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holly, growing wild, and blending their different greens with great luxuriance: here, a neat little cottage peeped upon us from some unexpected openings: there, the smoke, curling above the tree tops, pointed to its concealment; whilst groupes of grazing cattle enlivened the whole. From a solid detached rock, apparently without any soil, we remarked a yew tree growing. in Russian Finland, I remember having seen several firs growing, without any vegetable mould, upon the tops of masses of granite; they were supported by long fibrous roots which clasped the rock, and which I was able to overturn with ease.'

Respecting the city and trade of Cork, these particulars are stated:

Cork exports more beef, tallow, hides, butter, fish, and other provisions, than Belfast, Waterford, or Limerick; her other exports are linen cloth, pork, calves, laribs, rabbit-skins, wool for England, linen, and wollen yarn and worsted. The slaughtering season com mences in Septen ber, and continues to the latter end of January, during which time it has been computed that no less [not fewer] than one hundred thousand head of black cattle have been killed and cured.

The provision trade has not been carried on for these last three or four years with the same spirit, and to the same extent, as formerly, owing in a great measure to the business having become more general in the other sea ports of Ireland than before: yet a much larger quantity of provision was made up in Cork last season than the year preceding; but if it be considered that the greater portion was intended for the use of government, and that the price of cattle has been much too high in proportion to the prices allowed by go. vernment for the manufactured provisions, it may easily be inferred that the trade could not be very productive to those concerned.

The Union has not as yet produced any visible effects upon the trade of Cork; but, from the best information I could procure, it is expected that in time that great political measure will be followed by salutary consequences to Cork."

The price of land in the neighbourhood of this city varies from three pounds to ten pounds per acre of English statute measure.

Upon the banks of the river, and towards the harbour's mouth, on account of the convenience for bathing, the land, without being rich, is very high in value. Within these last ten years, rent has tripled the price of labour in this part of Ireland has advanced greatly within these few years; but the comforts of the lower orders have not "grown with its growth," in consequence of the prices of the necessaries of life keeping equal pace with the advance of wages, which in these parts are now from sixteenpence or eighteenpence per day.

Tillage in the immediate neighbourhood of Cork, and in the southern parts of the country, has been latterly much promoted, in consequence of the breweries and distilleries consuming such an immense quantity of bailey and oats, whilst the large quantity of wheat and flour used in the market, both for home consumption and export, has greatly excited the farmers to the cultivation of the former. The

rigorous

rigorous exaction of the hearth-money tax has been much complained of amongst the poor, but as the legislature is about to annul it, all farther comment would be unnecessary.

The relative proportion of catholics to protestants, in this and in all the cities of Munster, is full four to one; in the interior of the country it is ten to one; almost all the common people are of the first description, as well as the respectable merchants of the city.

Under the term protestants are comprehended all separatists from the catholic communion: the established church in this part of Ireland has very few followers; the methodists, on the contrary, are rapidly increasing.

It is with uncommon satisfaction that I am enabled to state, from indubitable authority, that the catholic clergy in this city, and throughout the province, are by their public and private virtue and deportment, eminently entitled to the thanks and admiration of the government. In the discharge of their high vocation, they have laboured to remove the prejudices of the poor and unenlightened catholic, have placed his religious happiness on the side of his social duties, and united his faith to the repose of his country. Since the unfortunate era of 1798, the tranquillity of Cork has been remarkable.

'Although catholic landholders in this country are not very numerous at present, as the character of the city is purely commercial, no doubt the catholic landed interest will be much extended, by catholics investing their fortunes, in future, in the purchase of

land.'

We shall now extract the author's highly-coloured summary of the Irish character:

With few materials for ingenuity to work with, the peasantry of Ireland are most ingenious, and with adequate inducements laboriously indefatigable: they possess, in general, personal beauty and vigour of frame; they abound with wit and sensibility, although all the avenues to useful knowledge are closed against them; they are capable of forgiving injuries, and are generous even to their oppressors; they are sensible of superior merit, and submissive to it; they display natural urbanity in rags and penury, are cordially hospitable, ardent for information, social in their habits, kind in their disposition, in gaiety of heart and genuine humour unrivalled, even in their superstition presenting an union of pleasantry and tenderness; they are warm and constant in their attachments; faithful and incorruptible in their engagements; innocent with the power of sensual enjoyment perpetually within their reach; observant of sexual modesty, though crowded in the narrow limits of a cabin; strangers to a crime which reddens the cheek of manhood with horror; tenacious of respect; acutely sensible of, and easily won by kindnesses. Such is the pea santry of Ireland: I appeal not to the affections or the humanity, but to the justice of every one to whom chance may direct these pages, whether men so constituted present no character which a wise government can mould to the great purpose of augmenting the prosperity of the country, and the happiness of society. Well might

Lord

Lord Chesterfield, when Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, exclaim, "God has done every thing for this country, man nothing."

