Poetry. PRIMROSES. Hail ! lovers of the winding stream, Ye wooers of the sheltered nook, Hail! chosen of simplicity, For, linked with your loved presence dear, Loved monitors of fadeless bloom, Seemed late the briar that skirts the way, Now clothed with bloom and foliage fair; So, bursting from its prison here, G. Sweet, serene, sky-like flower, TO LUCASTA, ON GOING TO THE WARS. This accomplished and elegant poet was descended from an ancient family in Kent, in which county he was born about the year 1618. He was educated at the Charterhouse, and became a gentleman commoner of Gloucesterhall, Oxford, in the year 1634; and was created M. A. two years afterwards; at which time, says Anthony Wood, "he was accounted the most amiable and beautiful person that eye ever beheld; a person also of innate modesty, virtue, and courtly deportment, which made him then, but especially after, when he retired to the great city, much admired and adored by the female sex." Upon retiring from the University he became a soldier, serving first in the capacity of an ensign, and afterwards a captain; but at the pacification of Berwick he retired, and went to reside upon his estate. Upon presenting a petition from the county of Kent, in April, 1642, to the House of Commons, that honourable body imprisoned him in the Gatehouse, Westminster; and during his confinement there he wrote the greater part of his poems, which were printed in 1649, under the title of "Lucasta." He obtained his release upon giving bail not to leave the precincts of Lon. don without permission; and during this restriction he expended the whole of his estate in the Royal cause. Immediately upon his liberation, he, in 1646, for the service of the French King, formed a regiment, of which he was colonel, and was severely wounded at Dunkirk. In 1648 he returned to England, and was again committed to Peters-house, in London, where he remained a prisoner until the death of the King, when he was liberated. He SIR,-In the absence of any thing more impa died in extreme poverty, at a mean lodging in Gunpowder-relation to poor chimney-sweepers, the annexed w alley, near Shoe-lane, in 1658; and was buried in the to keep alive the subject in the breast of every da west end of St. Bride's Church. Besides the poems before however, you deem it undeserving admission alluded to, he wrote two plays, "The Scholar," a comedy, columns of your paper, you are welcome to supp and "The Soldier," a tragedy. The poems of Lovelace are remarkable for their smoothness and elegance; but they are rather deficient in simplicity; nevertheless, they are every way worthy of being admitted into the collections of English poetry. TO ALTHEA, FROM PRISON. When love with unconfined wings To whisper at my grates; When flowing cups run swiftly round Our carelesse heads with roses crown'd, With shriller note shall sing When I shall voyce aloud how good Th' enlarged windes, that curle the flood, Stone walls doe not a prison make, Of thy chaste breast and quiet minde, As you too shall adore; I could not love thee, deare, so much, CHIMNEY-SWEEPS. TO THE EDITOR. Your constant reader, HUMANIT Mr. Montgomery, in a beautiful poem, relates the ventures of the child of a person of respectability, was stolen from its parents when not four years die sold by gipsies to a chimney-sweeper for five g the boy was incidentally called to sweep the ching his father's house, a dwelling by him long forge His discovery is thus pathetically related: Now from the chimney top did Edwin peep, 66 My child! my child!" she cried, with transpor "O Heaven! it is, it is, my child, my child!!! THE DECLARATION.-BY I. NEALE. To Mary Ann-I Neale. of dried fish, filled with smoke, and having scarcely an article of furniture. Such is life in North Rona: and though the women and children were half naked, the mother old, and the wife deaf, they appeared to be contented, well fed, and little concerned about what the rest of the world were doing. The only desire that could be discovered, after much inquiry, was that of getting his two younger children christened, and for this purpose he had intended to visit Lewis when his period of residence was expired. Yet I shall not be surprised if, after the accomplishment of his only wish, he should again long for his now habitual home; and expect that some future visitor will, twenty years hence, find Kenneth M'Cagie O'Neill's performance of Mrs. Haller, in the Stranger, at wearing out his life in the subterranean retreat of his better the Liverpool Theatre. days." his jeu de mot brings to our recollection the following, appeared originally in the Liverpool Mercury of 21, 1815, from which it was copied very generally ugh the country. IMPROMPTU The following curious anecdotes are gleaned from Mr. Gavin Douglas's communications to the Philosophical Magazine. This diligent observer of nature having paid Portland (Maine,) Mr. John Cram, to Miss Mobi- particular attention to the habits of the swallows, among many interesting facts respecting