domestic ease,
Pride of the land, and patron of the seas,
Thrift Agriculture! lend thy potent aid;
Spread thy green fields where dreary forest's shade;

Where savage men pursue their savage prey,
Let the white flocks in verdant pastures play;
From the bloom'd orchard and the showery vale
Give the rich fragrance to the gentle gale:

Reward with ample boon the labourer's hand,
And poor thy gladdening bounties o'er our land.
Columbia's sons, spurn not the rugged toil;
Your nation's glory is a cultur'd soil.

Rome's Cincinnatus, of illustrious birth,
Increas'd his laurels while he tilled the earth:
E'en China's monarch lays his sceptre down,
Nor deems the task unworthy of the crown.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

"Amicus" wishes to know why his communications have not appeared in the Rural Magazine. This kind of request is sometimes very difficult for an editor to comply with. In the present instance, we feel much obliged to our correspondent for his intention of serving us, and did we know him personally, would give him our reasons for omitting his pieces.

We have anticipated the request of "Agricola" of Susquehannah county, by inserting in our last number the address of Judge Tilghman. "Agricola's" remarks upon, and large quotations from it, could not with so much propriety be now admitted.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY
RICHARDS & CALEB JOHNSON,
No. 31, Market Street,
At $3.00 per annum.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A quarter is equal to six bushels, and the average produce in wheat and rye 18 bushels per acre. For the whole kingdom the deficit is 2,820,000 quarters. See Geographic Mathematic, art. Great Britain.

[2] See the introduction to Dickson's Practical Agriculture, 2d vol. quarto.

[3] Marshal, vol. iv. p. 575.

[4] Dickson's Practical Agriculture.

[5] Idem.

[6] Young's Tour through Ireland, vol. ii. p. 302.

[7] Mr. Hume quotes with approbation an author, who complains of the decay of tillage in the reign of Elizabeth, and who ascribes it to the increase of pasturage, in consequence of the restraints imposed on the exportation of grain, while that of butter, cheese, &c. was free. The history of Europe, if read with an eye to public economy, furnishes an abundant proof, that the greatest obstructions to agriculture have arisen from the interference of government. We have here no sly allusion to our own projects of a state board of agriculture, of a chymico agricultural professorship, nor even of an agricultural college, if the treasury in its wealth, and the legislature in its wisdom, should deem such institutions useful or necessary.

[8] See Gisbert's experiments on pure earths and their mixtures. See also Davy's Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, p. 156.

[9] In this respect nature has been neither negligent or niggardly, if (as Fourcroy asserts) the purest sand be a mixture of quartz, alumina, and sometimes of calcareous matter. Speculative geology is romance, and does not merit the name of science; yet is science obliged to borrow her theory of soils. The alternation of heat and cold, moisture and dryness, decomposed the mountains of primitive, secondary and tertiary formation; rains, and the laws of gravity, brought these from places of more, to places of less elevation—where, by mechanical mixture and chymical combination, the present substrata were formed. But these were yet naked and unproductive, when the Cryptogamia family (mopes and lichens) took possession of them, and in due time produced that vegetable matter, which made the earth productive and the globe habitable!

[10] Dead animal and vegetable matter, in the last stage of decomposition, give a black or brown powder, which the French chymists call terreau or humus, and which Mr. Davy calls an extractive matter; this is the fertilizing principle of soils and manures.

[11] The opinion is general among the chymists of Europe, that magnesian earth is not only barren itself, but the cause of barrenness in other soils in which it may abound, unless saturated with carbonic acid. See Base, Tennant, and Davy.

[12] Davy says this never exceeds one fiftieth of the whole product.

[13] Shæder maintains the doctrine, that the earths found in plants are created there by the process of vegetation. His essay on this subject was crowned by the academy of Berlin, in 1801. His experiments were the first to determine the different quantities of silica found in different kinds of grain.

[14] Moisten a bean in warm water, and detach the skin that covers it, and it readily divides into two parts; these are called lobes.

[15] Bonnet's experiments show, that it is the under surface of the leaf that performs this function, The upper surface has a different office.

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100 bushels of shorts, weighing 3500 lbs. neat, will cost	D.30 00
3500 wt. of hay, at 25 dolls. per ton, will cost	39 12
Difference,	D. 9 12

7000 lbs. of hay, at 25 dls. per ton, would cost	D.78 25
While 3500 lbs. of shorts, in which there is equal if not greater nutriment, would cost only	30 00
Gain in favour of shorts,	D.48 25

The shorts, as heretofore stated, would cost	D.30 00
2 tons of wheat, barley, or oat straw, at 5 dolls. per ton,	10 00
The corn-stalks are now generally put in the barn-yard: allow what paid for hauling them, say D.2 50 per ton,	5 00
Allow also for trouble in cutting the straw and stalks,	10 00
	55 00

The shorts,	3500	lbs.
2 tons of straw,	4480
2 tons of stalks,	4480
	12,460	lbs.

An equal weight of hay, at the present price, 25 dolls. would cost	139 25
Difference,	D.84 25

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Rural Magazine, and Literary Evening Fire-Side, Vol. 1 No. 04 (1820)

THE
RURAL MAGAZINE,
AND
LITERARY EVENING FIRE-SIDE.

