we mean the confideration that, while they are making regulations for the fupport of the poor, they may probably be making a provision for their own defcendants, as in this fluctuating ftate of things, the richeft cannot be certain that their grandchildren, or even their children, will be able to subsist independent of public charity. In order to remedy the evils complained of, this writer is of opinion that taxation fhould not be local and arbitrary, but general and uniform, limited, like the land-tax, to a certain tandard, by which all poffible advantage from parfimony, and confequently every inducement to oppreffion, being effectually obviated, it will be much lefs material in whom the adminiftration of maintenance is repofed.' Such a regulation as this would certainly be lefs liable to produce the miseries under which those of the poor groan, who are reduced to depend on public charity, than the prefent mode of providing for them; but it is to be feared that if individuals or committees had the power of giving money to the poor, without immediately in. creafing their own expence, it would be lavished on their favourites, who might not stand in need of relief, or at least fuch would often be excused from earning fomething towards their Own maintenance. Our author's remarks on the effects of luxury, in contribut ing to produce poverty are juft; he confiders as the principal caufes of mifery in the villages the oppreffion of the landholders, who inclofe commons for the pafturage of horses, defigned for exportation to our enemies, demolish cottages, and accumulate farms, adding boufe to boufe, and field to field, till there be no place for the poor in the earth. It is not, however, fashionable to cenfure thefe village-oppreffions, and our poets, as well as profe writers, who have already ventured to do it have met with only ridicule in return for their labour. This pamphlet concludes with a recommendation of what is, it is true, a fashionable topic, the propriety of fubftituting perpetual imprifonment inftead of death, as punishment for theft, and even for intentional murder. 'Death' fays the author, as a punishment for theft, has been tried and found ineffectual;'→→ that is to fay, it has not entirely prevented thieving: but can it be proved, that it has not deterred many from the practice? and as to the pretence, that the spirit of our laws could not mean to value life at a fhilling, it is to be remembered, that he who robs another on the highway of only a fhilling, takes fo fmall a fum for no other reafon than because he cannot get a greater. We think, therefore, there is no impropriety in putting robbers to death, and few men will pretend that the community has not a right to do so, in its own defence. It has, indeed, been urged, that perpetual imprisonment would be deemed by the criminal a more fevere punishment than immediate death; but when a malefactor is carted to Tyburn, were he he allowed to chufe whether he should be executed, or carried back to perpetual imprisonment, we are confident that he would not hesitate a moment in chufing the latter. This publication is not without ufeful matter; and the author appears, in his fentiments, to be a well-wifher to society, and a man of parts. We must beg leave, however, to differ from him in fome points. He objects to every mode of maintaining and employing the poor that has hitherto been thought of, yet gives none of his own to fupply the defect. At page 56, he fays, Were the ufe of tea totally prohibited, it is not by any means clear that a lefs expenfive or detrimental article could be adopted as its fubftitute; or, that the hours redeemed from its fervice would be allotted to any employment lefs unprofitable. There must be fome relaxation from labour; the human machine cannot fupport perpetual motion; and what relaxation can be found in every refpect more inoffenfive than the enjoyment of this unintoxicating beverage.' The objections to tea among the poor are time, expence, and health; it takes up more of their time at breakfast than any other kind would do; and in the afternoon it is the lofs of an hour at a time when no meal is otherwife made. The expence is heavier than their common diet; and in refpect to health, there has been no doubt but they had better drink beer even in excess, than regularly fip fo pernicious a drink as the vile adulterated forts of tea they always buy: the tea, the fugar, and the hot water together, relax the whole nervous fyltem, weaken the body, and leave the whole clafs of poor in a debilitated condition. 30. An Effay on the Means of producing moral Effects from phyfical Caules; or, of infallibly extirpating the Roots of national Animofity among the North and South Britons: and of establishing a permanent Popularity in Administration, by the Efficiency of Dif cipline and Diet. With Notes, Critical, Hiftorical and Explanatory. 8vo. IS. Williams. It is fcarce neceffary to inform our readers that this effay is of the humorous kind. The author writes in the character of a Scotfman, and endeavours, by a mixture of facts and irony to expofe the prejudices which have been entertained against the natives of his country. He rallies without being invidiously farcastic, and is not deflitute of a vein of pleasantry. 31. An exact Collection of the Debates and Proceedings in Parliament, in 1694, and 1695. 410. 25. Parker. A memorial of national depravity, which we fuppofe is revived for the benefit of the present age. POETRY. POETRY. 32. Poems and Tranflations. By a Young Gentleman of the Univerfity of Cambridge. 4to. Is. 6d. Evans, This collection of poems confifts of a tranflation of the twentieth, thirty-ninth, and fifty-ninth odes of Anacreon, a tranflation of the fifth elegy of the first book, and the fourth elegy of the fecond book of Ovid's Amours, a small piece, intitled, the Epicurean, and a burlesque poem of about fourscore lines, called Mohammed's Afcenfion into Heaven. We shall present our reader with one of the bappiest and boldeft of this author's poetical flourishes. Who can of claret all the glories tell? Which drives fufpicion to its native hell- It is a pity, that this fublime fentiment should be introduced by a verfe compofed of ten creeping monofyllables! In tranflating fome of these pieces, particularly Ovid's Elegy de Corinna Concubitu, the young gentleman affumes the air of a libertine; otherwife we should have fuppofed, that he had given the public a specimen of his exercifes at fchool. 