them records the fol lowing: Millions. A gormandizing tale I tell, Miscellanies. SAVAGE LIFE. following sketch of savage life, with more than its orrors, desolation, and abandonment, will not be thout some degree of interest. The island where described below occurred is North Rona, one of it remote and inaccessible of the Hebrides, and the from Dr. Maculloch's Description of the Western of Scotland. session of a swallow's nest, and had laid some eggs previously to the swallow's appearing to claim her castle. The sparrow firmly seated, and thus attached to the sheltering shade of its approaching brood, resisted the claim of the swallow: a sharp skirmish ensued, in which the swallow was joined by its mate, and, during the conflict, by several of their comrades. The sparrow, however, determinedly resisted, and successfully defended herself against the joint and repeated efforts of the assembled swallows, to dislodge her. Finding themselves conpletely foiled in their endeavours to regain possession, they, after some consultation, had recourse to an expedient of a most extraordinary nature and singularly revengeful, and one which showed that it proceeded from a deliberate determination of the whole group that nothing short of the death of the intruder could satisfy them, or atone for this usurpation of a property unquestionably the legitimate right of its original constructor. swallows, for a time, departed, leaving the sparrow apparently in the full enjoyment of her conquest. This prospect of repose, however, was only delusive; for the swallows returned with accumulated numbers, each bearfurther attempt to disturb or beat out the sparrow, they ing a beak full of building materials; and without any instantly set to work and built up the entrance into the nest, inclosing the sparrow within the clay tenement, and leaving her to perish in the garrison she had defended. Barometer When a situation has been once fixed for a new nest, When a place for mortar-making has been selected, the The same writer records the following extraordinary" instance of revenge. A sparrow had taken early pos noon. METEOROLOGICAL DIARY. [From the Liverpool Courier.] Extreme Thermo- Extreme State of during meter 8 heat du- the Wine Night. morning ring Day. at noon. The Remarks at noon. 46 O 50 0 60 0 S.S.W. Fair. 16 29 48 44 O 43 0 The Philanthropist. [From the Genius of Universal Emancipation.] GREGOIRE'S INQUIRY INTO THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL FACULTIES OF NEGROES. well known in the religious, political, and learned societies | tomed to a milder treatment and better nourishment, of different countries, it must powerfully contribute to "May the day," says the translator, in the conclusion of his preface, "soon arrive, when the defenders of justice in every country, shall have a right, like the eloquent Curran, to exclaim, I speak in the spirit of our laws, which makes liberty commensurate with, and inseparable from, Injustice of Slavery. The word Negro considered. Ought sojourner, the moment he sets his foot upon our native our soil; which proclaims even to the stranger and the all Blacks to be included under this term? Difference earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and of opinion concerning their origin. Unity of the prim-consecrated by the genius of universal emancipation! No tive type of the human race. matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced; no matter what complexion incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burned upon him; no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what solem nities he may have been devoted on the altar of slavery the first moment he touches our sacred soil, the altar and the god sink together in the dust; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of his chains, that burst from around him, and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled, by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation. MESSRS. EDITORS,-As the subject of the Colonization Society of Cincinnati has elicited much inquiry among a great proportion of your readers, I have sent the following extracts with the hope that you will give them a place in your literary and scientific paper. They are made from a work entitled "An Inquiry concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties and Literature of Negroes; followed by an account of the life and works of fifteen Negroes and Mulattoes, distinguished in Science, Literature, and the Arts; by H. Gregoire, formerly Bishop of Blois, Member of the Conservative Senate, of the National Institute, and of the Royal Society of Gortinguen, &c.; translated by D. B. Warden, Secretary to the American Legation at Paris: printed at Brooklyn, New York, 1810." Under the name of Ethiopian, the Greeks comprehended all men of a black colour. They are so named by Pliny, the elder, and Terence. But Rome, having more immediate relations with Africa than Greece, insensibly introduced the custom of designating the Blacks by