The flow'ry mead, the wide spread down furvey, Say, through all natúre, canst thou find one trace, Or learn'st thou this from kindness and from grace ? Where goodness, quite immenfe, can cease to flow; Think, Teacher, think; and anfwer :-art thou fure Than the bort life of threefcore years and ten? } MONTHLY OCCURRENCES. July 27. back by a Courier lately dispatched AMERICAN Papers have been to Paris, will, it is faid, be decifive received to the 23d of June. On of peace or war. The French Enthe 18th the Prefident fent the Houfe voy, Garat, has demanded of the of Reprefentatives copies of difpatches Court of Naples, that it fhall cede he had received from the American the harbour of Meffina in Sicily to Ambassadors at Paris; they are dated France; releafe all prifoners conParis, March 18, and are little more fined on account of political opinions; than recapitulations of arguments prohibit the importation of all Engwhich have been urged again and lith commodities; and exclude from again.-The French Minister fill the harbours of the two Sicilies all contends the United States have in-English fhips of war and trading veffulted France; and the Americans, fels. With thefe demands the King that priority of complaint is on their of Naples has refufed to comply.fide. They however declare themfelves ready to confider and to com penfate any injury France may have fuffered from them. Auguft 1. By the Dublin Mail which arrived yesterday, it appears a very impor tant change has taken place in the In the fame Papers there is fome Irish Government: the two Meffrs. curious information, respecting a ru-O'Connors, and all others in custody, moured confpiracy of the Partizans of France to overthrow the American Government. have agreed to transport themselves upon condition of the fame terms being granted to the other perfons 29. Accounts from Naples men under accufations: Lord Cornwal tion that the preparations for war lis has agreed to thefe propofitions, are renewed there with redoubled vi-which will be immediately carried gour: all perfons of a proper age, into effect, and Oliver Bond, a prinand able, are required to take np cipal Director of the Rebels, will not arms, even the Clergy not excepted. be executed. Lord Cornwallis has The answer which fhall be brought taken a very critical fituation, and it is is ardently to be wifhed that his be-America as well as in Great Britain; nevolent measures may be attended and this over-anxiety of the Legiflature to guard its proceedings against popular difcuffion, is no very honourable proof of the purity of it's defigns, or of its being confcious of the rectitude that guides its acts. 16. Letters from Conftantinople ftate the anxiety and apprehenfion of the Porte to be very great, on account of the fleet from Toulon, under the command of Buonaparte ;— Great numbers of Greeks, both in the Morea and several islands of the Archipelago have been arrested, on fufpicion of being concerned in re 9. An Hungarian Gazette contains the following letter from Sem-volutionary projects, and fome of lin, dated July 9 : them ftrangled. The Turkish Empire in general feems to be much difturbed. The neighbouring Empire of Perfia is likewife in a very distracted state. 20. Great fears are entertained on the Continent of a fresh rupture between France and Auftria: the Emperor, alarmed at the great power of the French, which is continually encreafing, wishes for war, but the King of Pruffia, upon whofe decifion peace or war appears to depend, feems rather inclined for peace. "We have received from Belgrave the most disastrous accounts, relative to the attack made on Widdin on the 27th of June. The Captain Pacha, Ofman Pacha, and Muftapha Pacha, in confequence of orders they had received, endeavoured to carry Widdin by affault. They had fucceeded in taking the lower city, when they were received by a fire of grape fhot, fo ftrong and fo well directed, that in a fhort time the field of battle was covered with dead bodies. Paiwan Oglou then made a fally, which in- 22. By an overland dispatch, recreafed the confufion of the affail-ceived from the Eaft Indies by the ants and the flaughter became dread-way of Hamburgh, we have intelliful; the Captain Pacha and Ofman gence of the lofs of three of the ComPacha were killed, and Muftapha pany's ships, the Woodcot, the RayPacha faved himself with the greatest mond and the Princess Amelia; the difficulty. two former were attacked by a French frigate of 40 guns, in Tellicherry Roads, on the 25th of April, and after a fmart engagement were obliged to furrender. The lofs of the Princefs Amelia was occafioned by her being fet on fire accidentally, on the 5th of April, and in confequence of which many persons were deftroyed, though by far the greater number were happily faved. 11. Colonel Paravicini, who commanded the troops of the little Swifs Cantons in their gallant ftruggle a gainst the plundering invafion of France, has lately been arrested at Huninguen, and fent prifoner to Berne, in violation of the treaty between the French General and the Democratic Cantons. 13. The homeward-bound Leeward Island and Jamaica fleets are safely arrived at Bristol, Liverpool, &c. 26. Intelligence has been received within thefe few days of the safe arrival of General Buonaparte, with 15 14. A Bill has lately been brought or 20,000 men, at Alexandria, in into the American Congrefs, to re- Egypt, where he landed, after a ftrain the Liberty of the Prefs. Li-flight oppofition on the part of the bels have hitherto been punishable in Turkish garrison. THE Univerfalift's Miscellany For SEPTEMBER, 1798. W NATURAL HISTORY. (Continued from page 240.) ITH regard to the formation of Damps, we have as yet no certain theory; nor, though the experiments of ærologifts are abundantly able to fhew the compofition and manner of forming thofe noxious airs artificially, have they thrown much light on the method by which nature prepares them on a large fcale. There are two general ways. in which we may suppose this to be done; one, by the stagnation of atmospherical air in mines and coal-pits, and its converfion into thefe mephitic exhalations; the other, by their