I fufpect, however, that both Mr. Blount and Mr. Groje + are mistaken in interpreting the word of a spur or goad, in the terms of the Tenure, I R. 2: 66 'per fervitium inveniendi unum equum, unum faccum, et unum pryk in gueria Walliæ, quandcunque contigerit regem ibi guerrare;" fince, in my opinion, this pallage, wherein pryk is joined with faccus, is to be explained by that in p. 26, where the party is to find "unum equum, unum faccum, et unam brochiam, in fervitio Domini Regis in Wallia ad cufum Domini Regis." Pryk is again joined with faccus, p. 41 and 5e, and therefore muft furely mean, in thefe cafes, a fever, to pin up or faften the mouth of the fack. This explanation feems to be confirmed by that pallage, p. 62, where we have, cum uno equo precii vs. et cum uno facco precii vid. et cum brochia ad eundem faccum." Brochia here is evidently the fame as pryk, from Fr. broche, or jpit, and, appertaining to the fack, can never be understood of a spur, or a goad. See alfo p. 65. But the matter is ftill more clear, p. 96, where the perfon that demands the bacon at Whichenour in Stafordibire is required to bring hoife and a faddie, a fakke and a pryke, for to convey and carry the faid bacon, &c." and it is obfervable, for a conclufion, that, in Ray's North-country Words, p. 8, 49, a prick fignifies a Jkewer. a What is here faid, may ferve to explain that paffage, p. 32, to which Mr. Blount puts a quæ e: per fervitium inveniendi unum ftimulum ferreum pro uno warrote fuper quoddam clothfack," from 22 R 2; for ftimulus here is not a four, but, as connected with clothfack, must mean a skewer; and it appears Blount's Tenures, p. 17, 125. + Grofe, 1. c. A war-horse, Blount's Tenures, p. 107, edir. 1784, quafi -g, which indeed is ingenious; but there lie two objections against it; ft, it makes tan hybridous word, art French, part British; 2dly, a warhorfe, mounted by a warrior, can have nothing to do with a clorbjack; poffibly it may he mouead tor can ock, a cant-horfe, from a from hence, that the fkewers in quef tion were fuppofed to be made of iron; and it is termed fimulus, only because this is Latin for a prick, just as a schoolboy would render it. We have fhewn above, that pryk and brochia are equivalent words; and therefore, when Mr Blount expounds brochettus, p. 71, in this paffage, "unum equum...et unum faccum...cum uno brochetto," by a little bottle or jug, he errs most egregiously. He was led, however, into the mistake by Sir Heary Spelman, Giolf. v. brochia, who inter prets thefe words of Bracton, inveniendi... unum hominem et unum equum, et facchum cum brochia pro aliqua neceflitata, vel utilitate exercitum fuum contingente," on this manner, "dictum opinor a Gall. broc, quod la genam majorem, aut cantharum, fig. nificat, plus minus 6 fextarios continentem: ut fit faccus ad deportationem aridorum brochia vero liquidorum;" than which nothing can be more foreign from the truth.-Great men, you fec, Mr. Urban, will fometimes err; Bernardus non videt omnia. L. E. Mr. URBAN, Berwick, May 20. HAVING perufed two letters figned Glotianus, in your Magazine of April, p. 297, on the very important queftion, whether or not Pars are young Sal mon, I take up the pen to exprefs my approbation of fuch an enquiry being fet on foot, and I hope the Natural Philofo phers will be fo kind as to turn their at tention to that fubje&t. When I reflect, Sir, on the very trivial and unimportant inatters which frequently occupy a great fhare of the attention of thofe learned and very inde fatigable men, I am inclined to regret that there fhould be fuch a proflitution of their talents; volumes upon volumes are publifhed by them, in the difcution of points, which, even when fully explained, produce little or no benefit to mankind; their refearches afford them amulcment while they are engaged in them; and if they are fo happy as to ar rive at that pitch of certainty in any of their purfuits, which enables them to demonftrate, to the conviction of our fenfes, any of their frivolous difcoveries, they would be ready, in their extatic tranfports, to facrifice an hundred oxen, if they had them in their poffcffion. But, Sr, in the queftion which your correfpondent Glotianus has started, the lile Interefting Query to the Naturalifts.-Remarks on Dalrymple. 493 utile and dulce are joined, for a field of amufement is opened, where the Philofopher, the Naturalift, or the Anatomift, may exercife his faculties with pleafure; even the learned and ingenious Dr. Munro, of Edinburgh, who has lately published a treatife on fishes, may find Tomething interefting in the difcuffion of this problem, Are Pars young Salmon? Because if he fhould difcover they are, and if, in confequence of that discovery, a ftop is put to the very general defiruction of them, the number of Salmon in our rivers will be nearly doubled. The emigration of birds, fuch as fwallows, woodcocks, and cuckows, the various changes which take place in the production of a butterfly, and the obfervations which are now made by the help of improved microfcopes on the fmaileft animalculi, are all, I will allow, matters highly deferving the attention of the natural Philofopher; but then I must be permitted to fay, cui bono? for in thefe difcoveries the utile is not joined to the dulce, as would be