tematic intereft of government, and to the resources of a boundlefs civil lift. Certainly fomething may be done, and ought to be done, towards leffening that influence in elections; and this will be neceffary upon a plan either of longer or shorter duration of parliament. But nothing can so perfectly remove the evil, as not to render fuch contentions too frequently repeated, utterly ruinous first to independence of fortune, and then to independence of fpirit. As I am only giving an opinion on this point, and not at all debating it in an adverse line, I hope I may be excused in another observation. With great truth I may aver, that I never remember to have talked on this fubject with any man much conversant with public business, who confidered short parliaments as a real improvement of the conftitution. Gentlemen, warm in a popular caufe, are ready enough to attribute all the declarations of fuch perfons to cor rupt motives. But the habit of affairs, if, on one hand, it tends to corrupt the mind, furnishes it, on the other, with the means of better information. The authority of fuch perfons will always have some weight. It may stand upon a par with the fpeculations of those who are lefs practifed in bufinefs; and who, with perhaps purer intentions, have not fo effectual means of judging. It is, befides, an effect of vulgar and puerile malignity, to imagine, that every ftatefman is of course corrupt, and that his opinion, upon every conftitutional point, is folely formed upon fome finifter interest.

"The next favourite remedy is a place-bill. The fame principle guides in both; I mean the opinion which is entertained by many of the infallibility of laws and regulations, in the cure of public diftempers. Without being as unreasonably doubtful as many are unwifely confident, I will only say, that this alfo is a matter very well worthy of serious and mature reflection. It is not easy to foresee, what the effect would be, of disconnecting with parliament the greateft part of those who hold civil employments, and of such mighty and important bodies as the military and naval establishments. It were better, perhaps, that they should have a corrupt intereft in the forms of the conftitution, than that they should have none at all. This is a question altogether different from the difqualification of a particular defcription of revenue officers from feats in parliament; or, perhaps, of all the lower forts of them from votes in elections. In the former cafe, only the few are efVOL. II. fecteds

Ee

fected; in the latter, only the inconfiderable. But a great official, a great profeffional, a great military and naval interest, all neceffarily comprehending many people of the first weight, ability, wealth, and fpirit, has been gradually formed in the kingdom. These new interefts must be let into a share of reprefentation, elfe poffibly they may be inclined to destroy thofe inflitutions of which they are not permitted to partake. This is not a thing to be trified with; nor is it every well-meaning man that is fit to put his hands to it."

Who will fay that these declarations of Mr. Burke, though written on the start of his public life, are not, in fact, fubftance, and effect, the fame as thofe with which he has finished his courfe? He now proceeds at large, in his difapprobation of our reforming measures. This he does in a manner fo forcible, and fo firmly diftant from all the late ideas of reform, that we would cite them, if at any rate our limits would indulge us, as a complete vindication of his oppofition to the democracy of this day.

The ftyle of this production (Thoughts on the Caufe of the prefent Difcontents) is very different to the latter writings of Mr. Burke. It is firm, animated, and graceful. But it has none of that fplendid imagery, nor is it tinctured with thofe high conceits in which its author fo generally, and fo profufely delighted.

A Letter to certain Gentlemen, on their Condemnation of his Support to measures calculated for alle viating the Restrictions on the Irish Commerce, and his confequent rejection at the election of members for Briftol, are infinitely honourable to the memory of Burke.

(To be concluded in our next.},

ANECDOTE

ORIGINAL ANECDOTE OF LOUIS XVI. Related by an Emigrant Lady of high Rank, who I heard it from the Mouth both of the King and his Attendant.

A

BOUT three years previous to the revolution, a poor aged woman having by fome accidental means found the opportunity of approaching the king, whilft his majefty was walking near one of his palaces, exclaimed to him in a refolute and fullen tone, 66 Sire, I want bread." The king frowning, waved his hand, as a fignal for her to depart, whilft he turned about: at the instant an attendant arrived, but before he could get near enough to stop the woman's farther difcourfe, The made the following prophetic exclamation in the full hearing of the king. "Ah! Louis! one of those palaces, from which the poor are now driven with fo much contempt, fhali shortly be your prifon."

ANECDOTE RESPECTING THE LATE EARL OF

CHATHAM.

IN 1765, a falmon was prefented to the late earl of Chatham, by a private inhabitant of Wareham, in Dorfetfhire; in the neighbourhood of which is the refidence of fir William Pyncent, his great benefactor, with this remarkable note accompanying it :-I am an Englishman, and therefore love liberty and you :-Sir, be pleafed to accept of this fish as a mark of my esteem: were every fcale a diamond, it should have been at your Service. S.

COMPARATIVE ILLUSTRATIONS

OF

THE CAUSES OF THE ASCENT OF SMOKE.

BY BENJAMIN, COUNT RUMFORD.

IF fmall leaden bullets, hot, be

with peas, and the whole well fhaken in a bufhel, the fhot will feparate from the peas, and will take its place at the bottom of the bufhel; forcing by its greater weight the peas which are lighter, to move upwards, contrary to their natural tendency, and take their places

above.

If water and linfeed oil, which is lighter than water, be mixed in a veffel by fhaking them together, upon fuffering this mixture to remain quiet, the water will defcend and occupy the bottom of the veffel, and the oil, being forced out of its place by the greater preffure downwards of the heavier liquid, will be obliged to rife and fwim on the furface of the water.

If a bottle containing linfeed oil be plunged in water with its mouth upwards, and open, the oil will afcend out of the bottle, and paffing upwards through the mafs of water, in a continued ftream, will spread itself over its furface.

In like manner when two fluids of any kind, of different denfities, come into contact, or are mixed with each other, that which is the lightest will be forced upwards by that which is the heavieft.

And as heat rarefies all bodies, fluids as well as folids, air as well as water, or mercury, it follows that two portions of the fame fluid, at different temperatures, being brought into contact with each other, that portion which is the hotteft being more rarefied, or fpecifically lighter than that which is colder, muft be forced up. wards by this laft. And this is what always happens in fact.

When

When hot and cold water are mixed, the hottest part of the mixture will be found to be at the furface above; -and when cold air is admitted into a warmed room, it will always be found to take its place at the bottom of the room, the warmer air being in part expelled, and in part forced upwards to the top of the room.

Both air and water being transparent and colourless fluids, their internal motions are not eafily discovered by the fight; and when thefe motions are very flow, they make no impreffion whatever on any of our fenfes, confequently they cannot be detected by us without the aid of fome mechanical contrivance :-But where we have reafon to think that those motions exift, means fhould be fought, and may often be found, for rendering them perceptible.

If a bottle containing hot water tinged with logwood, or any other colouring drug, be immerfed with its mouth open, and upwards, into a deep glafs jar, filled with cold water, the afcent of the hot water from the bottle, through the mafs of cold water, will be per. fectly visible through the glafs.-Now nothing can be more evident than that both of thefe fluids are forced, or pushed, and not drawn upwards. Smoke is frequently faid to be drawn up the chimney;—and that a chimney draws well, or ill;--but these are careless expreffions, and lead to very erroneous ideas refpecting the cause of the afcent of fmoke; and confequently tend to prevent the progress of improvements in the management of fires. The experiment just mentioned with the coloured water is very ftriking and beautiful, and it is well calculated to give a juft idea of the cause of the afcent of fmoke. The cold water in the jar, which, in confequence of its fuperior weight or denfity, forces the heated and rarefied water in the bottle to give place to it, and to move upwards out of its way, may represent the cold air of the atmosphere, while the rifing column of coloured water will reprefent the column of fmoke. which afcends from a fire.