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provoked the people of England, and against a rent-tax that Wilhelm Tell provoked the people of Switzerland to rife, by an affault on the tax-gatherers. Such taxes have, therefore, the further demerit of infecurity: the bow-ftring of taxation is leaft apt to fnap when compofed of many threads.

TOUR OF ENGLAND.

(Continued from page 276.) Journal of a Tour through almost every county in England, and part of Wales, by Mr. JOHN HOUSMAN, of Corby, near Carlisle; who was engaged to make the Tour by a gentleman of diftinction, for the purpofe of collecting authentic information relative to the state of the poor. The Journal comprifes an account of the general appearance of the country, of the foil, furface, buildings, &c. with obfervations agricultural,

commercial, &c.

JOVEMBER 4, went from Mon

deal of corn and turnips, but the latter are fown broad-caft, very thin, feem unhoed, and are bad crops. Treftray is a finall ftraggling village, where there is an iron forge belonging to Harford, efq. of Bristol. Jones, efq. has an elegant

feat in this neighbourhood.

November 5. Treftray to Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, feven miles. The country as before defcribed, except in the quantity of fruit which is lefs here. The method of ploughing as, mentioned in yesterday's journal. I to-day obferved a farmer fowing wheat near Abergavenny a yoke of eight oxen were drawing one plough, which were attended by two men, one to drive the cattle, and the other to manage the plough; another yoke of eight oxen were drove up and down the ridges after ploughing, in order to fadden or comprefs the earth; an unnecessary operation. The farmer valued thefe oxen at 111. each, one with another; their motion

tray, in Monmouth was extremely flow, and confequently lit

fhire, 13 miles. The foil of this district is generally a dryifh gravelly loam, the furface very hilly, but the country extremely pleafant, and the road good; pieces of wood-land on the fides of hills; farms and fields fmall; neat cottages here and there; fruit in abundance. I frequently faw 60 or 80 bushels of apples lying in heaps previous to their being made into cyder: many of thefe apples are reditreaks. Befides the regular orchards, apple and pear trees are often planted on hedges, and their fruit drops into the road, of which the proprietor feem very carelefs. The farmers here plough much with oxen, and thefe animals are often yoked to a plough along with horfes, fometimes three or four horfes and two or more oxen in one draught; they are bufy fowing wheat on three or four bout ridges. The narrowness of thefe ridges is, in my opinion, a great difadvantage; nor is that fyftem at all neceffary in fuch land, where no water can hurt it; and even where it is fubject to that inconvenience, water-furrows cut in the hollow parts would effectually fcreen it, at least, as well as fmall ridges. In this day's journey I miftook the road a little, and therefore was under the neceffity of crolling the country a few miles along by roads in order to reach the place I wanted to be at. The villages and places I was directed to enquire for,have all Welsh names, and the cottagers and farmers moftly fpeaking in that language, I found fome difficulty in obtaining proper directions. This part of the country produces a good

the work was done in a day. In the fame field one man was fowing wheat, and another harrowing with three horfes, while the mafter fat on horfeback directing the feveral operations of this poffe. This field had grown clover one year; the foil a fine and rather light loam. Thus here are five men, fixteen oxen, and three horfes, doing what in Cumberland or Norfolk would be done to equal perfection, and almoft in as little time by one man and

two horfes. I in vain endeavoured to laugh or reafon this farmer out of his abfurd fyftem; cuftom and prejudice had taken too deep root in his mind. Abergavenny is an ordinary built market town, containing about 2500 inhabitants, and is a place of no trade nor manufacture. Farms in the vicinity are generally small, about 401. to sol. a year; rent 10s. to 31. 10s. per acre. The town ftands on a level, but feveral hills furround it at a fmall diftance, fome of which are covered with the fmaller forts of wood.

November 7. I went from Abergavenny to Hereford, 24 miles, in this part of my tour I came in light of Glamorganfhire, and was nearly touching Brecknockshire, both of which feem rather mountainous or hilly. About fourteen or fifteen miles the country is very hilly, and the road, which in general is good, paffes along narrow vallies. The foil is rather light and gravelly; fields fmall; hedges planted with thorn and hazel, but most of the latter: corn of all forts raifed in great quantities, but the ground does

not

hot feem to produce weighty crops. The hills are many of them planted with hazel and other finall forts of wood; small farmhoufes and cottages appear on the hillfides, and the whole has very much the caft of fome of the western parts of Cumberland, only in the latter place there are not thofe large orehards to be seen which here prefent themfelves at every turn.In the other district of this day's journey the fcene changes: the furface is level, foil contains much clay, and is very fertile in the production of grain. Monmouthfhire feems to poffefs plenty of fine transparent brooks; a good air; dry foil; and naturally produces fern. Here are alfo much wood, and a great many fruittrees: the face of the country is extremely uneven, and in fome places mountainous: both parishes and churches are fmall. Sheep are of various forts, but rather small than otherwife; cattle large, and pretty well made. Corn feems the farmers' principal dependence; they are now bufied in fowing wheat, the ridges for which are generally no more than four times about: turnips are alfo cultivated; they are fown broad-caft, and never after wards touched, and confequently the crops are very poor. Hereford ftands in a fine, level, fertile country; is a clean, open, well-built, and pleasant town, containing about 7,500 inhabitants: the river Wye paffes clofe to it. This town carries on no manufacture of confequence,