the cafe in the folution of the queftion proposed by Glotianus. It strikes me, Mr. Urban, at this inftant, that as a very great benefit would be derived from the difcovery, that Pars, become Salmon, fome honorary or pecuniary premium ought to be propofed by the Society in the Adelphi-buildings, or by the British Society for the encouragement of the fisheries (of which the Duke of Argyle is Governor), to the perton who fhall, in a limited time, produce the most fatisfactory account of the fmall fish, the Par. W. S. Mr. URBAN, Edinburgh, May 22. S the Memoirs of Great Britain, A Volume Second, lately published by Sir John Dalrymple, Bart. have produced many obfervations, I beg leave to give you fome, which relate to matters of fact, and which, therefore, deferve attention. In p. 170, the author takes great merit to himtelf for having conducted the Toleration Act in favour of the Roman Catholics; and fays, that its not being extended to Scotland was probably owing to a few of the Scotch Clergy. Is he quite fure that it was not owing to four other causes? 1. The attempts of certain perfons to force a refignation of the then Miniftry, by an infurrection of the people. 2. The want of wisdom in the highest Ecclefiaftical Court in Scotland, which would not allow the affair, though fupported only by twenty-four votes, to be carried to the Commiffion of the General Affembly, where it would have been neglected, or have died quietly. 3. The ill-judged zeal of a Scotch Roman Catholic Bishop, which is well known to the people in Edinburgh. 4. The keennefs of the Author, who was fuppofed by his enemies to act in that manner from a willingness to oblige the Miniftry, and not from the principles of Toleration. As a proof of this laft fuppofed caufe, many perfons are diverted with his boafted affection for the Roman Catholics, in page 170, and with his zeal for pillaging their churches, in page 23 of the Appendix; while Mr. Glaff. ford, a good Prefbyterian, declared that he would not touch what was dedicated to God, though by a religion that was not only contrary to his own, but everfive of it; and though the ufage of war, and the declaration of lefs fcrupulous perfons, would, with the world, have juflified the robbery." The author introduces the Carronades again and again, as a late invention, by a worthy Gentleman in Edinburgh, and as one of the greatest inventions in modern times. Now, if he had inquired at the old fea-faring people belonging to the Clyde and to Liverpool, he would have learned that the principle of the Carronades, which confifts only in a fliding carriage and light gun, was far from being a late invention; thefe carriages having been ufed, many years ago, in the Welt-Indies, and in the cabins of merchant- fhips, under the name of Skeeds; for, as to the fights, or difparts, fhortnefs, &c. they affect not the invention, they are like the fmall variations which we every day fee upon an tune, or an old machine. It is well known too, that small mortars and coehorns were, many years ago, wrought like fwivels upon the decks of fhips. And need I mention, after this, the light guns of Gustavus Adolphus, and the leathern guns [that is, wide, thin, fhort guns of copper, covered with ropes and leather] of our Scottish ancestors, which were fpeedily carried from place to place? Much is faid of the merit of Carronades, but no proofs are given except ftrong affertions; while it is well known, that many experiments were made with them by General Officers, Engineers, Sea-faring perfons, and particularly by a Glafgow Profeffor, who gave his opinion of them in the following words: "They are are excellent for fmall merchant-fhips against privateers, because they are much lighter than common guns, take lefs room, are wrought by fewer hands, and because the fights of fuch fhips are gene. rally of fhort duration. They may be ufed with great advantage in war-fhips, upon the poops and forecastles, inftead of marines, but they certainly ought not to make the chief defence. And they will, with carrying-poles, make good field-pieces, in rough or in foft ground, becaufe they are light, and have a large bore, whereas common field-pieces cannot be carried over fuch ground, have a fmall bore, and therefore are inferior to the Carronades when grape-fhop is fired. This is all that can be faid in their favour; and for this reafon, that though fine experiments have been made with them, yet the fame fuccefs cannot be expected in actual fervice; for it is well known, that a manufacturing machine cannot be used with advantage if it is much fubject to go wrong, and what would happen if the workers of it were expofed to wounds and to death? If, then, failors, with Carronades, are more apt to commit errors in loading and pointing, than with common guns, and if Carronades are much more apt to break their tackling, it feems to be overrating them, when their merit is raifed higher than as above-mentioned.”