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The increase of foreign trade may be confidered as affording a prefumption that our principal manufactures being encouraged by it, must be in a very favourable fituation; this is certainly the cafe with fome branches; others, however, are in a very different fituation. The trade and manufactures of BIRMINGHAM were perhaps never in a more diftreffed ftate than at prefent; for, although the demand for articles in the home trade continues much the fame as before the war, and hat for arms and military accoutrements very confiderable, yet thefe together bear fo fmall a proportion to the general trade of the town, as it was carried on a few years ago, that the almoft total lofs of the foreign trade is felt very feverely.---A more particular account of the prefent ftate of the trade of Birmingham, will be given in our next report.

Spanish wool is at a very high price, which has obliged the woollen manufacturers to advance the price of their fine goods. Black cloths have rifen from a fhilling to eighteen pence a yard, and a proportionate rife on others must be expected.

The Eaft India Companys' tea fale, which commences the 5th of June, confifts of the following quantity:

Bohea

1,000,000 lb.

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Raw fugars have fallen confiderably; the average price for the week, ending the 15th May, was 675. 4d. exclufive of duty; refined fugars are alfo much lower; lumps are at present from 130 to 132s.; low lumps from 111 to 12cs.; powder loaves from 128 to 140s.; fingle loaves from 121 to 136s.; faces from 98 to 110s.; middles from 85s. to 97s.; and tips from 75 to 84s.

The PUBLIC FUNDS, though they have lately rifen a little, are not, in general, higher than they were at the beginning of the month. The prices on the 27th were, 3 per cent. reduced 55 1-4th; three per cent. conf. 55 7-8ths; four per cent. conf. 69 7-8ths; five per cent. navy, 86 3-4ths; imperial 3 per cents. 52 7-8ths; long annuities 15 13-16ths years' purchase. The intereft made, according to the prefent prices, after allowing for the proportion of divis dend due, is nearly as follows:

3 per cent. confals 4 per cent. ditto

5 per cent. navy

Long annuities

Bank ftock

India ftock

£. s. d.

5 9 7

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MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT.

THE continuance of eafterly winds, and cold weather, have been equally unfavourable for the wheat crops and the growth of grafs; of the latter there was feldom a greater fcarcity than at this time; other kinds of fodder being nearly exhausted in most places. Some farmers have even been under the neceffity of putting their stock into meadows which should have been preferved for hay. The feverity of the feafon has, however, been much less felt on the warm dry foils, than thofe that are cold and moist.

In fome diftricts, much barley ftill remains to be put into the ground. Corn of all forts, though much kept back by the weather, has not in general, by some of our correfpondents, an unpromising appearance.

GRAIN is faid to be rapidly on the rife. The average of wheat, throughout England and Wales, is 61s. 8.; of barley 35s.; of oats 27s. 4d.

Both fat and lean cattle fell at good prices. Beef in Smithfield produces from 3s. 8d.

to 5s.
SHEEP fells at Smithfield for 4s. 4d. to 5s. 4d.

HAY averages in St. James's market 31. 1os. per load.
HORSES. These now find a ready fale.

HOPS. Kent bags rol. to 111.; pockets 111. to 131.

Straw 21. 12.

ORCHARDS look well, for which the backwardness of the feafon is very favourableThere is a profpect of a very great blow indeed; and expectation rans much higher through. out the whole Cyder country, than it has these twelve years.

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To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, H AVING been lately pretty much in Glocefterfhire I was naturally led to make enquiries concerning the origin of the cow-pox. From the unaffected and uninterested communications of the dairymen I have not much doubt but that it is the

fmall-pox moderated by paffing through the purer medium of a quadruped. I generally found that a fhort time before the difeafe appeared among the cows, the small-pox had been in the family; and that wherever the fmall-pox ceafes to appear for a long time, the cowpox is not heard of.

This has twice happened in my father's family. When his children were inoculated, the milk-maid was inoculated alfo. Shortly afterwards the cows were affected. Some time after, another milk-maid caught the fmall-pox, and in a month the difeafe appeared among the cows. At no other time has it been among his cows, and at no other time has the mallpox been in the family.

That this may be more clearly afcertained, I have directed a cow to be inoculated with variolous matter: if it produce any fuppurative eruption, I will then inoculate a child with the vaccine matter, and communicate the refult.

If this be the cafe, may not the cowpox, by paffing through the human fubject too frequently, degenerate at laft into its original difeafe, the fmall-pox? And fhould not this direct the practitioner to have recourfe as often as poffible to ge

nuine vaccine matter?

