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57,750 tons of crude iron will then be neceffary to form 35,000 tons of bars

at 201.

42,250 tons caft into cannon, cylinders, machinery, wares,&c. at 141.

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1,291,500

100,000 tons amount of the native manufactures of iron at this period The extenfive manufactures of this country have for many years paft demanded an additional fupply of foreign bar iron. This has been chiefly obtained from Ruffia and Sweden, and the annual quantity may be averaged for the last 20 years at 70,000 tons, which at 181. per ton makes 1,260,000l. amounting with the fum before ftated to 2,551,500l. which may be taken as the annual amount of the raw material, the chief part of which becomes more valuable in an uncommon ratio, by fubfequent labour.

Monthly Agricultural Report.

IT was fortunate for the farmer that the operations of the plough had been continued without much interruption for fome time previous to the fetting in of the frofts; as thofe together with the very unufual quantity of fnow, which has fallen during the last month hias nearly put a stop, for the time, to the bufinefs of hufbandry. The farmer could indeed do little elfe than look after his ftock-his ftock, however, required all his attention, and, during the feverity of the weather, made him but a trifling remuneration. The turnips were fo cold and comfort lefs that they would eat no more than were abfolutely neceffary for their fupport. Many farmers fortunately had a great deal of old hay by them, and this they were under the neceflity of giving to their bullocks and weathers, with an unfparing hand. It is probable that iarge graziers must have loft a great deal of money this feafon.

The late fown wheats fuffered confiderably from the feverity of the first froft, and the confequent tardiness of their growth expofed them much to the depredation of vermin (crows, pidgeons, wire-worms, &c.): that froft, however, enabled the farmers to take time by the forelock; they top-drefied those wheats which had not been mucked at Michaelmas, and manured almost all the layers which were intended for wheat next feafon. Some fortunately ftill further anticipated the labour of another year; they actually finished mucking their layers, and made fome progrefs in carting dung on their wheat-ftubbles for a crop of turnips in the fummer. The fnow which accompanied this fecond winter, prevented, however, the moft active farmers from proceeding with their bufinefs; they could neither fence nor ditch, nor underdrain nor marle, nor make any other ufe of their carts and horfes than bring a few rotten turnips to the ftock.

The flail in fome districts and the thrashing machines in others have indeed been kept pretty brifkly in motion. The blocks in the wood-yards have been riven and ftacked for the fire. Those who had ploughed their wheat-ftubbles before the frofts fet in, expect to have the land in fine order for turnips, as nothing pulverifes ftiff heavy foils fo effectually as froft, and it is found that turnips will not flourish where the earth impedes the expanfion of the young plant. From the destruction of the prefent crop, the farmer may perhaps look forward to a plentiful harvest of summer corn next year, if the feafon is not particularly unfavourable. Our Norfolk reporter fays, that there they never manure for barley or for oats, except, as is the cafe at prefent, where they cannot help it. Farmers, continues he, therefore, if they be a little dejected now, at the lofs of their turnip crop, may, in all probability, be in fome measure repaid by the luxuriance of their fummer corns.

From fome of the northern diftricts we are informed, that wheats and clovers, where covered with fnow, feem to have received no injury from the frofts, &c. but where the fnow has been drifted off by the ftrong gales of wind which have prevailed, they fhew a more meagre afpect. On the whole, however, it is hoped, that they have not sustained any very great hurt.

The remaining turnips, and particularly thofe of the larger forts, have now many rotten ones among them, but not more than might reasonably be expected from the long continuance of the froft at this feafon.

Turnip flock have not improved much during the feverity of the late feafon, either in the field or at the ftall, and that root is now becoming fcarce, and confequently higher in price. Indeed fodder of all forts is remarkably fcarce and now fold very dear.

During the inclemency of the late feafon there does not appear to have been fuch a mortality among the lambs as might reafonably have been apprehended: fome few which were dropt during the fevereft part of the feafon, perished inftantly on their birth; but Providence feems to have ordained that the feverity of the feafon fhould retard the period of parturition; it certainly fo happened about us at least (Norfolk) that a very large proportion of ewes dropped their lambs during the interval between the two frofts.

GRAIN, in the northern parts of the ifland, feems to be getting rather lower in price.
HORSES ftill keep low. At Dumfries fair in Scotland they fold very cheap.

MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

No. XLIII.]

APRIL 1, 1799.

