how a department entitled "Reviewers Reviewed," can possibly be conducted without wearing a polemical aspect. I admit, however, that it ought not to be conducted in a polemical spirit: I admit also, that however important it may be to discredit works subversive of spiritual Religion, there is nothing, even in that end, which can justify a deviation, in any degree, from Christian candour and charity. Wishing to see these admissions established in their fullest latitude, and practically adhered to by the Christian Observer; I must yet confess, that A. B. extends his candour farther than the case requires, in considering the objection of the Anti-Jacobin Reviewers to lie against the "term" spiritual Religion, and not against the thing thereby designated. He will be convinced of the contrary, if he reads the whole of the passage alluded to, with the same attention which has been bestowed upon it by your very sincere friend and wellwisher.

SIR,

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

Y.

THOUGH a Dissenter both from habit and principle, I am certainly well af fected to the government under which I live, and far from being particularly hostile to the Established Church.

I am now an old man, Mr. Editor, and consequently have been witness to many revolutions in sentiment, as well as in states and empires. During the last thirty years of my life I have been particularly attentive to the course of events; to the state of parties; and to the tempers which have been exhibited in what may be called the religious world. My rule of judgment has uniformly been, what is sometimes too much overlooked by all parties, holy Scripture; and though I may have erred in my application of it on particular occasions, yet as it is the only rule by which I have been desirous of trying my own opinions, tempers, and conduct, so it is the only one which I have endeavoured to apply to those of

others.

Under the conduct, as I conceived, of this infallible guide, I deemed it my

duty to blame the unbecoming warmth which many of my brethren manifested with respect to the repeal of the Test Act, and even to oppose, as far as sober argument and mild persuasion would go, some of the steps which were taken with a view to that measure. I own, however, that it appeared to me, at that time, a desirable expedient; and yet I have thought since that the legislature shewed much wisdom, in at least postponing a compliance with our wishes. Had they acted differently, it is problematical to me whether we should not, ere this time, have been experiencing something of the same kind of toleration which our fellow Christians in France now enjoy; and whether a Chief Consul might not now be exercising a negative on the election of Independent pastors.

I certainly observed, with considerable regret, that at the commencement of the French Revolution there was too great a dispositon in many of my brethren, in common with a large number of persons of all descriptions, to hail its approach, and to favour its progress. But, Sir, I hope and trust, I may even say I know and am confident, that with respect to a large proportion of these, the mania is over; and that they have learned by experience to value that excellent civil constitution under which Providence has placed us, as well as that mildness of ecclesiastical rule which leaves us in possession of the sacred rights of liberty of conscience. Many of us, I am persuaded, feel the importance of maintaining a religious Establishment, and how much of our success and usefulness we owe to the general informetion and to the general respect for the Bible, which is thereby produced.

I should not have troubled you, Mr. Editor, with these remarks, were it not for a passage in a letter signed W. R. inserted in your Third Number. The author of that letter, whose piety and successful labours (for I am sure I know the man) entitle him to great respect, has, I think, been misled, partly by prejudice and partly by peculiar circumstances in his own case, and has unfairly extended that charge

of disloyalty to the whole of our body, which certainly ought to have had a more narrow limit. That some of us have written and acted in a way which was directly calculated to excite suspicions of our loyalty, I am not disposed to deny; but I must at the same exceedingly blame W. R's want of candour, in inculpating the whole body. He has therein imitated the conduct of the world, who extend the censure which some hollow hypocritical religionists may merit, to all who. profess a warm and zealous attachment to Christianity.

I do not mean to defend any Dissenter, who endeavours to fritter away by dangerous qualifications the Apostle's command of yielding obedience

to rulers; who is dissatisfied with our civil constitution; or who rails at the Established Church, or its ministers, as if they were Anti-Christian. I merely mean to plead for that limitation of W. R's sweeping censure, which truth and charity require. He and all his brethren are bound to exercise candour and forbearance towards those who, though differing from them in some points, yet wish them success in their ministry; and they ought not to forget that if the body of Dissenters has been disgraced by some of its members, its credit has been very amply redeemed by others.

I remain, your friend and well

wisher.

AN OLD DISSENTER.

GREAT BRITAIN.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

(Concluded from p. 190.)

Art. 22. Experiments on the chemical Production and Agency of Electricity. By WILLIAM HYDE WOLLASTON, M. D. F. R. S.

The power of Mr. Voltas's electric pile is now known to be proportional to the disposition of one of the metals to be oxidated by the fluid interposed. A doubt has, however, been entertained by many persons, whether this power arises from the chemical action of the fluid or the metal; or, on the contrary, whether the oxidation itself may not be occasioned by Electricity, set in motion by the contact of metals having different conducting

powers.

That the oxidation of the metal is the primary cause of the electric phenomena observ. ed, is, Dr. Wollaston thinks, to be inferred from the experiments he relates, which are curious and satisfactory, but cannot well be here detailed.

The chemical agency, therefore, of com. mon Electricity is thus proved to be the same with the power excited by chemical means; but since a difference has been observed in

the comparative facility with which the pile of Volta decomposes water, and produces other effects of oxidation and de-oxidation of bodies exposed to its action, the Doctor has been at some pains to remove this difficulty, and he can produce, at least, a very close imitation of the Galvanic phenomena by common Elec. trieity.

It has been thought necessary to employ powerful machines and large Leyden jars for the decomposition of water; but Dr. Wollaston, considering that the decomposition must depend on duly proportioning the strength of of the charge of Electricity to the quantity of water, and that the quantity exposed to its action at the surface of communication depends on the extent of that surface, hoped, that by reducing the surface of communica tion, the decomposition of water might be effected by smaller machines and with less powerful excitation, and in this hope he was not disappointed.

