1818.] Professor Porson and Mr. Kidd again vindicated. grammarian, the critic, and the commentator, so that his notes at times savour of German prolixity. In his quotations from Valckenaer, he is too profuse, and for this he merits reprehension, as the notes of Porson on the Phoenissæ, which has also been edited by Valckenaer, are not so long when taken collectively, as those upon any other of the three plays." Upon the whole my opponent will probably coincide in opinion with me, that the line of interpretation adopted by Mr. Elmsley in his preface to the Edipus Tyrannus is the best. "Cum eo annotationum et variarum lectionum delectu, qui medium quodammodo locum teneret, inter largum illud et prolixum interpre tationis genus, quo ad Euripidis Phoenissas et Hippolytum usus est Valckenaerius, et nimiam, ut quibusdam videtur, brevitatem, quam in quatuor primis ejusdem poetæ fabulis recensendis studiose coluerat Porsonus." I shall now proceed to examine what weight is due to an argument which my adversary has put forth in a note with much self-complacency. "Professor Monk," he observes, "has promised to edite in his own excellent manner, all the plays of Euripides, and is not this an acknowledgment that those which were published by his illustrious predecessor were not tyronum usibus potissimum accomodata" Now, I beg the favour of the PROVINCIAL SCHOOLMASTER to produce any passage where Mr. Monk has made this promise. I certainly know of none, and I think that he will have some difficulty in finding one to this effect. The fact is, that he for once hallucinates, and he may henceforth learn to exercise more caution in scrutinizing the errors of others. Surely he might have known that Mr. Monk only took up the task where his illustrious predecessor laid it down. The play of the Hippolytus has in general arrangement always been placed next to the Medea, and this sufficiently exposes my adversary's error. Τι προς ταδ' ειπειν, ωξεν, εν μέρει θελεις. Had it pleased the great Disposer of all events to prolong the valuable life of Porson, it is probable that we should soon have seen his edition of the Hippolytus, in which he had already made some progress. Habes lector,' says Mr. Monk, integram scenam a v. 176, ad v. 266, a Porsono correctam. Nec id leve aut parvi momenti habendum, siquidem dicere solebat Porsonus, se nihil dubitare, quin hanc scenam celeberrimam, qualis esset ab ipsius Euripidis manu NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 49. 17 profecta, ipse demum emaculatam præstitisset.' And we are told, moreover, by a writer in the Classical Journal, No. IX. p. 193, that this play had so far engaged the late Professor's attention, as to induce him to print more than the first 200 verses. Mr. Monk's modesty in avoiding to encroach on the province of Porson is certainly praiseworthy, and I know of no English scholar who has ever ventured to edite a play which the Professor had published, except Mr. George Burges, (of Trinity College, Cambridge,) a young man of considerable learning and acuteness, but whose cacoethes cmendandi frequently gets the better of his more sober judgment. Though a disciple of the Porsonian school, he seems in all his publications entirely to lose sight of that forbearance from innovation which distinguished his master. Of his lucubrations on the Phoenissæ, it may be truly said, "Et ferrum et ignis sæpe medicinæ loco est." In the year 1807, and during the life-time of Porson, Mr. Burges published an edition of the Troades of Euripides, and the Professor with his usual kindness and good-nature communicated to him some emendations. I mention this circumstance, because it is an additional proof (if any be wanting) to those which I before advanced in favour of Porson's good temper, and the sensibility of his nature. (To be concluded in our next.) THE millions of uncultivated acres in Upper Canada afford a wide field to employ our superfluous hands, and give occupation to those who are left behind. To a North American Company, or in any other way, let those uncultivated lands, the right of fisheries on the St. Lawrence, and complete sovereignty on all the seas from thence to the North Pole, be granted. Let the company enjoy the exclusive right of the lumber trade to all our West India Islands, and sovereign rights over their own territories in Canada from the St. Lawrence to Nootka Sound. Thousands of young people would gladly volunteer to occupy lands the moment an opportunity offered; and every succeeding year would induce others, their friends and relations, once assured of the independence and comfort they might obtain, to go out and join them. The company should be so formed that a vessel or two might sail from every port in the United Kingdom, wishing to enter into the trade. By these means the number of persons VOL. IX, D 18 Plan for Colonizing Canada, the Cape of Good Hope, &c. [Feb. 1, who would go out would be greatly increased. One regulation should be strict ly adhered to, viz. That each person should bring a certificate of his character from the clergyman and parish officers, to prevent dishonest people from eluding the hands of justice. Care should be taken in the first instance to avoid the error, which has proved so fatal to the prosperity of our