[No. 3. of VOL. VII.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

A

SIR,

S the fubject of Penitentiary Houses, to which the attention of the public has lately been much excited, has occafioned a frequent reference to the plans of the late Mr. Howard, and that in terms not always the most respectful, I think it in fome meafure incumbent on me, as the friend and biographer of that excellent man, to make fome ftatement of his real opinions and propofals with regard to that part of police, that they may not be confounded with thofe of other perfons. As long ago, indeed, as the time of my writing his life, I was aware that falfe notions prevailed concerning his ideas of folitary confinement, which, in fome places, had been adopted, in fuppofed conformity with his recommendation, to a degree much beyond his intentions; and I ventured to bring forward fome confiderations on this fubject, founded on a note of his own. (See "View of the Character, &c. of J. Howard," p. 170.) His own "Remarks on Penitentiary Houfes," in the fecond volume of his work, are, however, fufficient, if properly attended to, to prevent any mifconception of his views. From thefe it clearly appears, that the reformation of those committed to fuch places of confinement was his main object; he therefore supposes them to be of that clafs of offenders who, by ignorance, idlenefs, and vicious habits of all kinds, have been led to violate the peace and good order of fociety. To make a Penitentiary Houfe a place for fafe cuftody previously to trial could never have entered into his mind; nor do I fuppofe he had an idea of rendering it the abode of political criminals, who, however ferious might be their delinquency in a public view, might have none of thofe immoral habits which it was his purpose to correct. As to the regulations of these houfes, he has explicitly faid, that confinement to folitary cells during the day was only intended to break the fpirits of the audacious and profligate, who could be tamed by no other means; and therefore that it was to be confidered as a tempoMONTHLY MAG, No. XLIII.

rary expedient, and not a part of ufual practice but he certainly approved of feparate lodgment by night for alhe convicts, and during their whole term. He was likewife rigorous in his intentions of preventing all prifons from being in any refpe&t places of idle refort or amufement; and therefore not only forbid vifits from friends, except at ftated times; but absolutely excluded fpirituous and fermented liquors of every kind. (See his "Draught of a Bill for the better Regulation of Gaols, &c.") As no one could be more attentive, not only to the health, but to the comfort of his fellow-creatures, even though unhappily the objects of punifhment, he was an advocate for every indulgence with refpect to clothing, bedding, fire, light, &c. that could reasonably be defired; yet his ftrong conviction of the benefits of fresh air caufed him to propofe that plan of building with unglazed windows or apertures, which, in this climate, during certain feafons, may, perhaps, be found incompatible with a proper degree of warmth and drynefs. I am, however, convinced, that the experience of any material fufferings confequent upon this plan would have induced him to alter it. With refpect to food, though it was part of his defign to fubjugate the ferocity of the mind by bodily regimen, and therefore he was an advocate for what may be comparatively called low diet, as chiefly confifting of vegetable articles; yet the allowance he propofed was very far from being fcanty in quantity, or meagre in quality. As a proof of this, I fhall exactly copy the dietary contained in the fchedule annexed to his "Draught of a Bill."

Good wheaten bread, a peund and a half daily, i. e. half a pound at breakfast, and a pound at dinner.

BREAKFAST. Every day, a quarter of a pint of wheaten or barley meal, oatmeal, or rice, made into foup.

DINNER. Sunday and Thursday, a pound of beef, mutton, or pork, without bone.

Monday and Friday, a pint of pease boiled in the broth of the preceding day.

Tuesday,

Tuesday, half a pint of wheat or wheaten flour, made into pudding or foup. Wednesday, two pounds of potatoes, turnips, carrots, or other vegetables that are in feafon.

Saturday, a quarter of a pound of cheese, or the vegetables as on Wednesday. Salt, every day a quarter of an ounce. This is certainly no ftarving plan; and I may add, that Mr. H. was particularly attentive to the fecuring of due weight and measure in prifon allowances, being well apprifed of the ufual frauds in this point.

Having thus endeavoured to vindicate the memory of this diftinguished friend of mankind from the imputation of undue harshness and severity in his own genuine plans, I do not feel it to be my bufinefs to draw any comparisons, in whih I could have no other guide than common rumour, or reprefentations of which I know not the truth. Let thofe make them who are poffeffed of the means of information, and of impartiality to ufe them with justice. The fubject is, doubt lefs, of high importance, and ought not to be paffed over lightly. Had Mr. H. been ftill living I am fure it could not have long remained without a complete investigation. J. AIKIN.

Stoke Newington, March 10.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

You

SIR, YOU will do me a great favour, if, through the medium of your valuable mifcellany, you will allow me to notice a misstatement refpecting the "Effay on the Principles of Population," in a note to a poem, called, "The Literary Cenfus," by Mr. Dutton.

