Reflections, Maxims, &c. ...................................... 445 410 'THE MARKETS. SOME say it is the abundance of money, some say the combination of growers and factors, some the wind, and some the weather, that occasions the rapid rise of every description of provisions-wheat, oats, pease, all sorts of grain. November teems with smiles like May-Mark-lane full of gaiety-the Quakers shake hands, and chuckle as merry as horse-jockeys after a good fair-day at Rumford. Wheat is 50s. to 80s.; rye, 23s. to 34s.; barley, 42s. to 53s.; malt, 66s. to 73s. ; oats, 19s. to 32s. per quarter; flour, 60s. to 65s. MEAT-All the low-lands overflowed-sheep dying of the rot by scores; mutton, fit for market, getting up very fast; beef, prime, brings above 6d. the pound wholesale; mutton, a halfpenny more; veal, 8d. the pound; pork, the same price. A prime piece of roasting beef is worth 9d. the lb.; a leg of mutton, 9d.; a fillet of veal, and a loin of pork, 10d. FISH-" It's no fish ye're buying; it's men's lives. Monkbarns," says Walter Scott's fish-wife, in the Antiquary," and many a cobble now meets an untoward fate, and many a fisherman a watery grave, in obtaining finny dainties to supply the London markets."-Not much fish now at market, and what there is, brings a good price. BREAD-The highest price, 1ld. the 4-lb. loaf; good ready-money bread, 9d. COALS, laid in, 45s. to 52s. the chaldron. THE DRUNKEN WIFE.* Pierre Amie Lain, a French physician, wrote a treatise to prove that the human body, and particularly the female, is liable to catch fire from being long accustomed to the imbibing of spirituous liquors, and cites no less than twelve cases in which it appears to have taken place. Would to God that self-combustion were the only evil attending drunkenness in • Owing to the illness of our engraver, we are reluctantly compelled to postpone the engraving illustrative of this article until a future Number females! But, alas! not only their own hearts are seared and destroyed, but those of their dearest kindred. Let us picture a family apparently opulent, dragging on a life made miserable by a drunken wife. Let us imagine this wretched woman just returned from her morning visit made to one of her own viscious habit; her senseless body reclines in the attitude of a midnight prostitute; her habiliments dishevelled and on fire, while her hapless husband is obliged to perform the office of a mother to her poor little babes, one of which stands behind its brutal parent's chair, weeping for her situation! are Drunkenness in the husband and father of a family, although a vice to be universally condemned, is not, by many degrees, of that odious character as the same vice in a wife and mother. In the former case, the children are attended to as far as the means scraped from the drunkard's extravagance will allow; even the wretch himself is nursed and relieved by the kind offices of his sober ard attentive partner; but in the other case, oh! it scarcely bears reflection! Be the man as kind and as attentive as man may be, he cannot perform those duties so requisite to the comfort, to the existence of the little ones; the affairs of life call him from home -his infants must await his return in misery, crying round their unfeeling, self-degraded mother; and when their heart-broken father does return, he is little calculated to afford maternal comfort. They have no regular meals -their persons are neglected-they rise of their own accord, and go or not go to bed as they feel disposed, unless the father be present-carelessness and sorrow mark their growing years still stronger as they grow, and they learn to look upon their mother first with contempt, and then with hatred. What becomes of the husband? If he be not a man of a thousand, he is driven to a premature grave, and perhaps by the same road to that grave on which his wretched wife goes. "O thou invincible spirit of Wine! TRADES.NO. IV. The Paper Maker. Before the invention of paper, the ancients used palm-tree leaves, table books of wax, ivory, and lead; linen and cotton cloths, the intestines or skins of different animals, and the inner bark of plants. In some places and ages they have even written on the skins of fishes; on the intestines of serpents, and in others, on the backs of tortoises. There are few plants but have, at some time, been used for paper or books, and hence the several terms bibels, codex, liber, folium, tabula, &c. which express the different parts on which they were written; and though in Europe all these disappeared upon the introduction of the papyrus and parchments, yet in some other countries the use of them remains to this day. In Ceylon, for instance, they write on the leaves of the tallipot; and the Bramin MSS. in the Tulinga language, sent to Oxford from Fort St. George, are written on leaves of plants. The paper which had been for a long time used by the Romans and Greeks, was made of the bark of an aquatic plant called papyrus, whence the name paper. The internal parts of the bark of this plant were the only ones that were made into paper, and the manner of the manufacture was as follows: Strips or leaves of every length that could be obtained being laid upon a table, other strips were placed across, and pasted to them by means of water and a press, so that this paper was a texture of several strips; and it even appears that in the time of the emperor Claudius, the Romans made paper of these layers. The Roman paper received a size as well as ours, which was prepared with flour of wheat, diluted with boiling water, on which were thrown some drops of vinegar, or crumbs of leavened bread diluted with boiling water, and passed through a boltingcloth, being afterwards beaten with a hammer. Paper made in this manner with the bark of the Egyptian plant, was was that which was chiefly used till the tenth century, when cotton used for making paper by pounding it and reducing it to a pulp. This method, known in China some ages before, appeared at last in the empire of the East; yet we are without any certain knowledge of the author, or the time and place of this invention. Father Montfaucon says, that cotton-paper began to be uesd in the empire of the East about the ninth century. There are several Greek manuscripts, both on parchment and cotton-paper, that bear the date of the time in which they were written; but the greatest part are without date. The most ancient manuscript on cotton-paper with a date, is that in the library of the king of France, numbered 2,889, written in 1050; another in the emperor's library, dated 1095. Chinese paper is of various kinds: some is made of the bark of trees, especially the mulberry-tree and the elm, but chiefly of the bamboo and cotton-tree. In fact, almost each province has its several sorts of paper. The inventor of the linen-rag paper, whoever he was, is entitled to