Misson, in "Memoirs and Observations in his Travels over England," translated by Mr. Ozell, 8vo. Lond. 1719, says: "They give this name in England to a sort of pleasure-boat, at one end of which is a little room, handsomely painted and covered, with a table in the middle, and benches round it; and, at the other end, seats for 8, 10, 12, 20, 30, or 40 rowers. There are very few persons of great quality but what have their barges, though they do not frequently make use of them. Their watermen wear a jacket of the same colour they give for their livery, with a pretty large silver badge upon their arm, with the nobleman's coat of arms embossed in it. These watermen have some privileges, as belonging to peers; but they have no wages, and are not domestic servants: they live in their own houses with their families, and earn their livelihood as they can. The Lord Mayor of London and the several companies have also their barges, and are carry'd in them upon certain solemn occasions." p. 11. XXIII. PAMPHLETS. The same writer observes, p. 203, "England is a country abounding in printed papers, which they call pamphlets, wherein every author makes bold to talk very freely upon affairs of state, and to publish all manner of news. I do not say that every one does with impunity speak his own thoughts, but I say, they take great liberties. A friend of mine affirmed to me, that in the reign of the late King Charles, he heard the hawkers cry about the streets a printed sheet, advising that Prince to quit the Duchess of Portsmouth, or to expect more dreadful consequences. The extreme mildness of the government gives room for this licentiousness.", Latin Poetry is announced, by Professor Dalzell; it will be doing me a very great favour, if, through the channel of your valuable miscellany, you can inform me where this book is to be met with. I have also to request information, where the last volumes of Willdenow's Species Plantarum, are to be purchased, having in vain attempted to get the work completed here. INDAGATOR. Edinburgh, Dec. 14, 1814, To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, "Let us consider of the means of making two blades of grass, or two grains of corn, grow where but one grew before."-LORD BACON. HE national importance of the ob Tject of this letter, particularly at a crisis when the adjustment of the most delicate interests depends on the increase of the produce of the soil, wil, I trust, be considered as a sufficient apology for imposing on your readers the trouble of perusing it. It is too well known that, in spite of every exertion of the Board, and of the various local societies for promoting agricultural improvements, the force of cus tom and prejudice has hitherto counteracted those exertions; and the introduction of better systems appears to depend on the more extensive diffusion of knowledge, which must result from the circulation of books and the gradual conviction of experience. At the same time, it is deeply to be lamented that the Scottish farmer, by ap plying all the aids of art, and even many English farmers who have adopted the. best modern practices, find it as easy to pay from 51. to 81. per acre, as many, who pursue obsolete and erroneous systems, find it to pay but 20s. or 30s. And, as the necessities of the state cannot soon diminish the burdens of the farmers, and as consumers cannot pay much higher prices, the only practical alternative is to increase the produce of the land by improved modes of cultivation. Such is the appeal of common sense to the patriotism and loyalty of the country, and the mode of answering that appeal is to meet the exigency of the case by augmenting by every means the knowledge of the practical farmer. How is this to be done? Will they at tend lectures on agriculture? No! If lecturers 15 sense is effected by circulating the holy records of religion. I wish, however, as a British patriot and a Christian, to see these two works stand side-by-side, in every farm-house in the empire. Easton, Dec. 20. R. WILSON, M.D. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. A to SIR, PRINCIPAL object in the preceding part of my communication, was animadvert on some gross misrepre sentations, lately inserted in the Monthly Review, with respect to Dr. Wallis's English Grammar. I now mean, as briefly as possible, to expose a few of the erroneous notions on the subject of English grammar, recently promulgated by the same grave authority. The reviewer observes, that both Murray and Grant "omit to treat of those words which are differently spelled by different authors: for instance, words derived from Latin supines, are sornetimes spelled by scholars with an s, but more generally with a c; such as offense, expense, defense; offence, expence, defence. Why do not the professed lawyers of language tell us the rule of court? The fact is, that they correct their very grammars by the printer's dictionary." I am not aware that at present, there exists any appropriate "rule of court;" and, I apprehend, that such subjects fall within the province of the lexicographer, rather than of the grammarian. Some few words, as suspense, are, I believe, always written with an s; others, as expense, expence, with either letter. But where, I would ask, did the reviewer ever find defence, and offence, spelled with an s} It must have been among very poor "scholars;" or such as, like the Monthly Reviewers, assign two ls to solicit, solicitude, and the like,-a mode of spelling certainly not warranted either by usage, or the usual forms of the words whence these are derived. latter part of the quotation is mere moon◄ shine. In English, (the reviewer boldly asks,) why should we class under dif ferent heads the words this, the, that? If we call them articles, or particles, pronouns, or adnouns, they are still words of the same class; the indicating a middle situation between this and that; this indicating a more contiguous, and that a more remote, situation than the." Any person reading this question, would naturally infer, that I have "classed these words under different heads.” Now, the truth is, that they are all classed under one