THE DESULTORY REMARKER.

No. III.

THE VILLAGE TEACHER.

"THE STORY OF RUTH."

Letter to Mrs. Fletcher, from a
friend in Glasgow.

Treatise on Agriculture.

SECT. II.

SECT. III.

Theory of Vegetation.

1st Experiment.

2d Experiment.

3d Experiment.

Review for the Rural Magazine.

A view of Botany Bay.

INTELLIGENCE.

MISCELLANY.

PHENOMENON.

A Newly discovered, cheap and durable Paint.

State of Missouri.

Brownsville, (Penn.) March 13.

MARRIED.

DIED.

THE GRAVES OF MY FATHERS.

AULD AGE.

"DREADFUL HARD TIMES."

WINTER.

TO ——.

INSCRIBED TO ———

The Peasant and his Wife.

AGRICULTURE.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

FOOTNOTES:

Transcriber's note:

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

In pasturage,	18,796,45
In tillage,	11,350,501
In cities, roads & canals,	3,454,740
Lands fit for pasturage or tillage not cultivated,	3,515,238
Lands unfit for cultivation,	2,148,921

Lands unfit for cultivation,	2,148,921
In wheat and rye,	2,000,000
In peas, beans, and buckwheat,	2,000,000
In barley and oats,	4,000,000
In fallow, or in turnips or cabbages,	3,400,000

	Granitic	Calcareous
	soil.	soil.
Potash	3 60	15
Alk. and mu. sul	4 24	15
Carbonate of lime	46 34	63
Carbonate of magnesia	6 77	00
Silica	13 49	00
Alumina	14 86	16
Metallic oxides	10 52	00

	In 1778.	1817.
Horned cattle	5	44,753
Horses	7	3,072
Sheep	29	170,920
Hogs	74	17,842
Land cultivated	none acres,	47,564
Inhabitants	1,000	20,379

	Flour, bbls.	Rice, casks.	Tobacco, hds.	Cotton, bags.
1817	540,000	195,000	7,361	314,330
1818	350,000	100,000	110,000	423,500
1819	43,000	78,000	8,790	366,000

Consumption of bullocks,	110,000
Sheep and lambs,	976,000
Calves,	250,000
Hogs,	210,000
Sucking pigs,	60,000
Gallons of milk—the produce of 8900 cows,	908,000
Quarters of wheat,	900,000
Chaldrons of coal,	800,000
Barrels (36 galls.) of ale and porter	1,775,500
Gallons of spirituous liquors,	11,146,783
Pipes of wines,	65,000
Pounds of butter,	27,600,000
Cheese,	25,000,000
Acres of land cultivated
in the vicinity of London for vegetables,	10,000
Ditto for fruit,	4,000
The sum paid annually for vegetables amounts to,	l.645,000

England	48,840 bales.
France	29,989
Holland	1,998
Coastwise	15,710
Total	95,537 bales.

England	10,122	hhds.
France	4,865
Holland and Germany,	7,632
Coastwise	13,048
Total	85,667	hhds.

Years.	Inches.	Days.	Months.	Inches.	Days.
1812,	33⁴⁄₈	69	January,	¹⁄₈	1
1813,	40¹⁄₈	75	Feb'ry,	2⁵⁄₈	6
1814,	52²⁄₈	74	March,	2⁶⁄₈	8
1815,	37⁷⁄₈	57	April,	2¹⁄₈	5
1816,	30⁷⁄₈	70	May,	3¹⁄₈	8
1817,	40⁶⁄₈	77	June,	1	4
1818,	36⁴⁄₈	68	July,	4³⁄₈	9
			August,	8³⁄₈	11
			Sept.	1⁴⁄₈	4
			October,	1	2
			Nov.	1²⁄₈	3
			Dec.	2²⁄₈	5
				31⁴⁄₈	66

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Rural Magazine, and Literary Evening Fire-Side, Vol. 1 No. 04 (1820)

THE RURAL MAGAZINE, AND LITERARY EVENING FIRE-SIDE.

THE DESULTORY REMARKER.

No. III.

THE VILLAGE TEACHER.

"THE STORY OF RUTH."

Letter to Mrs. Fletcher, from a friend in Glasgow.

Treatise on Agriculture.

SECT. II.

SECT. III.

Theory of Vegetation.

1st Experiment.

2d Experiment.

3d Experiment.

Review for the Rural Magazine.

A view of Botany Bay.

INTELLIGENCE.

MISCELLANY.

PHENOMENON.

A Newly discovered, cheap and durable Paint.

State of Missouri.

Brownsville, (Penn.) March 13.

MARRIED.

DIED.

THE GRAVES OF MY FATHERS.

AULD AGE.

"DREADFUL HARD TIMES."

WINTER.

TO ——.

INSCRIBED TO ———

The Peasant and his Wife.

AGRICULTURE.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

FOOTNOTES:

Transcriber's note:

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

THE
RURAL MAGAZINE,
AND
LITERARY EVENING FIRE-SIDE.

Letter to Mrs. Fletcher, from a
friend in Glasgow.