the gratitude of posterity, who are enjoying the advantages of the discovery. The cotton-paper, though an improvement, was but a rude and coarse article, unfit for any of the nice purposes to which paper is now applied. The perfection of the art of paper-making consisted in finding a material which could be procured in sufficient quantities, and would be easy of preparation. Such paper is now in use, of which we shall endeavour to describe the manufacture. The art of making paper, as at present practised, is not of a very ancient date; paper made of linen rags appears to have been first used in Europe towards the beginning of the thirteenth century, but of its origin nothing can with certainty be affirmed. Linen, such as our shirts are made of, is spun from flax which grows in the fields; and from linen rags, th is, from shirts and other artic dress when worn thread-bare, fine white paper is manufactured: of course, every piece of rag, however small, should be preserved, and not thrown into the fire; and latterly, indeed, from the increased use of calico as an article of clothing, cotton rags are become of almost as much importance as linen rags, and should have equal care devoted to their preservation. The first thing to be done towards the formation of paper, is to put the rags into a machine or cylinder formed of wire, which is made to turn round with great velocity to whirl out the dust; they are then sorted according to their different qualities; after which, they are put into a large cistern, or trough, perforated with holes, through which a stream of clear water constantly flows. In this cistern is placed a cylinder, about two feet long, set thick with rows of iron spikes. At the bottom of the trough there are corresponding rows of spikes. The cylinder is made to whirl round with inconceivable rapidity, and with the iron teeth rends and tears the cloth to atoms, till, with the assistance of the water, it is reduced to a thin pulp. By the same process all the impurities are cleared away, and it is restored to its original whiteness. This fine pulp is next put into a copper of warm water, and here it becomes the substance of paper and ready for the mould; for which purpose it is conveyed to the vat. This vat is made of wood, generally about five feet broad, and two or three feet in depth. It is kept to a proper temperature by means of a charcoal fire. (To be continued.) LAWS RELATING TO BILLS OF EX- (Continued from p. 424). Time of Presenting a Bill or Note for The day of presentment is not reckoned as one of the days after date or sight. Therefore, if a bill payable ten days after sight, is presented for acceptance on the 11th of the month, Where the time of payment is A presentment on the second day of grace, where the third is not a day of public rest, is a mere nullity. Promissory notes are placed on the same footing as bills of exchange; and when payable at a stated time, are entitled to the same days of grace. In all cases, bills for payment If the holder makes a second pre- ment. t Acceptance irrevocable. It may here be generally observed, that as the interests of third persons are generally involved in the efficacy of a bill; an acceptance will, when the bill is in the hands of a third person, be obligatory on the drawee, though he received no consideration for it, and though that circumstance was known to the holder. Upon this principle it has been decided, that an executor giving his acceptance on account of debts due from his testator, has by so doing admitted assets, and, in case there should be no effects in his hands of the testator's, he has by such acceptance made himself personally responsible. The obligation of an acceptance may be considered as irrevocable; nor can it be, generally speaking, discharged by any other act than payment by either the acceptor or some other competent person. If, however, by the laws of a foreign country, where the acceptance was made, the obligation is by an act vacated, it will no longer have any obligatory force in this country. Holder of a Bill receiving Part Payment. It now appears that if the holder of a bill receive a part of the money from the drawer, and take from him a promise upon the back of the bill for payment of the residue at an enlarged time, it does not of itself amount to a discharge of the acceptor. A neglect to call upon an acceptor, or an indulgence to any of the other parties, shall not be construed as discharging the acceptor. Indorsements. In transferring bills or notes payable to order, it is necessary, in addition to delivery, that there should be something by which the payee may appear to express his order. This additional circumstance is an indorsement, so called from being usually written on the back, though an order of transfer would doubtless be equally valid if written at the bottom, or on the face of the instrument. An indorsement implies an obligation or undertaking from the in dorser to the person in whose favour such indorsement is made, and to every other person to whom the instrument may be afterwards transferred, that the bill shall be accepted' or paid when presented, or that he will be responsible for all expenses attending its being dishonoured. An indorsement is the act by which the holder of a negociable instrument transfers his right to another person, who is termed the indorsee. It is usually made on the back of a bill, and must be in writing; but the law has not appropriated any set form of words as necessary to this ceremony; and therefore if a man writes his name on the back of a bill of exchange, or this is to be paid to S. B. or pay the contents to S. B. and signs his name to it, this is a good indorse ment. The mere signature of the indorser is in general sufficient. But by the 17 G. 3, c. 30, s. 1, the indorsement of a bill or note for the payment of less than five pounds, must mention the name and place of abode of the indorsee, and bear date at or before the time of making it; and must be attested by one subscribing witness. An indorsement may either be in blank, which is the most usual; in full; or it may be restrictive. An indorsement in blank mentions no name; but the holder of the instrument may write over any name he thinks proper; and as long as it continues in blank, the instrument is payable to bearer. An indorsement in full, contains the name of the person to whom the contents are made payable; and this indorsement may restrain the negociability of the instrument. A restrictive indorsement, has either express words of restriction, or it is made in favour of a particular person, incapable of any further transfer. The person making the indorsement, is called the indorser; the person to whom it is indorsed, is called the indorsee. If a bill or note be paid or transferred over to allother person by delivery only, the person paying it ceases to be a p |