the name of Africans. only their features and physiognomy have undergo visible change, but their moral habits are also impra Besides the uncontested fact that there are Albinos mering proves, by various observations, that Whit assumed a black and yellow hue; and that Negros whitened, or become of a pale colour, in conseque disease. Nevertheless, Hunter affirms, that when the of an animal whitens, it is a proof of degeneration. has degenerated? or is it necessary to say with Dr. does it follow, that, in the human species, the white that the colour of the Negroes is the result of a di become hereditary. All the difference among nations,' says Ca consists in a line drawn from the conduits of the e the base of the nose, and another right line which to the eminence of the coronal bone above the nose, th tends to the most prominent part of the jawbone; it supposed that the head is viewed in profile. It is the formed by these two lines which constitutes not en difference between nations, but that of different an Thus the head of an African Negro, as well as that Calmuck, makes an angle of seventy degrees; ard the European, one of eighty. This difference of t grees forms the beauty of European heads, becaus an angle of one hundred degrees which constit great perfection of antique heads.' "Admitting that each people has a distinct ca which is re-produced until it is altered or effaced by tual mixture, yet who can fix the lapse of time as to destroy the influence of those diversities here transmitted, and which are the effect of climate, cation, of dietetic regimen, or of habit? Blue believes that the Europeans degenerate by a long re in the two Indies, or in Africa. Somering dares rot whether the primitive race of man, which once some corner of the earth, be perfected in Europe. ther it be adulterated in Nigritia, seeing that, in force and activity, the conformation of Ne respect to their climate, is as complete, and per so, than that of Europeans. It is not denied, ta have great corporeal strength; and as to bea does it result? Is white, as a colour, to enter into that regularity of features which constitu We know that different black tribes, to prese in the most unfavourable colour, paint him wh After dedicating his work "to all the men who have had the courage to plead the cause of the Blacks and "The denomination of African prevails; but the use of Mulattoes, whether by the publication of their works, or these two names is equally improper; seeing, on the one by discussion in national assemblies," of whom he names hand, that Ethiopia, the inhabitants of which are not of of Frenchmen, Adanson, Benezet, D'Estaing, Lafayette, the deepest black colour, is but a region of Africa; and, and six and thirty others; of Englishmen, Beattie, Bax- on the other, that there are Asiatic Blacks. Herodotus ter, Mrs. Barbauld, Clarkson, Cowper, Fothergill, the names them Ethiopians with long hair, to distinguish two Foxes, Pitt, Wesley, Whitfield, and seventy-six them from those of Africa whose hair is frizzled; because others; of Americans, Franklin, Madison, Rush, and it was believed, formerly, that the latter belonged exclumany others too well known to be named; of Negroes sively to Africa, and that the Blacks with long hair were and Mulattoes, a long list, among whom was Hannibal, only found on the continent of Asia. But we find by the who was a Lieutenant-General and Director of Artillery narratives of travellers, that on the African continent, as under Czar Peter the First; besides Germans, Danes, well as at Madagascar, there are also Negroes with long Swedes, Hollanders, Italians, &c.;-and after stating that hair. On the other hand, the natives of the Isle of AndaAvendano, of the Spaniards, had taken the trouble to prove man, in the Gulph of Bengal, are Blacks with frizzled that the Negro belongs to the great family of the human hair: in different parts of India, the inhabitants of the race, and that, consequently, he ought so to fulfil all the mountains have almost the same colour, form, and species “Bosman_boasts of the beauty of Negresses duties, and exercise all the rights, of this family, he of hair. These considerations give support to the opinion Ledyard and Lucus that of the Negroes of Jasin concludes this part of his work with the following warm that this race formerly bore sway over almost all Asia. that of the Negroes of Abyssinia. Those of Sengg and impressive sentiments: "The Black colour forming the most marked character Adanson, are the finest men of Nigritia: ther which separates from the whites a portion of the human without defect; and there are no maimed a race, less attention has been paid to that difference of con- Cosigny saw at Goree Negresses of great beary: formation which establishes varieties among the Blacks posing form, with Roman features. Ligon spea themselves. Camper alludes to this, when he says that Negress, of the Isle of St. Jago, who possessed s Rubens, Sebastinen, Ricci, and Vander-Tempel, in paint-gree of beauty and