. Now, was this opinion found to be just by the teft of experience in actual fervice, or was it not? A fair enumeration of facts, by many perfons who have used them in fea engagements, ought to be the answer to this question, and not a parade of words. P. 7. Appendix. To the fame Edinburgh Gentleman he gives the invention of the double fhip, though it is notorious that a trial was made of it by Sir William Petty about an hundred years ago, as a packet-boat between England and Ireland; that a model of Petty's fhip is in the Museum of the Royal Society of London; and that an account of this was published, before the Author's Memoirs, by the celebrated Dr. Franklin, in page 108 of a volume of Philofophical Papers, with a propofed improvement to make the fides parallel which are oppofed to each other. P. 51. Appendix. He fays, That Archibald Duke of Argyle lived to the age of near ninety; and yet, if he had afked the friends of that diftinguished Nobleman, or looked at the common NewfPipers or Magazines, he would have known that his Grace did not complete his eightieth year. P. 99. He fays, That the Service of the Church of Scotland confifts of a Lecture with a Comment, a Sermon, two Prayers, three Pfalms, and a Bleffing; and yet it is notorious, not only that there are three Pfalms, three Prayers, and a Bleffing, in the Service of that Church, but that the Author is witness to thefe three Prayers and Bleffing every Sunday forenoon that he is in St. Giles's church during the Seffions. Hoping for an explanation of these difficulties which relate to matters of fact, and are, therefore, important, I am, Sir, yours, &c. HISTORICUS. Mr. URBAN, IN Na pamphlet you have done me the honour to notice, Vol. LVII p. 812. I have ftated, p. 102. 118. what appears to me to be the meaning of St. Peter, in thofe paffages of his ad Epiftle, chap. iii. which fpeak of the diffolution of the heavens and the earth, verfes 5. 6. 7. 10. 11. and 12; and have fhewn, from the language of the ancient Prophets in the Old Teftament, that the phrase must be understood, not of the final deftruction of the world, but of the fall of particular flates and empires; and in the prefent inftance, of the deftruction of Jeru falem and the ruin of the Jewish ftate; and I have from thence interred, what is the Apoftle's true meaning in the 13th verfe, when he fays-We, according to his promife, look for new heavens and a new earth; i. e. for a new and more perfect difpenfation, under the reign of the Melliah. Then follows a practical inference from the whole of the Apostle's reasoning in this chapter, ver. 14. to the end. Wherefore, beloved, seeing ye look for fuch things; be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without fpot and blamelefs; and account that the long-fuffering of our Lord is falvation; even as our beloved brother Paul alfo, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you: As alfo in all his Epiftles, fpeaking in them of thefe things; in which are fome things hard to be understood; which they that are unlearned and unftable wreft, as they do alfo the other fcriptures, unto their own deftruction. It hath exceedingly puzzled commentators to understand what thefe hard things are, of which the Apostle Peter declares St. Paul has written in his Epiftles. Dr. Benfon has very candidly obferved, Critique on a difficult Paffage in St. Peter. obferved, that he does not find any thing remarkably obfcure or difficult in what that Apoftle has faid about the laft day. And he mentions Beza as obferving, that St. Peter has faid many things, and more obfcure things, concerning the laft day, than St. Paul hath done in any part of his Epiftles. See Benfon in loc. The truth I believe is, that commentators have wholly misunderstood the meaning of the Apoftle Peter, and then perplexed themfelves to find fomething in the Epiftles anfwerable thereto; but in vain. But if my interpretation of the defign of St. Peter is right, all difficulty upon this head vanishes at once. If he is fuppofed to treat of the ruin of the Jewith church and ftate, and the fubfequent erection of the Meffiah's kingdom, all is clear and eafy; for this is a fubject which the Apostle Paul undeniably dwells largely upon, and is indeed the principal theme in his long Epiftle to the Romans, and is occafionally mentioned in most if not all his other Epiftles. The difficulty of underftanding this Apoftle arofe, not from any peculiar obfcurity in his writings, but from the prejudices and prepoffeffions of the Jews, with regard to the perpetuity of their law, and their proud conceit of themfelves, as in every refpect fuperior to the reft of mankind. It was hard for a Jew, who confidered himself as the favourite of heaven, and his nation as the peculiar people of God, to imagine that they hould be caft off, their polity deftroyed, and their city and country laid in ruins. It was hard for them to underftand that their fall, as St. Paul fpeaks, would be the riches of the Gentiles, whom they heartily defpifed, and that they fhould enjoy the privileges and bleffings of the Meffiah's kingdom, exclufively of the Jews, as fach. Truths, humiliating as thefe, could not but be hard to be under. ftood, and ftill harder to be received; and accordingly we find but few, comparatively, who could diveft themselves of thefe prejudices, even though the elo. quent Paul endeavoured, by every argument in his power, to ftir them up to jealoufy. Rather than admit fuch pride. confounding notions into their minds, they rejected the Meffiak, whom they anxiously expected at that very time, against the ftrongeft proofs of his claim to that high