Having had sufficient evidence of the degraded condition of the low Irish, and witnessed with concern their propensity to whisky-drinking, with the encouragement which it receives from the inordinate sale of this liquid poison, the author offers, in his general remarks at the conclusion, some very useful hints on the subjects of Education, Priests, Absentees, Agents, Cabins, unlicensed Distilleries, Porter-breweries, Courts of Justice, Oaths, &c. adding the following reasons to enforce his observations:

• Heaven never committed to any government the care of a country pon which she has been more prodigally bountiful: for, independently of the genius of the people, Ireland throughout rests upon a bed of the richest manure: towards the sea she has sand, shells, and weed: inland, she abounds with limestone gravel, limestone marl, and other natural manures: her rivers and surrounding seas are all propitious to commerce, and are open to all the quarters of the world. The Shannon, the Liffey, the Lee, the Suir, the Bann, the Boyne, the Blackwater, and other rivers, her creeks, her numerous, vast, and beautiful lakes abound with fish of various descriptions, and with little assistance from the hand of man, can be formed into canals, which might easily unite the centre with the extremities of the island: upon the seas which surround her, vessels from the most distant regions can approach her indented coasts in the most tempestuous weather with safety within a circuit of seven hundered and fifty miles, it has been estimated that she possesses sixty-six secure harbours. The fertility of the country, with a slender exception, is uncommonly luxuriant; her climate is soft and salubrious, her bogs demonstrate her former consequence, and can be, and are rapidly reclaiming; an inexhaustible stratum of coal is ready to supply its turf; and her peasantry, without having tasted much of happiness and prosperity, possess all the essential qualities by which both are deserved, and can be enjoyed and promoted.

Upon this country a new Aurora has shed her purple light. A jealous, angry, and mistaken policy is yielding to reason, gentleness, and toleration. Under the mild administration of a Hardwicke, Ireland felt new confidence, and the hope of better days; that confidence will be rewarded, and those hopes realized under the auspices of the present government, which has displayed at once its paternal care and its wisdom, by contiding the destinies of that country to a nobleman of the most expanded and liberal mind, of the highest rank, and the most splendid fortune, and who has devoted himself to a science and to a course of investigation essential to the prosperity of all countries, but peculiarly to that over which he presides; it would here be superfluous to name the present illustrious descendant of the house of Russell.'

This volume, like its predecessors, is embellished with acqua tinta engravings, and with a map of Killarney; which

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form an acceptable illustration of the letter-press, by giving views of country scenery and seats, towns, and public buildings.

ART. VIII. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for the Year 1806. Part II. 4to. 178. 6d. sewed. Nicol.

Papers on CHEMISTRY and NATURAL HISTORY. ACCOUNT of a Discovery of Native Minium: in a Letter from James Smithson, Esq. F.R.S. to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. P.R.S.-Mr.Smithson here announces the discovery of minium, or the red oxyd of lead, as a natural production; and which was found mixed with the carbonate of zinc. He supposes that it is formed from the decay of the sulphuret of lead, as he observed some crystals of this substance, which were externally covered with minium. It is not stated where the oxyd was found, but the paper is dated from Cassell.

Description of a rare Species of Worm Shells, discovered in an Island lying off the North-West Coast of the Island of Sumatra in the East Indies. By J. Griffiths, Esq. Communicated by Sir Joseph Banks. In the year 1797, a considerable earthquake took place in the island of Sumatra; and during the agitation which ensued in the adjoining parts of the ocean, a bank of mud was laid bare, on which were discovered a number of shells, remarkable for their size and their peculiar conformation. They were tubular, and irregularly tapering; some of the largest of them were above 5 feet long; and the circumference at the base was 9 inches, and that of the smaller end 24 inches. A more particular account of their organization, and of their relation to other marine animals, is given in the subsequent paper.

Observations on the Shell of the Sea Worm found on the Coast of Sumatra, proving it to belong to a Species of Teredo; with an Account of the Anatomy of the Teredo navalis. By E. Home, Esq. F.R.S. The animal described in the preceding paper having fallen under the inspection of Mr. Home, he conjectured that it belonged to the genus Teredo; and in order to ascertain the truth of his opinion, he procured some living specimens of the Teredo navalis. He presents us with a minute and interesting description of the anatomy of this singular animal, but it would be scarcely intelligible without a reference to the plates. He points out a peculiarity in its sanguiferous system. The heart admits only of a single circulation, as is the case with all the animals that breathe under water: but in the teredines,

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the blood, after it has left the heart, is immediately distributed to the different parts of the body, and is afterward collected in the respiratory organs before it returns to the heart. As the animal possesses no cavity for the reception of water, its respiratory organs are placed on its surface. No nervous system could be discovered: but the organization is in many respects so perfect, that the existence of a brain and nerves seems probable; although, from the substance of which the animal is composed, we are not able to distinguish the medullary

matter.

A portion of the wood which these worms destroy was always found in their stomach but, from several circumstances, it is rendered probable that this substance does not contribute to their nutrition; and that they are supported entirely by the medium of the sea-water. The animal which was found at Sumatra differs from the common Teredo in being imbedded in mud but it agrees with it so far in its general structure and appearance, that Mr. Home does not hesitate to consider it as a Teredo; and from its size he gives it the specific name of Gigantea. This and the preceding paper are accompanied by characteristic and well delineated plates.

On the inverted Action of the alburnous Vessels of Trees. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. F.R.S.-In his former memoirs, on the Physiology of Vegetables, Mr. Knight had endeavoured to prove that the sap of plants rises through the alburnous vessels, circulates through the extremities during the summer, and, after being in part expended on the growth of the plant, the remainder passes down the bark, and is deposited in the roots. A fact, however, is mentioned by Duhamel and Hales, which Mr. Knight himself has verified by experiment, and which seemed to militate against this hypothesis. If a circular portion of the bark be removed from the stem of a tree, the part below the wound continues to live, and even to increase in size; a small ring is also formed about the lower lip of the wound; and it makes some advance towards the upper part, although the upper lip throws out a much greater quantity of woody matter. Mr. K. supposes that this growth in the lower part is occasioned by an inverted action in the alburnous vessels, in consequence of which a small portion of the sap passes through them, at the same time that a considerable part of it is retained in the cortical vessels above the wound.

To establish the fact of the inverted action of the alburnous vessels is the principal object of the present paper; and in order to prove this point, the author selected the potatoe, being a plant in which the vessels that convey the ascending sap to the leaves,

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