majesty, that he had never ing the Magi, represented Blacks, and not Negroes. equal. Robert Chasle applies this eulogium ta Blumenbach has observed in the crania of mum-gresses and Mulattoes of all the isles of Cape Ve mies that which characterizes the Negro race. Norden, "After such testimonies, Jedediah Morse will Niehbur, Cassas, Volney, and Olivier, by inspection of less, find some difficulty in explaining that c the sphinxes, discover that the figure is Ethiopian; from superiority which he sees imprinted on the which Volney concludes, that to the black race, now slaves, White. we are indebted for the arts and sciences, and even for speech. "Of philanthropic writers, a great number are now no more. On their tombs I present my homage; and I offer the same tribute to individuals still living, who, not having abandoned their principles, pursue, with constancy, their noble enterprise, each in the sphere in which Providence has placed him. "Those systems which suppose an essential between Negroes and white men have been 1st, by those who, by every means, seek to man, and to rob him of the dearest hopes of 2dly, by others, who, in the primitive diversi man race, seek for an argument against the Moses; 3dly, by men, who, interested in cole seek, in the supposed want of the moral fact Negro, another reason for treating him, with like a beast of burden. "Philanthropists! no individual can, with impunity, be just and benevolent. At the birth of time, war commenced between virtue and vice, and will not cease but with them. Devoured with the desire to do injury, the wicked are always armed against him who dares to reveal their crimes, and prevent them from tormenting the human race. Against their guilty attempts let us oppose a wall of brass, but let us avenge ourselves by benefits. "Gregory, in his Historical and Moral Essays, refers Let us be active. Life, which is so long for the commis. us to remote ages, to show, in like manner, that the Nesion of evil actions, is short for the performance of virtue. groes are our masters in science. For the Egyptians, The earth steals from under our steps, and we go to quit among whom Pythagoras and other Greeks travelled to this terrestrial scene. The corruption of our times carries learn philosophy, were, in the opinion of many writers, towards posterity all the elements of slavery and crimes. no other than Negroes, whose native features were changed Nevertheless, when we repose in the tomb, some honest and modified by the successive mixture of Greeks, Romen, escaping the contagion, will become the representa- mans, and Saracens. If it be proved that the sciences tives of Providence. Let us leave to them the honourable passed from India to Egypt, is it less true that to arrive task of defending liberty and misfortune. From the in Europe they crossed the latter country? bosom of eternity we applaud their efforts; and they shall, Those who have wished to disinherit Negroes have doubtless, be blessed by the common Father of us all, called in anatomy to their aid; and the difference of colour who, in men, whatever be their colour, acknowledges his gave birth to their first observations. Meekel, the elder, thinks that the colour of Negroes is owing to the deep colour of the brain; but Walter, Bonn, Somering, Dr. Gall, and other great anatomists, have found the colour of the brain of Negroes to be the same as that of the Whites. "Blumenbach says that, between the head of Barrere and Winslow believe that the bile of Negroes is of boar and that of the domestic hog, which are, co a deeper colour than that of Europeans; but Somering of the same race, there is more difference than discovered it to be of a yellowish green. the head of a Negro and that of a white man. Guinea, not only men, but dogs, birds, and particularly rights as they to exercise; the same duties to full "The learned professor of Goettingen remarks, that in being of the same nature as the Whites, bare the gallinaceous tribes, are black; whilst, near the frozen rights and these duties are antecedent to moral d seas, bears and other animals are all white. In general, ment. This exercise is, doubtless, improved or det the black colour is found between the tropics; and its pro- according to the qualities of individuals. But is the ong veo established in a country, have neither been trans-scale of virtues and talents, on which many of the Wa gressive shades follow the latitude among these who, very ment of social advantages to be graduated by a planted into other climates, nor crossed by other races. themselves would not find a place?" "Among slaves who, in domestic service, are accus work, and loves them as his children. "I well recollect," says the translator, "to have heard the celebrated Professor Millar, of the University of Glasgow, observe in his course of civil law, that the mind revolts at the idea of a serious discussion on the subject of slavery. Every individual, whatever be his country or complexion, is entitled to freedom. The happiness