I am honoured by the polite mention your correfpondent R. H. C. has made of my intended tranflation of the "Syftema

Nature." I doubtlefs mean to restore to

their original claffes the "Icofandria" and "Polyandria ;" and have hefitated whether, with Wildenow, the whole arrangement should not return to the claffification

of Linné himself.

Any communications directed to me concerning new discoveries in any de

MONTHLY MAG. No. XLVI.

partment, the correction of errors, or the more clearly afcertaining indiftinct fpecies, fhall be thankfully acknowledged. I am Sir, &c.

Swanfea, June 10, 1799. W. TURTON.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

Trench writers for Tethys, confirms HAT Thetis has been adopted by the remark of a correfpondent who has honoured me with a letter on the fubject, refpecting the probability that from like pronunciation they would be printed indifcriminately at a French prefs.

Two paffages of a writer of confiderable learning and of exquifite taste will prove this.

GRESSET in his Fourth imitative Eclogue fays

"Peut etre un autre Argo fous un nouveau
Tiphis

Portera des guerriers fur les champs de
Thetis."

And again in the Tenth Eclogue.
"Les heures chez Thetis ont conduit

le foleil."

In both Tethys would have been proper. This explains, but will not justify the fubftitution of the one for the other in VIRGIL. In the French it affects neither the pronunciation nor the profody. In the Latin the pronunciation was entirely different; and the profody by the change becomes inadmisible. In the Latin the mythological impropriety would have been glaring, if even the word had been admisfible in the verfe of the Georgics. But in a French tranflation, even of this very line, time and habit would have foftened the mythological unexactness and as Thetis is a marine goddefs, though so much subordinate, and we hear of her much oftener, her name for Tethys would have been paffable, though far from juft.

On examination, one of my supposed errata in Didot difappears. The verfe at the head of each page, expreffes not the first verse of that page, but the last of the preceding carried over: fo that the numbering of the 2d Æneid is right. Yet

3 I

furely

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The claffic accuracy of MILTON, beautifully characterizes the Empress of the Ocean and the Sea-Nymph in his COMUS.

"In name of great Oceanus "And Tetky grave majestic pace, "By Thetis tinfel flipper'd feet, "And the fongs of Syrens fweet." VIRGIL might have made his fecondary hero ventis et Diis Agrippa fecundis,

cui belli infigne fuperbum, Tempora navali fulgent roftrata coronâ, En. viii. 682. the fon-in-law of Thetis, but in deifying Auguftus, (fince he chofe to deify him), he was obliged to go higher.

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For the Monthly Magazine.

TWO LETTERS FROM THE CELEBRATED PROFESSOR HEYNE, OF GOTTINGEN, TO MR. GILBERT WAKEFIELD *.

RANSFERENDUM curavi ad te,

Tvir doctiffime,

Viro doctiffimo GILBERTO WAKEFIELD

CUM

S.

C. G. HEYNE,

NUM antea affectu animi nefcio quo, erga Te, Vir præftantiffime, ferrer; nunc multo majore animi studio incenfum me fentio, ex quo Lucretium tuum perlegi, Etfi enim haud diffiteor, hanc ipfam tuam benevolentiam, quam litteris tuis humanifiimis mihi es teftatus, eam vim ad animum meum habuifle, ut etiam alienam a te voluntatem expugnare ea potuiffet ; nunc autern proclive meum in te ftudium multa magis inclinare et impellereea debuit: admiratione tamen ingenii tui doctrinæque exquifitæ et omni litterarum copia in ftructæ ita percuffus ex ea lectione receffi, ut etiam dubitarem, fitne voluptas et fru&tus, quem inde percepi, cum ea comparandus certe utroque animi fenfu ita contactum me fentii, ut inter jucundiffima, fortunæ munera numerem, quod contulit illa mihi opportunitatem compellandi te et contrahendi hanc litterarum ftudio. rumque neceffitudinem. Utinam ex in. credibili tuo de antiquis litteris merendi ftudio fructus confequaris uberrimos! Nihil video quod mihi auditu jucundius futurum effe poffit, quam te fperatum meritis tuis favorem et operæ in Lucretium expenfæ præmia tuliffe largiffima! Quam vellem confilium tuum ejufque fortunam non premi temporum iniquitate! Comparatione enim aliarum terrarum facili licet conjectare, quæ litterarum bonarum effe poffit auctoritas apud Britannos, Providebit tamen bonis confiliis bonum providumque numen. Vale, et quod ingreffus es favoris benevolentiæque tuæ tadium ita emetiendum tibi effe puta, ut tibi conftantiæ laudem ceteris laudibus adjiciendurn effe memineris in diligendo co cui femel benevolentiam tuam egregio