and the same head; 66 The 1815.] Mr. Grant on English Grammar. lecturers were to preach with religious fervour in every village in the empire, they would be treated as theorists and visionaries, and be neglected and despised! Will they read the Reports of the Board? No-seventy volumes of detailed facts are beyond the patience of most men, and wholly repulsive to those whose literature seldom extends beyond their provincial Paper, or their Bible and Prayer Book! What then is the means by which this great purpose is to be atchieved? I conceive success would be rendered certain by the general introduction to every farmer's fire-side, of that practical volume, YOUNG'S FARMER'S KALENDAR a book above all praise-which teaches whatever ought to be known, while it neither proses nor dilates so as to perplex or weary its readers. Following the succession of business, month by month, and describing the operations of each period, according to the best practical systems, it does not offend the unlettered reader by its systematic arrangements or logical subdivisions, hut treats on every thing that is to be done on every kind of farm and soil, plainly, intelligibly, and practically. Mr. YOUNG, as is well known, has de voted a long and very active life to the perfection of this volume; and his opportunities in travel, as secretary of the Board, and as the personal acquaintance of every improving farmer in the em pire, have never been exceeded, and perhaps never can be equalled by any man. His book is therefore all that can be desired as a manual of improved prac tice, while, as a composition, it is of all others, in its form and manner, the best adapted to the purpose of spreading that information which affords the only chance of enabling the farmer, and the country at large, to triumph over the difficulties of the times. Farmers, who value their own inter est, will of course not fail to possess themselves of so desirable a treasure; but it is incumbent on all great landowners, and their stewards, to give every possible currency to the volume, by a gratuitous distribution on rent-days, the returns to which it would be the most certain means of augmenting, with increased profit and facility to the te nantry. I have heard it called, the Agriculturalist's Bible, a title which, in a worldly sense, it nerits; and in that sense, as much good would be effected to the community by the formation of aucieties to circulate it, as in a spiritual namely, 16 namely, definitives; and I will venture to assert, that this very circumstance, which is contrary to the common prac tice, suggested to the ingenuous critic the propriety of putting a question, which, how applicable soever it may be to the classification adopted by other writers, involves, with respect to mine, There a palpable misrepresentation. is, however, in the preceding extract, one important and novel piece of information, to which, certainly, I pretend to lay no claim. It is, I may truly say, wholly and solely the property of the reviewer. I allude to the indicating a middle situation between this and that, &c." The language of nonsense is generally diffuse; but here it is admirably condense. Referring to two objects at different distances from us, we correctly enough characterise the nearest, as "this object," and the farthest, as "that ob. a Daniel to 66 comes ject;" and now jadgment," who seriously informs us, that any intermediate object is to be described as "the object!" Is it necessary to inform any person, endowed with a sane mind, that the possesses no such character, but, with suitable terms of definition, either expressed or implied, according to circumstances, is equally applicable to this, that, and the other object, whatever may be their relative situations? It verily seems to be this man's "nature's plague, to spy Into abuses, and oft his jealousy shapes faults that are not." For, in the very rext paragraph, we find him, with his usual blundering and gravity, asserting, that "another case of impropriety is the calling in an English grammar by the name preposition, which means, put before, those separable inflective sylla bles, with which our verbs are frequently combined. To stand by, to look over, to set on, are instances of verbal composition, in which not a preposition, but an affix, is employed; yet, as we can say a by-stander, an over-looker, and onset, we ought not to include any idea of place, or position, in the definition of this class of words." This extract betrays wonderful ignorance of the prin ance of the pran, ciples of grammar, the critic appears to be laudably impressed with the propriety of Quintili an's maxim, Expedire grammatico, etiam si quædam nesciat; or else, how could he utter such nonsense, about "separable inflective syllables," ‚""affixes," and "verbal composition," as would provoke the derision of the stupidest school-boy? Does he not know, that, in all languag Mr. Clennell on Sulphuric and Muriatic Acid. [Feb. 1, ges, the term preposition is applied to a On this head, it is only necessary to observe, that several of these terms are used idiomatically, or figuratively; that, even were it expedient, it would be impossible to comprise all such distinctions within the ordinary compass of a grammar; and that, in the explanations of the separable and the inseparable prepositions, every attention has been paid to the subject, that it seemed to deserve. Many such things are often omitted in grammars, or treated only cursorily; and this, probably, not without good reason, enim optimi artificis est, omnia J. GRANT. non persequi. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, HE readiness which you have al quiries and notices in the arts, induces me to send you the following, and to solicit further remarks from your correspondents. In some of the private recipes of the calico-printers, from which they worked with success forty or fifty years ago, oil of vitriol is ordered in the composition of their fast grecs. The oil of vitriol of 1815.] On the Process of Malting. 