of the poor man is of as much importance as that of the rich. No man has a right to reduce another to the condition of the brute. No individual can sell his liberty. The bargain is unequal, and ought to be broken. Negro slavery is contrary to the sentiments of humanity and the principles of justice.' As this production," continues the translator, "is the result of long and deep investigation of the subject, and composed by a man of great erudition and rare virtues, "I have had the pleasure of conversing with B Amsterdam, who has the finest collection know skins; with Blumenbach, who has the richest skulls; with Gall, Meniers, Osiander, Cavier, pede-all, with the exception of one who did decide, like Buffon, Camper, Stanhope, Smith, man, and Somering, admit, in the human race, of the primitive type. (To be continued.) the seal of King John, cut in very early times, bears. For resembles. I have no doubt that the original scroll read the town is long afterwards called Lyrpool, by Leland in "Johis," a very natural contraction for Johannis, signify1558, and by Camden in 1607, and, as these writers say, ing In the reign of King John, or The Corporation of by the common people; and its name in Welsh is Lirpwl King John. to this day. I am informed, however, that Lir is as common a contraction of Liver as it is of Lither. At first, I conceive that whenever the town was called by the common people Lyverpool, it was not from any respect to the lever, but in corruption of Lytherpool, as it is named by Camden; that is to say, the pool of Litherland, a neighbouring manor or township. This father of British topography adds, that it is in Saxon Liferpole. Now lifer, in Saxon, means the entrail called the liver; and I know of no authority, except that of Troughton's History of Liverpool, for explaining Litherpool to mean the lower pool, as it was lately called by a writer in the Liverpool Courier. The word low comes from the Danish lau. I am, therefore, inclined to think that both Litherland and Litherpool were sometimes called ving publicity, to the subjoined antiquarian reLiverland and Liverpool. We do not find the word spelt which will be perused with much interest by our Leverpool by historians and popular writers, till by Sir E. ol readers, we take this opportunity to thank Mr. Moore in 1667, Blome in 1673, Brokesby and Dr. Stukeley or the communication, and to assure him, and the in 1725, and Derrick in 1760. Dr. Enfield is mistaken in embers of the Literary and Philosophical Society, calling Randle Holme's Notes in the British Museum will afford us much pleasure to be enabled to con- (Holme spells it Leverpool, after his heraldic lever) a MS. dela similar manner, to the public any paper or essay of the time of Queen Elizabeth. Holme did not live till may be read before that respectable body. The the time of Charles II.; and published his Academy of s of the Kaleidoscope, especially, are at their entire Armory in 1688; and as for the original patent of King and we can assure them, that that work has a John, and the exemplification of it in the 13th of Henry Snsiderable and a most respectable circulation in III., which the Doctor says writes "Leverpoole," the Britain, Ireland, and abroad. Town Clerk politely informs me that all the early charters Engraving of the Corporation Seal, in Mr. Kaye's of King John, Edward III., Richard II., Henry IV., and ger in Liverpool," is referred to in Mr. Field's Philip and Mary, with the single exception of this exemtion; and we thought it would enhance the in-plification of King John by Henry III., have it "Liverof the essay, if that engraving accompanied it: pole ;" and I find it written "Liverpool" in one record of efore applied to Mr. Kaye for the temporary loan Edward I., four other records of Edward III., two of vignette, with which that gentleman most readily Henry IV., one of Henry VI., and one of Henry VII. litely accommodated us. We believe it to be a It is remarkable that in one of the records of Edward III. curate copy of the original, although it does not we read "Walton juxta Liverpoll," which, considering any exalted idea of the state of the fine arts at that Walton was then, and very long afterwards, the parish, when the seal was executed. and Liverpool then, and very long afterwards, a very insignificant place, is to me unaccountable. I am aware that there are a few ancient deeds and records, besides the Visitacion of Lancashire, anno 1567, by William Flower Norray," as Dr. Enfield gives it, whereas it should be William Flower, Norroy King of Arms, in which the word is spelt Leverpoole; but what I maintain against Dr. Enfield is, that the word is written Leverpool by no popular author till the year 1667. Excellent philosopher as he was, the Doctor was no antiquary; and he should not have attempted, upon the strength of two or three ancient instances, to alter the name of a town from what it was called by still higher antiquity, and, which is yet more impregnable, by modern custom. history of the