nor does it feem to have much trade: many of its streets are fpacious, and the houfes well built. I spent the Sunday afternoon in walking down the fide of the river Wye to Holm Lacey, five miles. Holm Lacey is a feat of the Duke of Norfolk, who has a very large eftate here. The houfe is fmall, but beautifully fituated in a pleasant and large park; and in the neighbourhood of feveral other fine feats and parks. The vale formed by the river is exquifitely beautiful, and very fertile. A great quantity of large timber grows in his Grace's parks, and other grounds; but this country, in general, is very woody, and contains an immenfe number of fruit-trees. The Duke has got two fine clks in one of his parks. All the country round Hereford, fo tar as I have feen, is pleafant, the foil a fertile loam, and produces much wheat and other grain. The river fometimes overflows its banks, and does damage.

November 11, went from Hereford to Prefteign, in Radnorshire, 23 miles-A fruitful and pleasant country; the foil a clayey loam, and produces much wheat MONTHLY MAG. No. XLI.

and other grain. This is about the mid. dle of the wheat feed-time, and the farmers are bufily employed in that business; they plough with three or four horfes; but I obferved two ploughs going in one field in a fingular manner; they were each drawn by three horses, and had each one man only attending them. This ingenious farmer, although he had no notion of yoking two horses a-breaft, contrived to fix wheels to the plough in such a way that after being placed in the furrow at every turn, it will go regularly of itself, and the ploughman has nothing more to do than guide the horfes. By that means the expence of a driver is faved; however, the improvement can only be adopted where there are few ftones, and on level,

loose ground. The furface is pretty level, till I come near Wales, where a hilly country again commences: most of thofe hills are beautifully covered with wood. Farms along this district appear pretty large, and the foil productive. The turnip culture, however, is moft wretched; the crops are never thinned nor hoed, and are bad in the extreme.-Here I faw feveral fmall fields of hops. The produce of the orchards is what many of the farmers chiefly depend on for the payment of their rents in this day's journey I met with more fruit ground than I had feen in any other district; and the crops of apples and pears feem to have been pretty good this year. The people are now pulling them and making cyder and perry, which operation is very fimple. The fruit is first laid in heaps a few days, then mashed or bruised with a large ftone turned by a horfe; it is afterwards put into a hair prefs, which is fcrewed down with a long lever, and the liquor runs out into a fort of trough from which it is immediately taken in that state and put into the hogfhead, where it remains till it clears, and becomes fit for ufe. Among feveral large heaps of apples there was one which I eftimated to contain 400 bushels. Buildings are rather old fashioned, particularly towards Wales, where they are generally of wood or lath and plater: I paffed through one large village, or rather, I believe, a small market town, where I did not see a single stone or brick houfe. I fuppofe a want of freestone, and the great abundance of wood in thefe parts in former times, has given rife to this fyftem of building. This is even yet a very woody country. The fheep fall, want horns, and are white faced. Herefordshire feems, in general, to enjoy a falubrious and temperate air,

E

and

and plenty of fine water: it is level, very fertile, and woody, and produces every fort of grain, particularly wheat, in abundance: farms are rather larger than in fome counties that I have lately paffed. But this county is most noted for the great quantity and good quality of its cyder and perry: it is felling this year at from 30s. to 40s. per hogfhead of 110 to 120 gal lons; it is found cheaper than malt liquor, and forms the common drink of all ranks of people. It is certainly an overfight in the people of landed property that apples, &c. are not more cultivated in other parts of the kingdom: the notion of their not fucceeding is in my opinion a great miftake.Prefteign is a fmall, ancient looking market town; the furrounding country hilly, but pleasant enough, and the foil good. Farms are from 30l. to 300l. a year, and rent per acre ros. to 6os.: it is neither a manufacturing nor a commercial country but chiefly inhabited by farmers.

(To be continued. Y

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

THE THROUGH the medium of your widely extended Magazine, I beg leave to make known to the proprietors and projectors of canal navigations, that I have invented a lock, by which veffels may be conveyed through any fall with half, and, in fome inftanees, one fourth of the water that is ufed upon the prefent plan. The improvement is upon a fimple hydroftatic principle, and I fhall be able to demonftrate the truth of it in one minute, to any gentleman or company, who are defirous of purchafing the invention.