TRAFER, cujus ingenium et voluntatis pignore es teftarus. Cum pri

eruditionem a multo inde tempore admiratus fum, libellum viri docti, JACOBS, ex mea difciplina progreffi, quandoquidem me et colit et amat te, et veftigia tua in nonnullis premit. Nihil eorum, quæ a te aguntur, et quæ ad tua confilia spectant, a me non fedulo anquiritur, quantum quidem ex fcriptis tuis aut ex indiciis aliorum confequi poffum. Non itaque levis et temere concepta effe poteft ea qua te profequor voluntas amor et ftudium. Tu et valeas et res tuas ex animo agas, precor. Scr, Gottingæ d. xii Dec. ciɔɔxcvi.

CHR. G. HEYNE. Prof. Acad. Ge. Aug.

* A translation will be inferted in a future Number.

mum belli furor refederit, mittam tibi meæ voluntatis teftem iteratam Pindari et tertiam Tibulli editionem a me curatam. Nunc in Iliade exprimenda operæ librariorum occupantur. Vale.

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tranflations from the German, and from KOTZEBUE, in particular, should be faithfully made from the refpective originals. Your correfpondent very juftly reprobates the fanciful alterations in de by Mrs. INCHBALD in her " Lover's Vows," and by Mr. SHERIDAN in the Stran ger," and judicioully points out the fuperior confiftency of Mils PLUMP TRE'S "Natural Son," and of Mr. SCHINK'S "Stranger," both of which are faithful tranflations from Kotzebue.

How indignant would be the feelings of an intelligent Englishman, who, witneffing the reprefentation on a German ftage, of one of the best plays of his darling Shakspeare, found that a conceited and half informed tranflator or editor, had fuppreffed whole fcenes, changed the features of the characters, and introduced other fcenes fo incongruously as to render the whole inconfiftent and unlike the original! Precifely, however, in this fitua tion ftands the German dramatitt in refpect to his plays of the Stranger, Lover's Vows, the Birth Day, and Pizarro.

part which is, and certainly ought to be, exempted from the operation of the tax. There are fome grounds for thinking that the gross income of the nation, or the aggregate revenue of individuals of all claffes, rather exceeds than falls fhort of 125,000,000l. at which he estimated it, and the reafon of his over-rating the tax, feems to be, that the deduction of twentythree millions for incomes under 6ől. which pay nothing, and the part under 200l.which pays on an average one-fiftieth, was much less than it ought to have been. By the accounts laid before parliament, appears that the total number of perfons paying affeffed taxes in 1797 was 791,802, of whom 319,685 paid less than five fhillings per annum; fuch perfons cannot be fuppofed in general to have incomes exceeding 6ol. a year, and if there are fome few exceptions, there is probably a greater number paying upwards of ten hillings, whofe incomes do not exceed this amount; there appears therefore to be at the utmoft not more than 472,117 perfons with fome of the members of their families, liable to the Income Tax. Confidering all fuch perfons as heads of families, and their families as confifting on an average of 5 perfons each, which exceeds the proportion to a family ufually found where fuch accounts have been taken, the whole number of individuals depending on income liable to the tax will be 2,360,585; this however is but a fmall part of the whole population of the country, which has lately been stated as high as 9,000,000: but taking it only at 7,500,000, which is probably much nearer the truth, there appears to be 5,139,415 perfons fubfifting by income exempt from In the firth act, however, he has taken the tax the whole annual expence of fuch very reprehenfible liberties. Of the properfons cannot, according to the prefent priety or neceffity of thefe the public will prices of the neceffaries of life, be lefs than judge, who read Kotzebue, and fee She81. each, or 41,115,320l. which fum be- ridan. Cora, in her first moments of difing deducted from the general income of traction, for the fuppofed lofs of her 125,000,000l. leaves 83,884,680l. the band, is made to fing a bravura fong : no utmoft fum liable to the tax; and if a perfon who reads her affecting foliloquy further deduction is made on account of at page 80, would fufpect that the Engli incomes from 60l. to 2001. paying less editor had fo far violated probability as than a tenth, the tax will be reduced to to exchange Kotzebue's natural expreffions nearly the fum of 7,000,000l. at which it is of grief into a long! The other alterations, now estimated, without fuppofing that the and thofe which involve the groffeft abiurreturns made are below the truth, which dities, are the introduction of two new however may be the cafe in a finall degree. fcenes, after the death of Rolla, and the June 14, 1799. G. complete clofe of the German playperhaps one of the most fimple, tragical, and affecting clofs to be met in the whole range of dramatic compofition.