forgery of the charter, said to have ranted to Liverpool by Henry II. will amuse, raan surprise, those who personally knew the late ames Williamson. HE COMMON SEAL OF THE BOROUGH OF LI- fore the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, Friday, April 11th, 1828.) silver common seal of the borough of Liverpool, of a very faithful engraving is given in Gregson's Fragof the History of Lancashire, and in the Stranger erpool, is an unquestionable antiquity; and, I have bt, was originally made in the reign of King John, anted to the Corporation the first genuine charter they possess. I do not think that the seal was given ng John to the Corporation, as is commonly supposed, at the Corporation, as is the custom in such cases, red it to be made themselves; for in King John's , which was written at Winchester, the word Liver. sspeltLiverpull," and on the seal it is plainly ind" Leverpl." I think it probable that this was the of that alteration, which did not become general till afterwards, of the name of the town from Lyrpul, or erpole, to Liverpool, or Leverpool, in conformity with rms, then perhaps first assumed, of the heraldic bird d the lever, which appears, by the plate in the "Acaof Armory" of Randle Holme, to be a spoonbill, gh he calls it a shoveller. Be this as it may, this deking at arms for Chester and Lancaster expressly that argent a lever azure is the coat of the town of erpoole; and therefore we must make allowance for Little resemblance to a water-fowl, which the figure on As to the inscription round the seal, two decipherings have been given of it by the authors of Troughton's History of Liverpool, who, I understand, were a Mr. Perry, the son of Dr. Enfield's author, and a Mr. Corrie: the first interpretation making it "Sigillum societatis commune borgensium de Leverpool," and the second, "Sigillum societatis commune donum regis in villa (or rather, as these authors should have said, villam) de Leverpool,"the authors, and after them Mr. Gregson, preferring the latter. Now I am decidedly for the former. As for the latter, The gift of the king in (or rather, as they should have said, to) the town of Liverpool, it was not the custom of the king to give seals to towns: he gave only charters, with permission to have seals; and they found their own seals. Besides, the inscription, if thus deciphered, gives only do: for donum, though the whole word regis appears at full length, and there is nothing for the words in villa de, but the initial letters i. v. d., which are very unusual contractions, particularly of such short words as in and de. Now nothing is more common than the elision borgesiu, for borgensium. I have, therefore, no doubt that the inscription means to describe simply what the seal is, namely, The common seal of the burgesses of Liverpool. By either of these interpretations we have a superfluous letter s, between sigillum and commune, which Mr. Troughton's book deciphers societatis, that is to say, of the society of the burgesses. I think this is an unnatural and too modern word for Corporation, and an unnatural and too classical place for it to occur, between the words common and seal, in law Latin; and I therefore frankly confess, that I cannot decipher this letters, and am apt to suspect that it is a mistake of the first of the engravers, who was employed to deepen the letters when they began to wear out with use. think the word in the original inscription was sigillum, at full length, as I have seen it in contemporaneous seals; and that the deepener mistook the last syllable of that word for the strange contraction H, which appears at present, and an S. The only difficulty that Mr. Troughton's preferred interpretation solves better than mine, is, that the first letter on the right of the inscription is plainly a D, donum, and not a B, for borgensium; but, in return, for what he would make GI in regis, is the in borgensium. and is like the other e's of the inscription, that is to say, the Saxon e; and I have no doubt that the original B was deepened into a D with one loop only; for the cut is so extraordinarily deep (as may be seen in the original seal at the Town-hall,) that if two loops had been made, the interstices in the silver would have been so small that they I would have soon broken. Mr. Gregson, in his Fragments of the History of Lan- As this seal is almost the only antiquity the town of cashire, reads the word on the scroll at the foot of the Liverpool now possesses, I hope I shall be pardoned for so device on this seal "Jovis," and calls the bird an eagle, petty a minuteness, upon a subject which is certainly not as the author of the Stranger in Liverpool calls it a dove. of very great importance either to literature or to philo. It is certainly more like a dove than an eagle, which sophy. latter bird could never have a branch in its beak; but Before I conclude, I will endeavour to eke out the I think it bears a sufficient heraldic resemblance to a present short paper, by observing upon the supposed