1814.] Dr. Jarrold on the Labour of Horses.` in 1810, on a chapter in Dr. Smith's Anxious that the town in which I re- THOMAS JARROLD, M. D. ON ABRIDGING THE LABOUR OF HORSES. Very early in the history of every At a a 487 tuous, because his triumphal car was drawn by four horses; and to this day we should attach something more than va nity to the man who was drawn by eight. Carriages and servants, any person is at liberty to keep in as great number as he thinks fit; but he is expected to limit the number of horses that draw him-a deference, I believe, paid to the horse on account of the great service of that animal in war. Ancient poetry is full of beautiful descriptions of the horse prepared for battle: but as men became enlightened, the horse lost his trappings, and was made to labour and feed with the ox; and now, in this country at least, the use of the ox is almost, though unwisely, superseded. As the ox was habi tuated to labour before the ingenuity of man was assisted by science, the implements made use of inust necessarily have been rude; but it is inexplicably singular, that the carts first invented have never been improved upon, or adapted to modern purposes. Elevate the sledge on which the Indians of America draw home the game they have killed, make the wheels larger, and the common cart is nearly complete. Cæsar speaks with ap→ probation of the tumbrils of the Gauls, which differ from the cart in nothing but in the shafts, which are not fastened to the body, but secured by a bolt, which being removed, suffers the body of the cart to fall back: besides this, I know of no mention of any improvement in the structure of carts; indeed, they were invented for oxen, and are adapted to the slow motion of that animal; but the horse loves speed, and should be accustomed to a machine suited to his disposition; in place of which, much attention has been paid to adapt the horse to the old unwieldy cart. Great and unwieldy animals have been sought for, and the breed so much cultivated, that the physical powers of the animal have undergone a change; it can no longer trot or canter; if it can move forward at the rate of two miles an hour, it is all that is desired, and all that it can do: for such services the ox is sufficient. But although many horses are thus inactive, there are a greater number that retain their natural activity, and for which it is advisable that appropriate carriages be constructed. About sixty years since, a mechanic at West Bromwich invented and applied springs to car riages; before that period the gentleman's coach was in construction a cart. When it was discovered that the body of the coach being placed upon springs, greatly contributed to the ease of the traveller, the country adopted the plan, and car. riages on springs became general. All travellers are not mathematicians, but many are; and these might have calculated what portion of the power, exerted by the horse, was spent in shaking the passengers in a cart. The proposition may appear ludicrous, yet it is most important; but a traveller, without the aid of mathematics, night have concluded, that if a horse could draw him in a chaise eight miles an hour, with more ease to itself than it could a cart five miles, it might draw merchandize with the same facility; but the idea does not appear to have been entertained: it is that, therefore, which I now recommend to notice. It is unnecessary to appeal to arguments, because facts are before us; some stage-coaches, drawn by four horses, have weighed near four tons; the weight, on ordinary occasions, is three tons; with this the horses travel six or eight miles an hour. The utmost weight of a broad-wheeled waggon, with eight large unwieldy horses, is four tons; if the horses could take more, the turnpike Jaws on most roads forbid it; but experience has proved, that half a ton is all a heavy horse can draw an ordinary stage, on an ordinary road. The very ponderous cast-iron boilers, which are often seen upon our roads, are loaded upon balks of timber, the elasticity of the timber rendering the labour of the horses less, by acting as a spring. With this fact, every skilful carter is acquainted; but it will not be denied, that a carriage with springs is drawn with less exertion of strength than one without. I wish, therefore, to recommend the use of springs to general purposes, not only in removing the more valuable, but every description of moveable property, coals, sand, in short every thing, and for the following reasons:-first, the expence is less, a heavy waggon horse costs more money, and eats more corn than a halfbred horse; the average allowance to a waggon horse is four pecks of oats daily, to a stage-coach horse it is but two, and the work done by the coach-horse is the greatest; the man also is occu