I

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

WAS much gratified by the obfervations made at page 106, of your magazine, No. 42, on the neceffity that

The alterations which, while they are the leaft in extent, are alfo the worst in effect, are thofe by Mr. SHERIDAN in the Spaniards in Peru, to which, without any obvious reafon, he has given the name of the Spanish tyrant, Pizarro. His alterations, in the four first acts, confist of little more than the omiffion of fome parts of the dialogue, and the introduction of fome political fentiments, in page 24,* calculated to catch the popular feelings of the moment, and therefore a trick be neath the dignity of a man of Mr. Sheridan's fuppofed genius.

f

The intelligent readers of the Monthly Magazine cannot fail to be acquainted * I refer to Mils Plumptre's tranflation.

with the history of the Conquest of Peru, and of the life of Pizarro. They well know that the treacherous Spaniard obtained

poffeffion of the perfon of the Peruvian

monarch, Atalibā, and after extorting from him millions of gold and filver as ranfom money, cruelly put him to death; that Pizarro obtained complete poffeffion of the kingdoms of Quito, Peru, and Chili, and, many years afterwards, was murdered by the hands of Spanish confpirators, in his palace, in his own city of Lima. Apparently, however, for the fake of introducing a mock-fight upon the stage, Mr. Sheridan has actually reprefented Ataliba as routing the Spaniards, killing Pizarro their general, and, by the mumtnery of the fcene, has produced fentiments of ridicule and contempt in the minds of the audience, diametrically oppofite to what will be felt, either by the readers of Kotzebue, or by the fpectators of legitimate tragedy.

Two or three of your valuable pages might be occupied with obfervations of this kind. It is not, however, my design to trefpafs on the patience of your readers, and I have troubled you with thefe remarks in confequence of the deferved popularity of the Spaniards in Peru upon the British stage. In many refpects it is one of the best of Kotzebue's plays that could have been felected for reprefentation; on that account it was, however, the more neceffary, that the fublime genius and correct taste of the original author fhould have been prefented to us in their native force and beauty.

I have been fully confirmed in my opinion, that to alter the plays of Kotzebue is to spoil them, by the aftonishing effect that is produced at another of our theatres, by the reprefentation of Mr. NEUMAN'S faithful tranflation of " Family Diftrefs," or "Self-Immolation." Mr. Neuman's language is literally retained, and no other alteration has been made than to curtail a few unimportant parts of the dialogue. As the omiffions altogether do not extend to more than two pages of the printed copy, I cannot but with that Mr. Colman had made the experiment of performing the whole without any omiffion. It is honourable to the genius of Kotzebue that this drama, purely his own, unaided by ftage trick and unadorned by impofing and expensive scenery, produces an irresistible and unequalled effect upon the fenfibility of a British audience. Inner-Temple, June 18th, 1799.

A. D.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

UNLESS you have already had too

much about the tenets of the people called quakers, I shall request your infertion of a few remarks on the fubject, from a perfon who belongs to no fect, but is content with following religion as a matter of confequence to himself alone, and unconnected with any other interests.

It appears to me, then, that the progrefs made by the quakers, above all other fects, in fimplifying Chriftianity, and freeing it from thofe mixtures which have fo much disguised and debased it, has been fo extraordinary, that it may juftly fet them at the head of all reformers, and ftamp them with a decifive character, in which their little peculiarities of manner are rendered fcarcely worth notice.

In the first place, they are the only fect (fome of the baptifts, perhaps, excepted), who admit no priests or ministers as a feparate order of men into their conftitution-an advantage of fo capital a nature, that it is well worth purchafing by the inftitution of a diftinct fociety for that purpofe only. For what a legion of evils does this at once cut off! Not to mention the greater mischiefs which the struggles for wealth and power by an ef tablished clergy, have in all countries occafioned;-are not their rivalries, their parties, their controverfies, their interests, the bane of concord and brotherly affection, in all the communities of separatifts? Does not their inordinate authority frequently as much infringe the rights and liberties of private congregations, as it always does of national churches? Do they not afford a ready means of laying at the feet of power the political influence of diffenting bodies? That it never was in the contemplation of the founder of the Chriftian religion to inftitute fuch a body of men; and that the fuppofed neceffity of them is contradictory to the notion of a divine revelation freely and clearly communicated in writing, I am, myself, convinced; as well as that all the corruptions, forgeries, and interpolations that deform the pages of fcripture, date from their eftablishment.

Secondly, the quakers are the only people who have completely detached religion from ftate-policy, and thereby avoided that deteftable combination of two diffimilar interefts, which has never failed to fpoil and contaminate both. They have confined religion to its proper province of amending the hearts and lives

of

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