charwaterfowl to be the lever, or shoveller-duck, of Randle ter of King Henry the Second to the town of Liverpool, Holme. As. that author says, "to term it either a lever, which is copied as genuine in Mr. Troughton's History, spoonbill, or pellecan, it may pass in heraldry, but no that it was fabricated by a Mr. James Williamson, in otherwise." Heraldry, like Bottom the weaver, has its whose handwriting I have seen a draught of it, much lions that are wildfowl, and its sucking doves. In the altered and interlined, and that the fabrication was compresent state of the seal, and in the abovementioned en-mitted probably to sell it to the Corporation, who have graving, the scroll is plainly "Jodis;" but, as I shall always contended that Liverpool is a very ancient bohave to remark, in deciphering the whole inscription, all rough by prescription long before the time of King the letters on the seal have, long subsequently to the John." But the words quendum vocant in Mr. Trough.original cutting of it, and probably more than once, been ton's copy should be; and are in the draught, quondam deepened, (and exceedingly deep they now appear,) for vocat., a contraction for vocuta; and the translation will the purpose of stamping impressions upon the wax ap- then run, not as Mr. Troughton has given it, "And that pended to the Corporation deeds; and the first engraver place, which the men of Lyrpull call Litherpul, near to who was employed to deepen the letters, mistook the let-Toxteth, from each side of the water they may come and er H for a D, which the ancient Saxon very much return with their ships and merchandize," which is non 66 sense, but “ And that the men of Lyrpul, formerly called | Indies. Dutch West India coffee once ranked very high; Litherpul (near to Toxteth) from each side of the water much of the Berbice coffee is very good; that of Surinam may come and return with their ships and merchandize." is, perhaps, still better; but Surinam coffee pays the high I am indebted for this piece of criticism, if it were of duty. Demerara coffee has, however, of late, become detemuch consequence that a forgery should be correctly riorated, much of it proving very rank, and but little of it copied, to our very learned associate, Mr. Raincock. of superior flavour. fore the kettle boils, let coffee be ground nearly suffici to fill a breakfast-cup; put eight tea spoonfuls (heaped of the coffee-powder into the bag of the biggin, then the biggin one-third full with boiling water, add four tea spoonfuls more of coffee-powder, then po more boiling water, until the biggin be two-thirds put in two spoonfuls more of the powder, and, f fill the biggin with boiling water. The infusion may m a minute or two, and it will be ready for use. Hot or still better, hot cream, enhances the flavour of o infusions. The biggin will admit of a second filling, boiling water, without the aid of additional powder infusion will, of course, be weaker each brew, unless coffee-powder be added; but it were better not to much more of the powder on the old grounds: it is ferable, after the second or third brew, to empty the entirely, and to begin again the process as above scribed. Fine Jamaica coffee is excellent, taking care, in the selection, that the berries be entire (unbroken,) as equal as may be in size, and of a blue colour,-preferring that where the blue colour inclines to pale green, or transparent, before the dark green, or opaque. They who purchase Jamaica coffee should be very cautious in their selection, for from Jamaica; some, indeed, that is vilely flavoured. there is much, very much, of rank inferior coffee imported Dominica coffee is of excellent flavour; none better; not quite so strong and full on the palate as very fine Jamaica; but Dominica coffee has one great advantage-it is seldom, scarcely ever, rank or ill flavoured; Trinidad and St. The biggin, with a calico bag, is far preferable Lucia, together with other kinds of coffee originally planted by the French, are good; but the great bulk of coffee now complex machine called a French, or patent coffee-big consumed in England is the growth of Jamaica; purchasers for, in the former, the bag lies soaking in the infusion should, therefore, I again repeat, be wary in their selec- tinuing to yield both strength and flavour to the hot tion, seeing there is so great a range from very bad to very until nearly the whole may be poured off; in the good, in Jamaica coffee. Of other kinds of coffee, pur-machine, the water simply, and only, washes through chasers may, in a great measure, leave the choice of qua- coffee powder.