character, and chofe to abide the confequences of their unbelief, dreadful as they had often been told they would be. Exactly agreeable to this interpretation is the meaning of the Greek 495 words, which in our Bibles are tranflated Unlearned and Unftable. The former, fays Dr. Benfon, is often ufed by Greek writers for men of an indocible temper; not perfons who are unlearned, but who are averfe or unwilling to learn. By the latter I understand, perfons who are not well established or confirmed in any matter, and may perhaps be applied to fome, whom the Apostle had in view, when he wrote, as wavering upon this point. This interpretation is fo natural, fo perfectly confiftent with known and acknowledged facts, and fo confonant with the matter of St. Paul's Epiftles, that I am unable to fee that the flightest objection can be made to it; and it harmonizes fo well with the preceding context, that I have not the fmalleft doubt of its being the true meaning of the Apoftle. Yours, &c. N. P. NISBETT. CORYLUS AVELLANA LINNÆI; THIS tree is to be found in moft parts of the kingdom, but abounds particularly on chalky foils. When left to rife in a fingle ftem, it will acquire a confiderable fize as well as height; and its foliage will help to diverfify plantations agreeably. The distance of time between the opening of the bloom and the ripening of the fruit is longer in this than we can recollect it to be in any other deciduous tree, for its elegant, though minute, female bloom often appears early in February. We have remarked that Hazel or Filbert-trees, when they first blow, produce female and no male bloom, contrary to what is ob ferved on most other monoecious trees when young. The Filbert, from the thinnefs of its fhell, and the fuperior flavour of the kernel, is probably a variety of the Hazel meliorated by cultivation. The Hazel is profitable in coppices, furnishing hoops of the most durable kind; and the neatnefs of the wicker rodhedges made of this tree is one of the ornaments of agriculture almoft peculiar to the chalk. But the frequent custom of fuffering hedge-rows of Haze!, feveral yards in breadth, to furround arable inclotures, is certainly an improvident method of tillage; fince thefe rows, being open at bottom, leave the corn defenceless, and when cut down confume the greatest part of their produce in the dead dead hedge, which is neceffary to preferve the fucceeding fhoot from the brouzing of cattle. On this account, all woods and plantations fhould be formed as nearly fquare as poffible, that shape requiring the leaft extent of fence. The only objection to this tree is, that it is much trefpaffed on and broken down, for the fake of the nuts, in plentiful years. From the advice which Thomson gives to the ruftics, we apprehend he was not an owner of any Hazelcoppices; for this kind of rural gallantry, however pleafing it may appear in the defcription of the Poet, is in fact exceed. ingly destructive. brook "Ye fwains, now haften to the Hazel-bank; Where, down yon dale, the wildly-winding [array, Falls hoarfe from fteep to fteep. In clofe Fit for the thickets and the tangling shrub, Ye virgins come. For you their lateft fong The woodlands raife; the clustering nuts for you The lover finds amid the facred shade; With active vigour crushes down the tree; AUTUMN. Nuts contribute largely to the fub. fiftence of many animals, and no doubt did to man in a state of nature; though they now lay undefervedly under the impuration of not digefting. But what food caten voraciously after a full meal, as nuts generally are, would not equally diforder the flomach? Vigil fay, Phyllis amat Corylos," Phyllis loves Hazels, we imagine for a chaplet, as the trees to which Corydon prefers it are coronary; and that Dryden hath rightly tranflated it, "With Hazel Phyllis crowns her flowing hair." L. vii. And Milton hath given the verdure of this tree a confpicuous place in one of the beautiful effufions of his youthful Mufe: Some have fuppofed that this delufive fcience, called Rhabdomancy, (divination by a rod,) is alluded to in the following verfe of Hofea, "My people ask counsel at their flocks, and their faff declareth unto them." ch. iv. As Europe received in very early times many fuperftitious cuftoms from the Eaft, together with many useful inventions, the conjecture is not improbable. Divination by arrows, a method of a fimilar kind, mentioned in Ezekiel (ch. xxi.), continued among the Arabs till the days of Makemet, who in the Korán forbade his followers this idle attempt at prefcience*. The facility with which mankind have in every age and in every country given up their understandings and the evidence of their fenfes to impotture, particularly when actuated by the vain hope of pry. ing into futurity, is wonderful. T. H. W. Mr. URBAN, May 31. TH HE abufe made by mafters of their condition of flaves in general, being a power over their flaves, and the fubject by which the attention of the publick is at prefent engaged; the following account of the manner in which flaves were used among the Romans, may prove acceptable to the reader. O true believers, furely wine, and lots, and images, and divining arrows, are an abomination of the work of Satan; therefore avoid them, that ye may profper." Sale's Koran, Cap. v. p. 94 "Mafters, |