It has not unfrequently happened, that an inference has been drawn from an author's reafonings by others, totally different from that which he himself had in view. From the nature of the principal argument in the "Essay on Population," I have not been without apprehenfions, that fome perfon would exercife his ingenuity in applying it to a defence of war; and I was rather anxious for an opportunity of ftating, that no fuch ufe could be made of it with the flighteft refemblance of juft reafoning. War being, generally fpeaking, a voluntary act, tending to fofter the more malignant paffions of the foul, and to produce the worst effects upon the human character, muft ever be confidered as vice: and in whatever light we view the fituation of man on

earth, he can never be juftified in recurring to vice in order to avoid mifery. To bear the unavoidable evils of life with unyielding integrity is the highest test of our virtue: to attempt to efcape them by vicious means is the great proof of our weakness, and of our unfitness for a fuperior ftate. This would alone be a fufficient anfwer; but, in addition to this, let it be recollected, that war is in itself an evil in no refpect inferior to any that it might be fuppofed to prevent. If it were probable that ten thousand people would die of a peftilence or famine, it would certainly be a strange mode of pro ceeding, to maffacre thefe ten thoufand in order to prevent fuch an event. For, granting that by fuch means you prevented the peftilence or famine, you would not have prevented the mifery; you would only have exchanged one fpecies of diftrefs for another not inferior in degree, and you would ftill have the cries of the orphan and the widow, and the groans of the dying. It is evident, therefore, that no degree of inconvenience arifing from an overcharged population could ever afford to a civilized people the flighteft excufe for war. Yet I thought it not abfolutely impoffible that fome perfon might advance fuch a plea, however palpably weak; but, I own I was totally unprepared to expect that any perfon fhould feriously affert, that I myfelf had advanced it, and had undertaken to prove "that war was an unspeakable bleffing to mankind." I every where rank it among the checks to population, which I call mifery and vice; and in fpeaking of it as the prominent feature of the barbaric character, I expressly fay, that the commiffion of war is vice, and the effect of it mifery. This, I should hardly think, would be the language of a perfon who attempted to prove war an unfpeakable bleffing.

In a note towards the end of the poem, Mr. Dutton fays, "I am not of that clafs of men who, with the author of the "Effey on Population," think it neceffary that man fhould be deftroyed by war by wholefale, becaufe, forfooth, the Author of our exiftence has no other method of difpofing of us; or, that it becomes us to cut each other's throat, because God has not rendered the earth capable of producing fufficient fuftenance for the prolongation of our exiftence." I should certainly feel very much afhamed of myself, if I had expreffed fuch a fentiment; but being confcious that there is not in the whole Efay any thing that bears the most dif

tant

tant refemblance to it, I can only feel the emotion of furprife at fo very strange an affertion. Satire has, undoubtedly, great latitude; but it may be a question whether, even in a fatirical compofition, it is perfectly juftifiable, in order to make a man a proper object of attack, to affirm, that when he calls an action vicious, he means virtuous; when he speaks of evil, he means good. Yet, without fome fuch converfion of terms, I am at a loss to conjecture how Mr. D. can make out, that I have ever faid a fingle fyllable in favour of war. If Mr. D. has any candour, he must acknowledge, that, from inadvertence, or fome other caufe, he has in this inftance been guilty of a more palpable mifreprefentation than any which he imputes to the author of the "Purfuits of Literature."

It is my intention at a future time to enlarge and illuftrate, by a greater number of facts, the principal part of the "Effay on Population" and, as the fubject of the two laft chapters is not neceffarily connected with it, I fhall, in deference to the opinion of fome friends whole judgments I refpect, omit them in another edition. I fhould rather with, therefore, the fubject to reft: but, in anfwer to Mr. D.'s ironical obfervations, I cannot help begging him to reflect for a moment, if ever he thinks upon thefe fubjects, whether it is more derogatory to the Deity, to fuppofe that an immortal fpirit may require fome time or procel's for its formation; or, to fuppofe that man might be placed at once in the most exalted state of happiness, exactly in the fame manner formed to, or confirmed in virtue, as if he had paffed with approbation through this life; but that the Supreme Being faw with fatisfaction the toil, the tears, the pains, the continual failure of numbers, in this world, and was pleased with the spectacle of unneceffary evil?

Author of the "Effey on the Principles March 1, 1799. of Population."

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Nec duduni vetiti me laris angit amor : Nec duri libet ufque mas perferre magistri, Cæteraque, ingenio non fubeunda meo.

That fome circumftance, different from ruftication, either of domestic avocation, bodily indifpofition, or fome other impediment, not now discoverable, is intended in the first diflich, I conclude from the dates of his adıniffion, Feb. 12, 1624-5, and his two degrees, 1628-9 and 1632, by which there is no appearance of any lofs of terms; and from an unwillingnes which every man mult feel to the publication of his own difgrace: for certainly a punishment from fuch a fociety as Chrift's college is at that time reprefented to have been by Milton himself, would have been difgraceful to any man. And that reader must have very little acquaintance with Milton's profe works, and the uniform fpirit of the man through life, who cannot fee in college jobations, and impofitions, and formal exercises, and rigorous exactions of a regular attendance at chapel, an adequate explanation of the second difich.