pied less time; for instance, suppose I wish a ton of coals to be taken ten miles, a man would deem it a full day's work with a cart; but the same man would drive a carriage upon springs, tion of the plan will occasion in the con sumption of corn, by the smaller horses eating less than the larger. A third reason is the improvement which it will occasion in the personal comforts and moral habits of the carters, as well as in the safety of travellers; the extreme irksome ness of attending a cart at the slow rate at which it moves, the length of time the attendants are exposed in the most inclement weather, consign the office of carter to the very lowest class of the cominunity, and confirms their condition. Every class must have employment, but it is not desirable that the lowest class should hold a conspicuous place, and one in which, from their drunkenness and incivility, travelling is abridged of its safety and pleasure. Place a man upon a dickey, let the speed at which he drives be four or five miles an hour, and a very considerable improvement will take place in the comfort, and consequently in the character of carters; the roads will no longer abound with carts without drivers, as is the case now, but every man must be at his post. Another important advantage arising to the community from placing carts upon springs, will be the improvement which must follow in the state of the roads. The government of the country have bestowed very considerable attention on the high roads of the nation, that the public might be accommodated; acts and regulations have succeeded each other as circumstances called for them; but this legislative attention has wholly been directed to the roads and the wheels of the carri ages-the broader the wheels the less injury is supposed to be done the road; and in proportion as the wheels have been made broader, heavier horses have been used to draw them, so that the injury done the road has not been much lessened; but when springs shall be generally applied to carriages, the increased velocity with which they will move, and the assistance the springs will afford in passing over the irregularities in the surface of the road, will be so great a relief to the roads, that a lessening of the tolls may be antici pated; but the vigilance of government must be shown in adopting the laws to the changes which may be made in the carriages. Ancient Manners. that took the same weight, in a few hours, AMONG the gifts that sovereigns have so that a very important reduction may be made in the price of carriage by this means. A second reason, and in my estimation by far the most important, is the reduction which the general applica exacted from their subjects, those mentioned by Matthew Paris of Henry III. deserve note, who in the year 1249 demanded of the citizens of London New Year's Gifts, and rested not till they had given Ancient Manners. 1814.] given him 20001. See MS. Cotton. Cleop. F. vi. f. 69. VIL. PIPE AND TABOR. Aubrey, in an unpublished work, en titled "Remains of Gentilisme and Judaisme," says: "In Herefordshire, and in parts of the marches of Wales, the tabor and pipe were (in his time) exceeding common. Many beggars beg'd with them: and the peasants danced to them in the church yard on holy-days and holy-day eves." VIII. SIGNS. Misson, in his "Memoirs and Observations," translated by Mr. Ozell, 8vo. Lond. 1719, says, p. 302: 66 By a Decree de Police, the signs at Paris must be small, and not too far advanced from the houses. At London they are commonly very large, and jutt out so far, that in some narrow streets they touch one another; nay, and run cross almost quite to the other side, They are generally adorned with carving and gilding; and there are several that, with the branches of iron which support them, cost above a hundred guineas. They seldom write upon the sign the name of the thing represented in it, so that here is no need of Moliere's inspector: but this does not at all please the Germans, and other travelling strangers, because, for want of the things being so named, they have pot an opportunity of learning their names in English, as they strole along the streets: but of London, and particularly in villages, the signs of inns are suspended in the middle of a great wooden portal, which may be looked upon as a kind of triumphal arch to the honour of Bacchus." 