17 of Tournay College, at Paris, and bears date, 1669. I have also met with an English version of the Treatise on the Love of God, which was printed at Douay; in what year I forgot to notice, but the title-page announced it as being the twenty-fifth edition. NONUSQUAM ITERATURUS. December 13, 1814. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. S As your Magazine is open to every proper discussion, permit me to make it the vehicle of some observations upon the criticism of Sir H. Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, in the Edinburgh Review, for January last. The writer there states as follows: of the present day, being used, has no such effect; since fast greens, so common formerly, are now a desideratum. The reason for this failure is not generally known to the trade; I beg leave to offer the following, as a solution of the difficulty:-The oil of vitriol, as its name in some degree imports, was, at that time, obtained from green copperas (sulphate of iron,) as it is even yet on the continent; but the article manufactured at present, is obtained from sulphur, saltpetre, (nitrate of potash,) &c. and called very properly sulphuric acid. Thus, the printers of this country have an article of the same name as formerly, but not the same properties; and, since the failure may be easily perceived, may there not be other products in similar circumstances? "The process of malting is considerMuriatic acid, when of a yellow co-ed by our author, (S. H. D.) in common lour, is impure from the presence of with others, merely as one in which iron; its impurity being in proportion germination is artifically produced. It to its colour. A piece of tin, immersed is true, that the germination of the seed in this impure spirit for about a minute, always accompanies that conversion of will, in the course of that time, deprive its feculæ, or starch, into saccharine it apparently of the iron which was pre- matter, which it is the aim of the maltsent in it. The most accurate and the ster to effect. But we do not believe nicest test generally used for iron is such growth to be in any way necessary prussiat of potash; and with this test, to that result; and we have no doubt, after the immersion of the tin, the iron that if the minute germ, or embryo, of is not detected. How does the tin the seed, were previously removed, the operate? By deposition? And are there great mass of inorganic matter, if placed any other delicate tests by which minute in the same circumstances, would undergo portions of iron could be detected in the the same change. Indeed this change acid? J. CLENNEL. can be wrought on this matter after it is reduced to powder, or is separated in the form of starch. The growth of the further useful than as an indication of germ, in the process of malting, is no the due degree of change being effected in the organic matter; that is, when the Brooksby House, Homerton. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, ERMIT me to submit to the Pranslator of the " Memoirs of St. organized parts exhibit a certain degree Francis de Sales," that his work would Introduction à la vie devote. 8vo. à Paris, 1676. Les vrays Entretiens Spirituelles. A Annessy, 1678. Missionarins Pastoralis. De Amore Dei, libri xii. 8vo. 1697. In respect to the first of the above works, the Introduction to a Devout Life, the translator mentions only one English translation, that by Nicholls. I have met with another. It is called a New Edition, set forth by the English Priests MONTHLY MAG, No. 265. of development, then the inorganic matter is most completely changed. All growth beyond this is injurious, as leading to a consumption of the inorganic matter; all less than this is not other wise disadvantageous, than as an indica tion that the inorganic matter is not duly changed. It is provided by nature, that the same agents which urge on the should at the same time assist in predevelopment of the organized parts, paring food for their support; but, in one case they act physiologically on a living structure, in the other they exert a chemical operation on the inorganic matter of the seed." You will perceive I have given the whole paragraph, rather than a garbled extract, though the principal objection I have to make is to the passage in D italics, 18 Profits of Gas Lights. italics, which appears to me completely submitted to the test of rigid investiga I shall not here enter into any chemical investigation of the process of germination, it will be sufficient for my purpose to bring forward substantial ob jections to the statement of its "being unnecessary towards the conversion of barley into malt;" and here we must enquire of the practical maltster, what are the motives which regulate his conduct in the management of his business. If we follow him to the corn-market, we find him with a cautious and scrutinizing eye, examining each sample of barley, principally with a view to discover if the germ, or acrospire, have not been destroyed by an undue heat in the stack, or what is technically called mow, or goffeburnt. Should he perceive the least indication of its having sustained such injury, which is easily known by the germ appearing black instead of yellow, he instantly rejects it, as unfit for his purpose. It may be, that, in the hurry of business, a sample of this kind may, unobserved, be thrown upon his granary, and find its way ultimately into the cistern. He does not then discover the unlucky circumstance, till the germination of the sound barley commences, when he finds, to his mortifi [Feb. 1, cation and loss, that the portion of a hard Such appears to be the result in barley only partially injured; in what manner the whole mass, being in the same stute, could be changed for the better, and even into good malt, I must leave to the reviewer or your readers to decide. The whole must go into immediate putrefaction, and, though this pro cess may so far create a change as to induce a partial solubility, it must be at a great waste, and upon the condition of having attached to the dissolved porJ. A, tion, a mouldy stinking flavour. Ipswich, June 10, 1814. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, SIR, HE advantages of gas-lights have T Where the expence of candles for a the |