FREDERICK HILL. Loughborough, Jan. 20, 1799.

For the Monthly Magazine.

YOUR Magazine to amples in oppofi

OUR Magazine, Mr. Editor, is, I

tion to convenient truths. The truth of an historical fact, more particularly when it involves important moral confiderations, mult always be an interefting object of ⚫nquiry. Should the characters of individuals, or bodies of men, ftand implicated, the path of honourable exculpation is open; the genuine friends to freedom of enquiry, having neither the defire, nor the need, of thofe little arts which mark the conduct of their opponents. For the fake of poor humanity, fo often outraged,

and the character of the French clergy, many of whom were among the most enlightened and humane of men, it were to be hoped the following corrected statement will prove falfe; and it is recom mended to the Abbe BARUEL, or fome one of his friends, to prove its falfehood.

It is related in Moore's Narrative, and elsewhere, that in the reign of Louis the 15th, the young Chevalier De la Bar, a youth under twenty years of age, was beheaded at Amiens, for ftriking the ftatue of the holy Virgin with a fabre, in a fit of inebriety. For what reafons I do not immediately recollect, but an English literary gentleman fufpecting the truth of the relation, as it regarded the mode of the Chevalier's execution, made it his bufinefs, fome years ago, to enquire on the fpot; the refult, which was as fol lows, he communicated to me. The unfortunate young man was condemned to the horrid punishment of being broken alive upon the wheel. Great interceffion was made with the King, on the score of, the culprit's youth, his noble extraction, and the intoxicated ftate in which he was, during the commiffion of the fuppofed crime; and his Majefty was beginning to relent, when a certain bishop, near fourfcore years of age, haftening to the royal prefence, intreated, or rather infifted, that his majesty meddled not in the affair, but that he should fuffer the law to have its

courfe; vehemently urging, that the deareft interefts of religion were concerned The King, on this, fuppofed himself bound in confcience, to facrifice the duties of humanity to thofe of religion; and the pious patriarch, dreading the effect of farther powerful folicitation on the mind of his royal difciple, departed with all fpeed for Amiens, and caufed the dread ful fentence to be immediately executed; and was even perfonally prefent, while the coup de grace was delayed, and the miferable wretch kept in the most excruciating torture, an hour and half!

VERUS DEMOCRATICUS.

P. S. I have been affured, by a French emigrant, of honourable as well as literary character, that the particulars relative to the death of Voltaire, D'Alembert, and Diderot, into a certain Magazine, are to his perfonal given by a certain author, and lately copied knowledge, totally and circumftantially falfe, and never intended to be otherwife, tham conveniently true. Being in need of farther information on this head, I should feel myself highly obliged by the communications of any correfpondent of the Monthly Magazine.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

HERE are prejudices, the remova

ALTHOUGH I am umble to say T of which require a previous prepa

information refpecting the origin of hatmaking, I am inclined to fuggeft a fmall acceffion to his kitchen library, if you will allow me to do fo through the medium of your Magazine.

With the exception of Dr. BEDDOES's well-known "History of Ifaac Jenkins," I think Mrs. Trimmer's writings are better calculated to intereft and inftruct the poor than thofe of any other perfon I have met. She adapts the style and phrafeology of her little tracts to their tafte and comprehenfion, without reminding them of her condefcenfion, or their inferiority; and her piety is of that kind which has a tendency to mend the temper, as well as to regulate the conduct.

י.

"The Life of Benjamin Franklin,' written by himself, is a work of general utility: the narrative is remarkably interefting, and while the writer must be allowed to have poffeffed uncommon powers of mind, his life would feem to teach, that perfons may arrive at eminence by the exercise alone of temperance, industry, and frugality. But I forgot, I have only to fuggeft books, and not to make comments on them.

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Life of Benjamin Franklin," written by himself.

"Franklin's Effays," and "Poor Richard's Almanack.

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ration of the public mind. Before even an attempt be made practically to fubdue established errors, it is neceffary to render people willing to be convinced. No ftronger inftance can, perhaps, be adduced of a fettled adherence to one opinion, at leaft on fcientific fubjects, than that which we find in certain mufical amateurs ; I mean the partifans of the old school. They are fo involved in their partiality to what is called ancient mufic, as abfolutely to be perfuaded that all genius neceffary to the production of found harmony and original melody, has long fince been extinct: to be a modern, is to be difqualified for their approbation.