33. The Naval Review. A Poem. By the rev. Robert English, 4to. Is. Becket. We know not whether the rev. Mr. English was present at the action he celebrates, but it is plain, from what relates to her majefty, that he had written his poem before the naval review had taken place. How happy for the fame of the author, and the pleasure of the public, that this poetical bantling, of which the author has been delivered prematurely, was not fmothered by a fimilar disappointment on the fide of the other royal perfonage! 34. Public Spirit; an Ode. 4to. As. Baldwin. This Ode is of that mixed character of poetical compofition which is not the object either of indiscriminate cenfure or applaufe. It contains fome paffages deferving approbation, but in others there are difcernible faults. 35. The Chimney Sweepers. A Town Eclogue. 410. 1s. Ridley. We meet here with a reprefentation of feveral characters in the metropolis, fome of which the author has defcribed with peculiar addrefs. 36. The 36. The Fond Lover. A Poem. 4to. Is. Allen. We have frequently obferved a calenture of love mistaken for a fit of poetic enthufiafm; and from the infipidity of fentiment, the unharmonious cadence, and bad rhymes, the inamorato before us appears to be under this deception. Whatever effect the warmth of his paffion may produce on the heart of his miftrefs, he seems not likely to obtain the favour of any of the Pierian ladies. MEDICAL. 37. Efay on the Liverpool Spa' Water. By Thomas Houlton, M. D. 8vo. Hawes and Co. This Effay is introduced with fome obfervations on mineral waters in general, where the author endeavours to invalidate the opinion of the volatile vitriolic acid being the folvent of iron in thofe chalybeate waters which, on ftanding a short time expofed to the air, depofite their metallic contents; and to prove that the real folvent is fixed air, which was a few years ago difcovered by Mr. Lane to be capable of diffolving iron. In the course of his arguments Dr. Houlfton obferves, that the generality of writers who treat of mineral waters, have been led into abfurd conclufions by adhering to the theory of the vitriolic folvent; and of this he produces an inftance from Dr. Rutty, who fays of the waters of Spa, that they contain a good deal of air, and a volatile acid, difcoverable by the tafte,' and at the fame time, an alcaline falt predominating over the acid, as is evident from the appearances exhibited,' That the volatile vitriolic acid is not the folvent of iron in the Bath waters, the author alfo endeavours to prove, by some rational ftrictures on Dr. Falconer's Effay on that fubject. For the purpofe of evincing that the volatile vitriolic acid is not the folvent in fuch chalybeate waters as lofe their metallic impreg nation on a fhort expofure to the air, Dr. Houlton informs us that he procured about half an ounce of the abovementioned acid, by diftilling in a fand-heat, with the greatest care, in glafs veifels, two ounces of vitriolic acid, from a little charcoal.. It came over colourless, fays he, and fcarcely acid to the tafte, diffufing through the whole house a pungent, fuffocating fmell, like that of a burning match. It did not effervefce with the mildest alcalies, nor with magnesia. Instead of changing the blue juices red, as it did before diftillation, it deprived them, and the red flowers, of all colour; the mixture however became of a bright red, on ftanding 24 hours; this circumstance naturally fuggested the following, Experiment X. A few drops of this volatile vitriolic acid, was diluted with an ounce of water, and fuffered to remain in a glafs open to the air, for 24 hours. The blue juice of the iris was then added, and immediately changed to a bright red. When this happened in the former experiment, it might be fuppofed, that the volatile acid was retained and fixed by the blue blue juices, but in this no fuch detention is to be apprehended We fee then clearly, that volatile vitriolic acid, when diluted, and expofed fome time to the air, inftead of flying off, as was fuppofed, becomes fixed. How is it probable then, it should fo foon diffipate in mineral waters, wherein, befides being in a like ftate of dilution, it is combined with, and retained by iron ? But the following experiment proves beyond a doubt, that the volatile vitriolic acid is not the folvent, in fuch chalybeates, as readily lofe, on expofure to the air, their metallic principles. Experiment XI. To a pint of fpring water were added ten drops of the volatile vitriolic acid, which had remained 20 hours on fresh filings of iron, and which feemed fully faturated with the metal. The mixture ftruck a fine purple with galls, One half of it was immediately boiled on an open fire, in a Florence flak, for a quarter of an hour and filtered, it then ftruck a deeper purple with galls than before, and continued fo to do when evaporated almoft to dryness, after standing in a bafon twenty-one days. A piece of paper dyed blue, and put in the neck of the flask, had loft its colour, which did not happen on the evaporation of our Spa water. The other half flood in a bafon 24 hours, without fcarcely any ochre fubfiding, and, after remaining expofed to the air about three weeks, ftruck inftantly black will galls. Its tafte was like that of our Spa water, but a little fulphureous.' After advaancing ftrong arguments for proving that the vitriolic acid cannot be the folvent in fugitive chalybeates, and offering reafons and experiments in fupport of the opinion of fixed air being the principle by which the folution is performed, the author attempts to evince, from analogy and probability, that fixed air is the folvent of the iron in the Liverpool Spa. But leaving this fubject, we fhall give our readers a fhort account of these waters. The Liverpool Spa, we are told, ouzes through veins of a foft yellow ftone generally used in that country for building, and which owes its colour to the iron it contains. The tafte of the water is at first cool and refreshing, afterwards auftere and inky, and it does not lofe the chalybeate tafte by long keeping in open veffels, though it foon depofits a quantity of ochre.. Some time after being drank, it is found by many to warm the ftomach; and fome are fenfible, from ufing it, of a cordial and inebriating fenfation. It has no fmell, and will keep a long time without putrifying. It is reprefented to be among the chaLybeates which lofe the leaft by keeping; and that part of iron which fubfides is fo minutely divided, that, if fwallowed, it is readily re-diffolved in the ftomach. From the principle which this water contains, we may fuppofe it to be highly beneficial in all cafes where chalybeates are proper; and the author produces fome inftances where it has been ufed with extraordinary fuccefs. 38. 4. 1 |