-I am, Sir, obediently, yours, lity to the seller's discretion and recommendation; the prices of all kinds must, of course, be chaffered for, as is the custom in all prudent bargains. Tide Table. Days. Morn. Even. Height. Festivals, 40 In reply to the note of our correspondent, we can inform him that kites have been proposed, if not used, for the purpose of guiding balloons. They were, however, common kites; and, therefore, comparatively useless. We presume that our correspondent has it in contemplation, by means of the kites, to move the balloon in a course different from that in which it would be impelled by the atmosphere by which the balloon itself is surrounded. If both kite and balloon were in the same stratum of air the kite would produce no effect, as it would move at the same rate as the balloon. But if, as is often the case, Purchasers ought not to scruple at giving an extra there should be above the balloon a stream of air moving penny (or more) per pound, for good coffee; by so doing in a direction different from by that which the balloon is they may have the two-fold advantage of procuring a finesurrounded, Mr. Pocock's kites, with the guiding lines, flavoured beverage, and that grand desideratum of coffeeif flown up to the higher current of air, more powerful than infusions-strength without rankness; the gain in the the under stream, would entirely alter the course of the strength alone is generally equal, often exceeds, the value balloon, which might be steered in a variety of direc-of the additional outlay. Cheap coffee is often very intions.-Edit. Kal. sipid and weak, and however much of the powder be used, nothing satisfactory in strength or flavour can be extracted from it; it may, therefore, be truly said, that high pricedWe take this opportunity of apprizing our resi The Housewife. CHOICE AND PREPATATION OF COFFEE. The subjoined letter is, evidently, the production of one who has paid great attention to the subject on which he has addressed us. Coffee is a beverage now so general, that directions for its choice, and mode of preparation, must be acceptable to our readers. TO THE EDITOR. SIR,-Long practice in the art of making coffee infusions, has confirmed my opinion as to the best method of producing that excellent beverage, and although my mode may be known to many of your readers, yet, it may so happen, that some of them have not a knowledge of the minute arrangements and processes necessary to be adhered to in the manufacture of a biggin of good coffee: it may be as well, however, previous to going into the instructions for manufacturing the infusion of coffee, to give a few plain directions and observations touching the selection of the raw material, (the raw berry itself) the roasting, and the grinding. Mocha coffee stands A 1 on the coffee list, as to quality, but Mocha coffee is high of price, and, except on particular occasions, seldom used by the middle classes, scarcely ever by the humble. The flavour of Mocha coffee is peculiar, certainly aromatic, but the aroma seems to abound in it, even to an unpleasant excess: many of my acquaintance, and I myself, prefer other kinds of coffee to Mocha, such as the yellow Java, the St. Domingo, &c. The Mocha, the Java, and the St. Domingo coffee, are all subject to the high duty, which amounts, in some degree, to a prohibition of their consumption in England. The epicure in coffee need not, however, be uneasy on the prohibitory score, seeing that substitutes for coffee, equally as good, may be, with the utmost facility, procured at the lowest duties. The coffee now consumed in England is almost altogether the produce of British plantations in the West coffee is not the dearest. New coffee has a tendency to turn acid on the stomach; weakens, or no longer exists, so that old coffee is, unqueswhen coffee is three or more years old, that tendency that coffee becomes weaker in power, or fulness of taste, tionably, the most wholesome; but, it must also be stated, as it grows older. On the whole, perhaps, coffee is at the best age for consumption at from three to five years after it is produced. Fresh As to the roasting of coffee, a very few words will serve: Next, as to the grinding of coffee ;-a mill that delivers Never boil coffee, for much of the aroma, or fine flavour, escapes with the vapour during boiling. I shall now state the simple method which I have pursued in my private manufactory for more than a quarter of a century. My friends seldom fail to laud the article I produce. Imprimis and important:-Look to it well that the water be in a boiling state at the time you use it, for, without boiling water no good infusion of coffee can be made. Prepare a biggin of metal, capable of containing five good sized breakfast-cups of liquid, by having a coarse calico bag affixed to a loose rim, that rests on a shoulder at the upper extremity of the biggin; a few minutes be Thursday 1 h. m. h. m. ft. in. Tuesday..29 10 49 11 8 17 8 Full Moon, 10h.31m 419 2 St. Philip and St. Jam we have it in contemplation to reprint, In the Ki SUPPLEMENTAL SHEET. Our next number will be STEAM PUMP. We shall next week lay before o description of a new steam pump, from an A NEW THEORY OF THE TIDES-An article we have devoted the whole of a preceding page to a portion of MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS-Our supplemental sheet, next THE RED CROSS KNIGHT, by R. next week. |