settlement in New Holland, namely, that of keeping the I settlers in one or two large towns; where one corrupts the other, and habits of drunkenness and of every vice are formed. The country should be laid out in parishes containing not more than 2000 acres each, and formed in the most compact and regular order, having only two roads in each parish, crossing each other at right angles in the centre, where should be built the church, parsonage house, and school, thus The double lines are the roads, the single the boundaries of each parish, four squares round each church mak ing the parish: the dots on the double lines are the houses. No village should be situated more than four miles from a station, which would in time be its market town. The mode of proceeding to people the country might be this:-To form a disciplin. ed body of men to be called Rangers, having its proper officers, chaplains, medical staff, artificers, &c. The duty required of them should be to guard the country from the natives, lay out the villages, make the roads, and clear 1 or 2 acres of land round every spot where a house is intended to be built. In this corps every person who went out to settle should enter and serve for two years, in order to be taught the most expeditious mode of clearing the ground, and culti vating the soil under a new climate; and that by living in a large society at first, their spirits may be kept up, to encounter the many difficulties which new settlers must necessarily meet with. At the expiration of two years they should receive a house and 100 acres of land, which number of acres should not be exceeded; that the country may be sooner cleared and more thickly inhabited. As soon as the Rangers had marked out the villages, cleared the roads, built a house, and grubbed an acre or two on every hundred acres or farms in the different villages, for four miles round their station, they should remove to another station eight miles farther in the country, always leaving in their last station medical man, artificers, and mech us of different kinds. By so doing the towns would first be cleared of woods,and the mechanics would be better able to attend to their several trades, and thus form a connexion with the villages in their neighbourhood. By moving forward in a direct line, all the towns would be situated on high roads, forming so many stages, at the regular distance of eight miles from each other, and always preserving a close connexion and regular correspondence with the first station or port town at the beginning of the line, on the bank of the river or lake, as well as with the great body of the Rangers at the extremity, in the interior of the country. If the banks of a large river are to be cleared and settled, let several divisions of the Rangers take their stations on its banks, eight miles from each other, and constantly penetrating in right lines into the country from their first station, let them lay it out in a regular and uniform plan, and act in concert with each other. The body of Rangers and new settlers being constantly kept in the outskirts, would draw every thing that way that could be raised for sale, and give life to the whole line of road. In the winter the Rangers might be employed in sawing timber, and framing houses; and when the snows were frozen hard enough, in drawing down timber, or the produce of the farms, such as hemp, flax, linseed, or corn, to the wharfs, to be ready against the spring for exporting, and taking back with them stores from England. 1818.] Mr. Rice on the extracting of Potash from Potato-Stalks. In every village 100 acres and a house should be assigned to the clergyman, and another 100 acres to the schoolmaster; which offices should be filled up immediately; for we know from sad experience, that without religion and education, neither order nor industry can be found. Compare the Irish with the Scotch. Ten thousand people thus placed would spread over a wide tract of country, therefore could not easily corrupt each other; and as they would have, from the very first, the means of instruction both for themselves and their children, the latter would grow up, we may hope,in goodness and usefulness. The long winters would be extremely favourable to the education of the children. They would also be an agricultural people for ages, and consequently require the aid of our manufactures. If we suppose that one family only was sent out from each parish in England, consisting of the two parents and three children, 50,000 souls might be sent out annually for the next five years, and yet the population not be perceptibly diminished. Willingly would the parishes purchase this privilege at 10l. per family, thus aiding the Company with a fund of 100,000l. Every person sent out would employ at least two at home to provide him in clothes, inanufactures of different kinds, &c. besides, supporting a very numerous body of sailors in the mere carrying trade between the two countries. It is of no consequence what the undertaking might cost, as sooner or later it would all return for our manufactures. The Cape of Good Hope affords another station for us to send off in like manner thousands of our spare hands. And as in each of these quarters of the globe we have already a thriving