489 July 29, 1665, will show the consterna tion into which the inhabitants of the metropolis were thrown at this extraordinary conjuncture. The direction is, "This for Mr. John Strype, Student at Katren Hall, in Cambridge. She Yesterday your Sister Welsh got me to go with her to Paternoster-row, where I saw not one shop in ten open; also Cheapside, a very sad sight: and yet that parish is not infected with it, which is St. Faith's-under-Poules. Most of them have taken their goods with them into the country. She had the heart to buy herself a new gown, and a good one. I wisht her to think of dying; but it seems she had need of it. goes into the country on Wednesday, Enfield or Barking: I will let you know the next week if I live. As for your going to Woodbridge, your Aunt Colman hath been there, and says all the houses there are much infected, therefore go not there. I am sorry to hear the plague is so scattered on the road, that no place is hardly free. Mile End is also the same. And now we must resign ourselves to the hands of God Almighty, who can be a fiery wall about us. We have many nonconforming ministers, that preach openly. All go as they will: for all the bishops are out of the way; and doctors, and the best men who are esteemed, are fled. We have sometimes some of these good men that exercise in our house." XI. LAMPS. M. Misson in his "Memoirs and Obe servations in his Travels in England," translated by Mr. Ozell, 8vo. Lond. 1719, p. 173, says: Instead of lanterns, they set up in the streets of London, lamps,† which, by means of a very thick convex glass, throw out great rays of light, which illuminate the path for people that go on foot tolerably well. They begin to light up these lamps at Michaelmas, and continue them till Lady-day; they burn from six in the evening till midnight, and from every third day after the full moon to the sixth day after the new moon. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, IN your last Number I observed a letter from your respectable corAt every tenth house. + Mr. Edmund Heming was the inventor of them about fifteen or sixteen years ago. (1704.) On each side of the street there is, almost all over London, a way better paved than the rest for foot-passengers. respondent respondent Mr. Lofft, on the impolicy of prohibiting small-pox inoculation, which I think may have a tendency to justify an injurious practice, without any intention in the writer to depreciate the benefits of vaccination. In matters of opinion, a man, conscientiously following the dictates of his own judgment, cannot with propriety be blamed, or become a subject for punishment; unless his opinions (at variance with the general sense of public good) should be brought into dan gerous activity. Such appears to be the question at issue. That no law ought to force persons to be inoculated, is readily admitted; because parental affection may be supposed paramount to all other obligations. But if security against a most loathsome and dangerous disease can be procured without hazard of infection, I see no hardship in obliging the practitioner to confine himself to the innoxious communication; if he be allowed the test of variolous inoculation, should circumstances call for it afterwards. It has long been resolved in the town where I reside, to discontinue small-pox inoculation, (except gratuitously after vaccination, as evidence of security,) and of course I have resisted many applications for that purpose. In one case, where uncommon pains were taken to persuade the parent without success, the child was carried to Norwich, inoculated with small-pox, and died. This melancholy event in my remembrance, with numerous instances of deaths from infection, &c. I think I should deserve to be branded with any opprobrium, if I continued a practice at all times hazardous, and sometimes fatal; when a discovery, one of the greatest in our own times, has enabled us to obtain an antidote, without the smallest risque of either the health, or the life of the patient. If medical men, who by their office and employment may be considered as the guardians of the general health, steadily agree in opposing the unreasonable importunities of their patients, we should have no occasion for any restrictive law; but as that universal adoption can hardly be expected without some public act, I should urge the propriety of such a measure upon every principle of humanity and good policy. Salus populi suprema lex. W. CROWFOOT. -Beccles, Suffolk, May 10, 1814. For the Monthly Magazine. The NATIONAL DEBT ILLUSTRATED.' QUESTED National at 100 milUESTION 1.-Assuming the unre lions of pounds sterling for the sake of a round number, how much would it weigh in one pound Bank of England notes, at 512 to the pound ? Answer.61 tons, 17 hundred weight, 2 quarters, and 10 pounds. Q. 2.-If the whole were one pound Bank of England notes, how large a space would they cover if pasted, or laid as close to each other as possible? A-4516 square miles. Q. 3.-If the whole were guineas, (each one inch in breadth) and laid in a line close to each other, what would be the extent? A-10,521 miles, 558 yards, 1 foot, @ inches. Q. 4.-If the whole were in shillings (each being one inch) how far would they extend in length? A.