Having procured small wires of fine gold, and given them as fine points as he could, he inserted them into capillary glass tubes, and after heating the tubes so as to make them adhere to the point and cover it in every part, he gradually ground them down, till with a pocket lens he could discern that the point of gold was exposed.

By various trials he found, that when sparks were made to pass through water by means of a point so guarded, a spark passing to the distance of one-eighth of an inch, would decompose water, when the point exposed did not exceed one seven hundredth part of an inch in diameter. With another point, which he estimated at one fifteen hundredth, a succession of sparks one-twentieth of an inch in length, afforded a current of small bubbles of air.

The similarity in the means by which both Electricity and Galvanism appear to be excited, in addition to the resemblance which has

Among a number of important facts the following may be selected. The presence of oxygen is necessary to the germination of all seeds, and in most cases it is requisite that the oxygen should be uncombined with any thing but caloric; a few seeds, however, such as the pea, are capable of decomposing water, &c. therefore, if well moistened with water, even deprived of its air, will germinate in almost any kind of gas, and even in oil. Pure oxygen gas, however though it accelerates germination, renders the plants very feeble, and the most favourable proportion is that of onefourth oxygen and the rest azot, which is the same as common air; in an atmosphere of less than one-eighth oxygen, germination will not take place. An excess of carbonic acid is more injurious to seeds than of azot, and of this than hydrogen A mixed air of hydrogen and oxygen, by germination, is converted into hydrocarbonous gas.-Bull des Scien x. No. 55; and see Nich. Ph. Journ. 8vo. Vol. I. p. 157-159.

SPAIN.

PROUST, Professor of Chemistry at Madrid, has published a work, entitled An Inquiry into the Means of Improving the Subsistence of the Soldier. It contains some things of general utility. He states a cheap and ready method of procuring an agreeable and nutritious food from bones; which is by grinding them between a pair of toothed iron cylinders. The bones thus ground, are to be boiled in eight or ten times their weight of water, for four hours, or till about half the water is wasted; when the liquor will be found, upon cooling, to be of a due gelatinous consistence. A vessel with a tight cover should be used, and it should not be of copper.-Nich. Phil. Four. 8vo. Vol. I. p. 100-102.

A weekly collection of Tracts and Directions, relative to the improvement of Spanish Husbandry, has been, for some time, in a course of regular publication at Madrid.'

The MSS. of the Swedish naturalist LOFLANG, who died in South America, in 1756, are publishing at Madrid, by R. Cavanilles, Director of the Royal Botanic Garden.

The observatory of Cadiz furnished the science of astronomy, for some years past, with important observations; but it has of late been neglected General Mazarado has built a new one in the Isle de Leon, to which he has appointed four astronomers, who have resided there these two years. A telescope twentyfive feet long, made under the direction of Dr. Herschel, is expected there soon.

ITALY.

M. LOSANNE has presented to the Agricultural Society of Turin, the result of his experiments with regard to fabricating paper of the bark of the erigerum canadense, and the pappus of the carduus nutans, and serratula avensis. The Society have expressed their sense of the utility of these experiments, and have declared, that paper of a very excellent quality may be made in this manner, as soon Christ. Observ. No. 5.

as the soaking of the vegetable matters employed in the fabrication can be brought to maturity.

Dr. CARRADOR1, in some experiments and observations which he has made towards determining the Influence of Oxygen on Germination, thinks he has established two essential points; that vital or oxygen air is necessary to the grand process of germination; but that in order to give the impulse or the principle of this germination, the immediate contact of the air is not necessary, but it is indispensible to its continuation or progress, since the germen already animated, or the small plant, cannot grow nor vegetate, unless it enjoy the immediate influence of this vital fluid. He accounts from hence for the mischief arising from seeds being kept too long in water, and from abundant rains after seed time; since the water, keeping the seeds too long in a state of submersion, prevents their healthy germination, and therefore wet seed-times presage scanty harvests. See Nich. Phil. Journ. Vol. I. p.' 204-210.

GERMANY.

GALVANISM is at present a subject of occu pation of all the German philosophers and chemists. At Vienna an important discovery has been announced-an artificial magnet, employed instead of Volta's pile, decomposes water equally well with that pile, or the electrical machine; whence it has been concluded, that the electric, galvanic, and magnetic fluids are the same.

It is well known, that on the borders of lakes, the banks of broad rivers, and the shore of bays, a certain optical illusion often takes place when the spectator is in an elevated situation. The opposite bank, under certain circumstances, is seen floating, as it were, in the air. This phenomenon is usually ascribed to refraction; but Professor DE Luc, has published a paper in Der Gesellschaft Naturforschneder Freunde zu Berlin, Neue Serbiften, Vol. iii 1801, in which he attributes it to the rays of light being reflected from the vapours, which, in consequence of this reflection, appear so dazzling to the eye, that they conceal the objects situated below, and present the same appearance as the heavens. See Tilloch's Phil. Mag. Vol. XII Art. 27.

M. KAUTSCH, of Leutomischel in Bohemia, has finished a work of immense labour, on the Eclipses of the Sun; having calculated for the whole of the nineteenth century, charts, in which are exhibited all the circumstances of those eclipses, for every country of the earth where they will be visible.

RUSSIA.

Literature is greatly revived in Russia under the auspices of the present Emperor. A new university is established at Dorpat, and several learned foreigners have been invited to fill the professional chairs. The book-trade, which under the late Emperor had been entirely annihilated, is now left very much at large. The curiosities and exquisite works of art which 2 U