population of British settlers, we should enrich them by sending out consumers of the produce of their farms, and thus feel the good effects of it immediately. To these places I would send not only volunteers, but would transport for life for every crime; the smaller the crime the better settler he would be likely to make. D. P. AS you inserted in your 45th number (p. £38) a brief account of the method pursued by a French chemist for obtain ing potash from the stalks of potatoes, I have no doubt that you will consider the following observations from the pen of Mr. RICE, of Trinity College, Dublin, of sufficient importance to justify me in so 19 liciting a place for them in your pages. It ought to be remarked that the experiments of this gentleman were undertaken before the publication of the statement referred to above; and though the results obtained by him differ widely from those of the French chemist, still it is evident that the general adoption of this process would not only be attended with great profit to individuals, but that the British islands instead of paying a tribute of some hundred thousand pounds annually to foreigners for potash, might produce a very large surplus for exportation. HIBERNICUS. Dublin, Dec. 10, 1817. In taking a view of the many new and useful manufactures that have been proposed, and actually established, within the last half century, we can scarcely find one presenting more advantages to Ireland, in particular, than the manufacture of potash from potato-stalks. In Ireland, where the chief food of the lower class is potatoes, an immense quantity must be annually consumed. This consumption would, therefore, produce for the manufacture a supply of materials, dependant on circumstances that leave not room to doubt a constant sufficiency. Probably there are many to whom the following investigations may appear a waste of time, and the whole scheme, with its asserted benefits, visionary: but let such persons look to the coast of Ireland, particularly the North and North-west, and they will find how much better the condition of the poor inhabitant is rendered, where he has an opportunity of employing himself in the manufacture of kelp. The profit arising from its sale is, in many places, the chief resource to satisfy the claims of the landlord; although such kelp produces but from three to six shillings per cwt. while the time requisite for preparing it, far exceeds that required for making weed or any other ashes. However, it is unnecessary to enumerate further the various benefits that might arise to the poor from a manufacture so peculiarly adapted to this country. Many pages having been employed, by numerous and learned writers to prove the advantage of even cultivating plants, for the purpose of furnishing potash; their arguments will apply to the present subject with increased force, as in this case, the crops necessary for home consumption will supply an abundance of alkali, without the necessity of planting an additional acre, and the stalks, an otherwise 20 Mr. Rice on the Extracting of Potash from Potato-Stalks. [Feb. 1, useless article, may be made to produce in many cases, a profit beyond what can be expected from the potatoes. The annual saving to the country which could be effected will appear from an estimate of the imports of pot and pearl-ash, and the extensive supply which might be furnished by Ireland alone : In the year 1816, above 5608 tons of potash were imported for consumption into Great Britain, and 2060 tons into Ireland, making the total imports about 7668 tons; the value of which could not Le less than 258,3401. From the different statistical accounts of Ireland, the quantity of surface annually under potatoes, may be estimated at 350,000 acres. If each acre be supposed to produce 300 lb. (avoir.) of potash, the produce of 350,000 acres would be 46,875 tons, which, at the rate of 201. per ton, amounts to 937,5001. per annum. Thus we see that the produce of Ireland would exceed the consumption of the United Kingdom, by 39,207 tons annually. About 40 years back, France was, as England now is, an importer of all the ashes consumed in her various works.Chaptal, a distinguished chemist, and member of the Royal Institute, from a conviction of their public utility, at length succeeded in establishing potash manufactories, under the immediate patronage of the government. Since that period, and during a long war, she has found her internal supplies in many of the departments nearly equal to the vast demand of potash. Having mentioned Chaptal, it must be observed, that the discovery of the potato-stalk containing a large proportion of alkali cannot be claimed as recent.He seems to have been fully acquainted with the fact; for, in enumerating different plants in his "Chemistry applied to the Arts," he says, "The stems of the sun-flower, maize, and potatoe, offer rich resources. Fern, heath, thistles, &c. may be of great use in supplying a manufactory." Thus much being said on the utility of a manufacture, which if properly supported, may at some future period (perhaps not far distant) become an object of national importance, in preventing our dependence on a foreign power for supplies of an article so indispensably necessary, and in furnishing the occupant