How long the flogging difcipline was continued at Oxford, or whether it be exerciled at this day, I know not; but its prevalence at Cambridge, so as to render a public flagellation of Milton credible, is much dilcountenanced by a paffage in " Gardiner's Letter to Cheke," lo far back as June 1542, towards the conclufion. "Puerilem denique temeritatem, fi quid publice aufa fuerit, DOMI APUD SUOS CASTIGARI curato."

But to those who have well confidered the magnanimity and fanctity of Milton's chara&er, the following paffage must be regarded as a fufficient refutation of all unauthenticated furmifes to his difcredit.

"Profe Works," pp. 174, 175. edit. Am

fterdam.

"I must be thought, if this libeller can find belief, after an inordinate and riotous youth fpent at the univerfity, to have been at length vomited out there. For which commodious lie, that he may be encouraged in the trade another time, I thank him; for it hath given me an apt occafion to acknow

ledge

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ledge publicly, with all grateful mind, that more than ordinary favour and respect, which I found above any of my equals at the hands of those courteous and learned men, the fellows of that college wherein I spent fome years, who, at my parting, after I had taken two degrees, as the manner is, fignified many ways how much better it would content them if I would ftay, as by many letters full of kindness and loving refpect, both before that time and long after, I was affured of their fingular good affection towards me; which being likewife propenfe to all fuch as were for their ftudious and civil life, worthy of esteem, I could not wrong their judgments and upright intentions fo much as to think I had that regard for them for other caufe than that I might be ftill encouraged to proceed in the honest and laudable courfes, of which, they apprehended, I had given good proof. And to thofe ingenuous and friendly men, who were ever the countenancers of virtuous and hopeful wits, I wish the best and happieft things that friends in abfence with one to another," &c.

These friendly and refpectful fenti

ments are not reconcileable with a recol

lection of thofe grofs indignities which must have left an indelible impreflion of antipathy on fuch a mind as Milton's. Such, at leaft, is my view of the fubject.

GILBERT WAKEFIELD.

Hackney: March 2, 1799.

P.S. Since I wrote the foregoing obfervations, a friend informs me, that Mr. Hayley, in his "Life of Milton," has urged the fame paffage, in confutation of the fame calumny. As I have never had the pleafure of reading that publication, and am unacquainted with its contents, if my communication be not wholly fuperfeded, and therefore unworthy of a place in your Magazine, it may not be altogether unimportant, as an uninfluenced and independent effort to refcue from disgrace the character of a man who adorned his fpecies no lefs by the purity of his manners than the endowments of his understanding.

March 8.

TH

For the Monthly Magazine.
MR. EDITOR,

HE lamps with what are called pa-
tent burners, that is, with a convex
refracting glass placed before them, are,
it fhould teem, at prefent almoft general-
ly adopted, under the idea of their giving
a very fuperior light to the common
lamp.
It is very certain that a ftrong
ray of light is thrown to a great distance
by means of these convex glaffes, but this
ray feems to attach on a particular spot
only, and often through the injudicious
manner of placing the glafs, is made to

fall fo high as to produce no effect whatever on the pavement. It is found, I bclieve, that on the spot where the lamp is placed, no additional light is thrown, from the numerous focuses that catches and the glare of light that proceeds the eyes of the passenger, is extremely affenfive. On the whole, and I speak without the least prejudice whatever, Į fhould conceive it would be found that the light from lamps of the old conftruction will be found nearly equal and certainly more mellow; and in fupport of this opinion I might perhaps with convistion to fome perfons add, that it has already been fo decided; for though one fhould fuppofe from the term patent burners, that the invention is new, your readers may be furprised and gratified in knowing that this is far from being the cafe, and that these lamps were used in London more than a century ago, when Miffon the celebrated traveller vifited England, from whofe travels I beg leave to quote the following paffage.—“ Inftead of lanterns, they fet up in the ftreets of London lamps, which by means of a very thick convex glafs, throw out great rays of light, which illuminate the path for people that go on foot tolerably well." The tranflator adds, that thefe lamps were at every tenth houfe; and a marginal note in the French edition fays, that Mr. Edmund Heming was the inventor. The inference then is, that they were found not to answer, and were confequently difufed. Perhaps fome of your philofophical readers will favour us with their remarks on the comparative advantages of common and patent burners. I am, &c.

March 7th, 1799:

E.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.
SIR,

I

AGAIN take the liberty of calling the attention of your numerous read ers to the fubject of NEGLECTED BIOGRAPHY. My former obfervations on that painful topic have failed to produce be owing to their being too general. the effect intended; perhaps this might Particular enquiries, probably, may elicit information from fome of your intelligent correfpondents. With your leave then, I will here mention a few names,

concerning which any intelligence will be very acceptable, not only to myself, but to the public at large. I thall make a

fev

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