-290,959 miles, 1048 yards, 2 feet, a inches, which is equal to eight times round the earth, 20,655 miles, 1048 yards, 2 feet, 8 inches over, or nearly nine times the circumference of the globe. 4 N.B. The earth's circumference is 25,038 miles. Q. 5.-If the whole debt were in penny pieces of the thickest sort (each being 1 inch, 1-57th of a hundred part diameter) and laid in like manner in a line, what would be the extent ? A.-4,162,878 miles, 1386 2-5ths yards; or, in other words it would extend 17 times the distance between the earth and moon, and go twice round the earth, and five times round the moon be sides!! N.B. Moon's distance, 240,000 miles. Q. 6.-What would the whole weight amount to in gold? also in silver and copper? A-14,981,273 1-3 pounds in gold; $25,806,451 2.3ds pounds in silver, troy weight; and 4,687,500 tons in copper (penny pieces, 16 to a pound), avoirdupoise. Q. 7.-How many soldiers' knapsacks would they load, allowing 40 pounds to each man? A.-374,531, if in gold; 5,645,462, in silver; and 262,500,000, in copper. if Q. 8.-How far would they extend in marching at three yards distance from each other? 4.- carrying gold, 638 miles, 716 yards; if silver, 9628 miles, 227 yards; if copper, 446,443 miles, 419 yards; or nearly 10 times round the globe. Q. 9.-How many carts would they each? load, allowing 2000 pounds weight to 4.-7491 a 1814.] Recent Tour in the West of England. A.-7491 with gold; the last cart carries only 1273 pounds; 112,904 with silver; the last carries only 451 pounds; and 5,250,000 with copper. Q. 10.-How far would these carts extend, allowing 20 yards to each? 4. Those carrying gold would extend 90 miles, 1420 yards; if carrying silver, 1283 miles; if copper, 59,602 miles, 480 yards-equal to twice round the globe, and 9526 miles, 480 yards over. Q. 11.-How many ships would this debt load at 500 tons of copper each? A.It would load 9375 vessels. The tonnage of commercial vessels and the navy of Britain, is estimated at about 2,300,000 tons; hence this quantity of Copper would load the wuoLE TWICE and upwards. Q. 12. How long time would it require to count this sum, at the rate of 100 per minute, allowing 12 hours each day, (Sundays included) in guineas, shillings, and penny pieces? In guineas it would require 27 years, 6 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 6 hours, 6 minutes, to count it over; in shillings, 578 years, 8 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 6 hours, 192 minutes; in penny pieces, 6944 years, 7 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours. So that if the work had been begun at the creation of the world, and continued to the present time, it would still be 1132 years short of its completion ! Q. 13. What is the amount of the interest of this debt at 34 per cent. and what is the proportion to each indivi. dual in Britain, the population to be stated at 12 millions of persons? 4.Interest 24,500,000l. per annum. Q. 14. Assuming the families of Great For the Monthly Magazine. SKETCHES in a TOUR from BRISTOL to the VALLEY of ROCKS, during the MONTH of AUGUST, 1813; in a SERIES of LETTERS; by ROBERT WILLIAMS. LETTER I. Bristol, August 1, 1813. My dear Friend, E set off to-morrow for the west. 491 gan to get rid of care, I should devote What's o'clock, or how's the wind, I have just returned from a stroll over and about this ancient city, and can assure you that I have felt highly gratified by the improvements which have been made during the last twenty years:-streets opened-decayed houses pulled down-extensive docks-a floating river -iron bridges-beautiful crescents and neat squares; I speak of Bristol, Clifton, and the Hotwells, as a whole. I am inclined to think, notwithstanding, that Bristol has by no means increased in salubrity by the damming of the river. The public here have very much complained, not I believe without reason; but it too often happens that popular clamour is erroneous; and the powers that are, I believe, generally make it a point never to listen to it; and so the poor Bristolians must be content to see the stagnant water for the sake of the grandeur of the undertaking the utility to the shipping interest, and I know not what advan tages besides, just peeping over the distant hills of hope. The cathedral I have visited; the monument to Sterne's Elza is a striking object, as you enter it, to the right. That to the memory of Mrs. Mason attracted me of course; the inscription on it I have WI have not forgotten my promise often read, and I believe no one who bes when I left London: I fear however that read it can avoid feeling the force of the poetic images which it contains, it is truly worthy of the author of Caractacus. The College-green is the only thing in Bristol which has displ.ated me; twenty years |