of land with a new and yearly source of profit, it remains now to mention the experiments and results, on which the cal culations and assertions in the preceding part of this article are grounded. The potato-stalks selected for experiment were cut from a determinate quantity of surface, and immediately weighed. Exposed for some days to the action of the sun and air, and at length brought to the requisite state of dryness by spreading and turning in a room at a high temperature, after having been again weighed, they were burnt in the open air in a metal boiler, the ashes well washed, and the lixivium concentrated in an iron, dish. and finally evaporated in a silver, Although throughout the processes of drying, evaporating, &c. every precaution was taken to prevent the admixture of foreign substances, iron was evidently abraded from some of the vessels: this will account for the large proportion found in the ashes, as we can suppose but a very small part of the metal to have pre-existed in the vegetable. 100 Parts of the 47,327 Insoluble Matter. 3,616 Carbonaceous do. 49,054 Soluble Salts. From a recent analysis, 100 parts of the soluble matter appear to consist ofSub-carbonate of 8,129 Potass Potass. 3,800 Carbonic acid 17,879 Sulphate of Potass. 57,810 Muriate of Potass. 9,130 Water. 1,052 Carbonate and Sub-sulphate of Iron. 1,950 Alumina and Extractive. 100,000 It is requisite to observe that in consequence of an accident which happened during the evaporation of part of the lixivium, it was impossible to adopt that course which would, or ought to have rendered the determinations of different analyses precisely the same. The composition of the ashes as stated above is the result of an analysis approaching, nearest of any, to the main of numerous experiments made on the subject; and it is therefore most accurate in its assignments of the constituents of the salt in general. The insoluble portion of the ashes has not as yet been subjected to a direct analysis; but from the action of reagents, &c. it appears to consist of silica, oxides of iron and manganese, phosphoric, carbonic, sulphuric, and muriatic acids, united to lime and alumina, with a small quantity of alkali left undissolved by the lixiviating waters. 1818.] Mr. Rice on the Extracting of Potash from Potato-Stalks. It may be objected against the use of the ashes yielded by potato-stalks, that they contain so large a portion of neutral salt-this certainly is the case; but might not litharge, &c. be employed to decompose the salt for those purposes which require the alkali in a caustic or carbonated state? The reduction of the muriate of lead would not be attended with much expense. In many instances, the muriate of potass is used equally with, and sometimes preferred to, the carbonate; it may be applied with advantage in the formation of nitre, alum, and in general in those manufactures which use the alkali, and where iron would be injurious; thus, in alum-making, the muriatic acid of the salt separates the iron from the aluminous solution, consequently the alum becomes much better for the purposes of dying, &c. The insoluble part of the ashes might be employed in the manufacture of bottle-glass and cuppels, or as a top dressing for fallows or gardens; indeed it seems excellently adapted to enter the composition of loam for flower-beds, seed-plots. &c. There is another use which might afford great convenience to the country, employing the refuse in making fine mortars. For the information of those who may not have read the account of the results obtained by a druggist at Amiens, which appeared subsequent to the undertaking the above experiments, the following comparative table is subjoined. The line marked thus shews the results obtained by the French chemist, and thus † those obtained by Mr. Rice : lb. An Acre planted with Potatoes at one foot distance, gives plants 40,000 French lb. These 40,000 yield` on an average, 3lb. per plant, at least, or green-top By drying, they are Salin The salin loses 10 120,000 French. 157520.712 English. 40,000 French. S52506.963 English. 7,500 French. 9845.044 English. 5,000 French. 6563.362 English. 2,500 French. 3281.611 English. 2,200 French. 2887.979 English. The great difference between the French estimate and Mr. Rice's is, that the former allows nearly 3 lb. 4 oz. 3 dr. duced by one square foot English, the Troy-weight of green stalk, to be prolatter but 1 lb. 2 oz. 14 dr. Mr. Rice found 100 dry stalk to produce 3,79535 salt, and estimates the quantity of salt of potass (in the state in which he analysed it) at 431 lb. 8 oz. Troy, (about 354 lb. 8 oz. Avoir.) per Irish acre, from apple potatoes, planted lazy-bed method; but supposes, that the may be rated at 470 lb. Avoir. produce of an Irish acre, planted in drills, of stalk than others, the species planted Some potatoes being more productive will greatly influence the quantity of potash, and its quality must vary very much according to the manure used, and acids found in the soil. As the probable advantage that may accrue from any peculiar manufacture is chiefly to be estimated by comparison, tables of the quantity of ashes yielded by fumitory and fern, and of the component parts of certain descriptions of potash, will conclude this article. |