original formation from the phlogiftic, or other materials found in the earth, without any interference of the atmosphere. In favour of the former opinion it may be urged, that old pits, which have not been worked in for fome time, are never free from damps, efpecially thofe of the kind refembling fixed air; they alfo often abound with the imflammable kind. The fame is also true of old wells, or even cellars, and in fhort, in every place where the air ftagnates for any confiderable time. But, on the other hand, we have many inftances of fixed air coming out of the earth, and that in vast quantities, where no confiderable stagnation of the air could be fufpected; as for inftance, in the grotto del Cani, in Italy, where a continual ftream of it has iffued for ages. The fame feems to be the cafe with the tops of fome very high mountains, particularly Mont Blanc, the higheft in Europe; on the top of which, M. Lauffure found the atmosphere fo much impregnated with fixed air, that limewater expofed to it, very quickly gathered a crust on its furface. Sir W. Hamilton, in his account of the eruptions of Vefuvius, informs us, that the inhabitants in the neighbourVOL. II.. LI hood hood of that mountain, are infested with a kind of peftilential vapours, called by them mofetes, which iffue from the old lavas, thrown out by the volcano. These are of the nature of damps in our coal-mines, and iffue forth in fuch quantity, as either to infect the atmosphere to a confiderable diftance around, or to do mischief by being carried from place to place by the atmospherical currents, which are not strong enough to diffipate them for fome time. It is probable that the famiel, or fcorching winds, of fome eaftern countries, are no other than ftreams of fixed air of confiderable extent, which exert their usual and fatal effects on those who breathe them. A ftrong argument in favour of this opinion is, that thefe winds cannot cross a river (it being the nature of water to absorb fixed air) which always deftroys them. See Bruce's Travels. Hence it is probable, that these mephitic vapours are often met with in the open air, and confequently cannot always be the effect of ftagnation; nor, indeed, does it at all appear, that mere stagnation can affect the quality of the air, either one way or another. This fluid cannot have its properties altered but by fomething immerfed in it upon which it can act, and by means of which action, its component parts may be changed, or feparated. While this procefs is going on, there is generally, if not always, an abforpti n of air, accompanied, indeed, frequently with an emiffion of fome ærial fluid, equal in quantity to that which is abforbed. Mr. Scheel, in his Effay on Fire, has fhewn, by a number of experiments, the effect of expofing certain fubftances to the action of air, both on the fubftances themfelves and on ærial fluid. The refult of all thefe, is no other than what we might expect from a very flow combustion, and which perhaps may, on enquiry, be found to be the only way by which it can be decompofed. If the fubftance expofed to the air was capable of abforbing that part of the fluid which had undergone a change, there was always an evident diminution, but not otherwife. Thus, on inclofing fome cauftic fixed alkili in a phial of atmospheric air, a con derable diminution took place; and the alkali, by becoming faturated with fixed air, fhewed that a decompofition had taken place, and that the dephlogisticated part of the air had feparated from the other, detached itself to to the fixed alkali, and become fixed air, by uniting with a certain proportion of phlogistic matter. Hence we may conceive, that in any place . place where the air was confined over a vast quantity of cauftic alkaline falt, it would foon become unfit for the purpofe of animal life, and we might say that a damp would be formed. Let us now fuppofe that, instead of the alkaline salt, a quantity of burning charcoal is confined in a place where there is not a proper circulation of air, and we fhall foon fee that a damp of the very fame kind with that called by the miners the choak-damp will be formed. But this, according to the late discoveries, takes place by reason of the diffipation of the charcoal by heat, and its union with the dephlogisticated part of the atmosphere, which always conftitutes fixed air. In this cafe, however, the damp must be but of short continuance, and will foon be diffipated after the charcoal is extinguished; but if, instead of the charcoal, we substitute a large quantity of fermenting liquor, from whence the fixed air is naturally emitted, a damp will be formed much more difficult to be diffipated than the former, because it renews itfelf in a very fhort time; and, unless there is a very conftant circulation of air, it will be dangerous to enter the place where it is. From the last example we may form an idea of the manner in which these damps, confifting chiefly of fixed air, are formed. There always is a gentle heat in the bowels of the earth, and almost all terrestrial fubftances will emit fixed air on being expofed to heat. On the large scale of nature, the quantity of materials may compensate for the weakness of heat, and thus occafion a continual emiffion of fixed air; which, though flow in comparison of what is effected in our expetiments by a violent artificial heat, may yet accumulate in the narrow spaces of mines in such a manner as to be very troublesome. In volcanic countries, where the heat of the earth is much greater, the emiffion of fixed air is in proportion; and thus we account for that continual stream of it, which iffues from the grotto del Cani, and perhaps other places. It may perhaps be objected to the above, that if there is a continual difpofition in the earth to produce fixed air, the whole furface of it must pour out such a quantity as would destroy every living creature upon it. This indeed might be granted, were the furface of the earth quite bare, and deftitute of vegetation; but we know that fixed air is cornpofed of the dephlogisticated kind and phlogifton; and that thefe two ingredients, after being once joined, may be feparated LI 2 |