The names of Purcel, Handel, Corelli, and Geminiani, instead of being held forth as ftimulatives to rivalship, or to imitation, are hung in terrorem, over the heads of living compofers; and are only employed to check thofe exertions which they ought to excite and encourage. Fortunately, this fubject of complaint has not exifted in the fame degree in literature, or the other arts and sciences. Here the fields of improvement have been left fairly open, and the endeavour to furpass former works has, under due encouragement, given birth to more ufeful difcoveries and nobler fyltems of thinking, than thofe known to our forefathers. Had the injuftice I am pointing out been exercised towards the great mafters above cited; had they, because they were moderns, been confidered as incapable of fucceeding to the merits of their profeffional ancestors, fo great a difadvantage muft, in fome meafure, have fuppreffed thofe talents which they fo forcibly displayed.

Perhaps, in no province of the harmonic art, has this obftacle to dawning talent more formidably obtruded itfelf among the lovers of ancient mufic, than in that of oratorial compofition. With them it is not fufficient to allow that Handel's facred dramas have been hitherto unequalled; we are obliged to grant that he towers above every thing to be expected from future genius; and that in this department all human ability muft fink before him. This prejudice, Si, has unhappily extended itself to fome modern profeffors of eminence; and I am intimate with a master of high and deserved repute, who, on being preffed by his friends to compofe an oratorio, faid No

mam

man ought to attempt fuch a task after Mr. Hande!. No one, I believe, ad mires more than myfelt the hitherto unrivalled excellence of that illuftrious German; yet, I have been careful not to fuffer that admiration to inftil the fear of being loft in the blaze of his tranfcendant powers; nor to thwart the hope of exhibiting fome faint beams uneclipfed by his fplendor. It was with this emulous fpirit that Beaumont and Fletcher, undazzled by the radiance of nature's fweeteft. child,' afpired to his path of glory, and

run

Their brilliant courfe round Shakespeare's golden fun.

Prompted by the fame fentiment, I have been laborious in my art, and my productions in manufcript are voluminous. The day is approaching on which I pro pole to make my first appeal to the public judgment, I am confequently deeply interelted in the removal of a prejudice which oppofes every modern effort to en

fure applaufe in the fublimer walks of the fcience. He who at the moment he is preparing a facred compofition for public performance, is told by the advocates for the mufic of the laft age, that no man, after Handel, will ever be qualified to compofe an oratorio, cannot but feel the weight of an opinion fo detrimental to hinflf and every future compofer. It was therefore my wifh, through the medium of your widely-circulated publication, to foften the obduracy of this prejudice; and to expatiate on the injurious nature of an attachment, which, while it obftructs the prefent candidate for reputation, deprives the public of the nobleft efforts of living talent. Let me then hope, Sir, that I may induce the friends of anif not with indulgence, to the compoficient harmony to liften with impartiality,

tions of thofe moderns who revere the old

matters, and who endeavour to form their bafis. ftyle on the fame great THOMAS BUSBY. Vauxhall-Road, Jay. 25, 1799.

PROCEEDINGS at large of the NATIONAL INSTITUTE of France, on the 4th of July, 1798, as published by the Secretaries.

NOTICE of the Labours of the Clafs of Phyfical Sciences during the last quarterly Sitting, by Citizen LASSUS, Secretary. HE clafs of Phylical Sciences, durTH ing the three months which have juft elapfed, has heard the reading of many memoirs relative to chemistry, natural history, rural economy, and the art of medicine, as applied to men and animals.

Citizen GUYTON, in treating of anomalies in the concatenation of affinities, has fhewn that thefe apparent deviations open to chemifts a vait field for new difcoveries. He has examined the

reafons why there is no combination between the azote and the oxigen which exift fo abundantly in the atmoiphere, and in the ftate of expanfion commonly fo favourable to an union. He points out the means of producing it by the expreffion of caloric in an apparatus capable of fupporting nine or ten times the weight of the atmosphere.

The fame chemift has also been making experiments on the reciprocal decompofition of falts at a temperature below ice, a phenomenon the cbfervation of which beconies fo important in the operation and management of faline fubftances. He difcovers the caule of it in the

difplacing of the caloric, which becomes a difaggregative power. Since chemifts have directed their researches to the matter of heat, it is well known that coal is one of the weakest conductors of it. Citizen GUYTON has demonftrated by pyrometrical experiments, that a fubftance inclofed in coals, only receives at the fame fire two-thirds of the heat of a fimilar fubftance placed in filicious fand, The confequences to be drawn from this fact, may irve to rectify the proceffes of reduction and fufion employed to the prefent time.

Many chemical operations have been hitherto interrupted for want of a power to augment the intenfity of the fire. The application of an hydraulic principle to the coniti uction of Macquer's furnace, has enabled Citizen GUYTON to carry heat to fuch a point, that a crucible of platina was beginning to enter into fufion; a circuitance not obferved be

fore.

We have had occafion to remark, in the preceding fitting, that the colouring matter of the emerald of Pau is not iron, as KLAPROTH, a Pruffian chemift, had announced, but rather the oxide of a new metal difcovered by Citizen VAUQUELIN, in the red lead of Siberia. The laft

analyfes

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