the author trusts that he may not be supposed to have written this pamphlet for the purpose of opposing or thwarting any measures of a wise legislative government, or of throwing any hindrance in the way of cultivation : but, on the contrary, let it be supposed (for such is the fact) that a warm attachment to the fair promotion of agriculture, and a due submission to the authorities of the land, are his chief pride and profession; and that these remarks, the result of a deliberate consideration, were published with the hope that they might be the means of showing the disadvantages which are inseparable from the execution of the scheme in question, as Iwell as the evils that would attend it, however beneficial the plan might be to the instigators of it. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, 1 BEG leave to inquire, through the medium of your miscellany, when the world may expect to see the works of the late Henry Flood published. That he left manuscripts prepared for the press is generally believed. He, as it is known through the empire, was the great ornament of the Irish House of Commons. Inheriting a large patrimonial estate, he devoted himself to politics and eloquence. His accomplishments were various to a knowledge of the classics he added an intimate acquaintance with the countries of Europe, being both a careful student and an extensive traveller; he was also a critic in the arts. But his pre-eminent merit was his political science, and his eloquence. His oratory was perfect; for to complete knowledge of his subject, he added the clearest and soundest reasoning; and his rhetoric was impassioned and sublime. Read the following specimens from different speeches : "This secret of inadequate representation was told to the people in thunder in the American war, which began with virtual representation and ended in dismemberment. The influence of corruption within doors, of this fraud of argument without, continued the American war. It terminated in separation, as it began in this empty vision of a virtual representative; and in its passage from one of these points to the other, it swept away part of the glory, and more of the territory of Great Britain, with the loss of forty thousand lives, and of one hundred millions of treasure. Virtual parliaments, and an inadequate representation, have cost you enough abroad already; take care they do not cost you more at home, by costing you your constitutio." "In ability I will yield to many, in zeal to none; and if I have not served the public cause more than many men, this at least I may say, I have sacrificed as much to it. Do you repent of that sacrifice? If I am asked, I answer, No. Who could repent of a sacrifice to truth and honour, to a country that he loves, and to a country that is grateful? Do you repent of it? No. But 1 should not rejoice in it, if it were only to be attended with a private deprivation, and not to be accompanied by all its gains to my country. I have a peculiar right, therefore, to be solicitous and ardent about the issue of it, and no man shall stop me in my progress." These extracts, not selected, are proofs of the power and virtue of his sentiments. Whatever remains of such a man belongs to the people; they have therefore a right to enquire why the manuscripts of Henry Flood, transferred to Sir Lawrence Parsons, now the Earl of Ross, have not appeared. When Sir L. Parsons received the deposit, he was a violent oppositionist; now he is a joint post-master of Ireland. Can this alteration in his Lordship's situation affect the suppression? Surely correct copies of Mr. Flood's speeches remain, important topics without preparation. for he was not accustomed to speak on To the higher faculties Mr. Flood added talents for sport and gaiety. The following verses, I believe, never were printed or written. I was told the anecMr. Flood's confidential friend. They dote many years ago by Mr. A. Smith, went for the World,' then periodically issuing from the press, to Bradley's bookshop: Miss Bradley told Mr. Flood, that there was not a bound copy in the shop, but he might have it in sheets. friend and repeatedOn leaving the shop, Flood turned to his At Bradley's for the World I call'd, as much thronged with company as such foot-paths are in London; but as there are no gentlemen's carriages, and few other carriages, many persons walk in the carriage ways. Both the carriage ways and the foot pavements have the appearance of being remarkably clean; but although there be not much sludge in the kennels, they are very offensive. There are three bridges across the River Clyde, and small ships of two masts come up to the first of these, where the spring tides are said to rise seven or eight feet; and there were twenty or thirty such vessels alongside the wharf at the time we were there. Here is a very agreeable public walk and carriage way, made parallel with the side of the river, and divided from it by a grass platt of fifty or sixty feet in breadth; the turf is laid sloping towards the river, and it is neatly enclosed by iron ballustres upon a stone plinth. The whole is conveniently and agreeably extended to a fine grass paddock of perhaps eighty or a hundred acres, where an obelisk of great height has been erected to the memory of Lord Nelson, but that remains unrepaired after being damaged by a thunder storm. In Glasgow there is one moderately elegant spire, annexed to the body of a mean-looking church. The Roman Catholics have lately built a chapel in the richest gothic manner. All the other places of worship are rather unsightly; they are also so ill placed, that three churches occupy three sides of one burial ground, and these are in one of the least favorable parts of the town. There are many dwelling houses of extraordinary goodness; to which may be added the Royal Bank, the Infirmary, and some other public buildings. The town is supplied with water from the river, and it is lighted with gas. The mail sets off for London at three o'clock daily. The tontine coffee-room, is of large size, but it is not fitted-up with boxes and tables; we found many gentlemen seated in chairs round the border of the room, with a newspaper in their hands, and others were walking about. We next viewed a methodist chapel, which we found to be of their usual construction, and that holds conveniently fifteen hundred persons; but two thousand are said repeatedly to have attended the service there. Above the ceiling of this chapel, (an extraordinary place for it,) is a school for giving gras tuitously education to children, and where we found the master injuring their health, as well as his own, by Viewed a new a want of ventilation. church, in which there are so many defects, as to have occasioned the rebuilding some parts of it, and there are many other settlements and cracks in its walls at this time. We only observed one respectable-looking shop in this large town, and that was tolerably well stocked with porcelain and cut glass. The museum of the late Dr. Hunter attracted our notice, and we admired both the building and its contents; but it is very far from being either well lighted or ventilated. We particularly noticed and admired models of the mountains Blanc and Semplon, (Switzerland,) including the neighbouring hills, glens, glaciers, snow, rivulets, and roads, as well as the villages, and even single houses. A main road along the skirt of Mount Semplon seemed to be a very desperate pass, having many tunnels, and lying parallel to a deep ravine, which a river has scooped for its passage. During a few minutes of the morning we viewed a bronze statue of Lieut. Gen. Moore, then putting up by Mr. Flaxman from London, and in the evening we found it finished. It represents a fine human figure, without any covering upon his head; his left hand is upon the hilt of his sword, and his right hand across his breast; as though he were pulling his cloak to prevent its dropping off the left shoulder. A large cloak conceals the greater part of the Lieut. General; but that not being quite close before, discloses the collar of his coat and a small part of the breast of it. The figure is placed upon a truncated column with an ovolo cap, all in granite. Remove the sword and the whole would suit a private gentleman better than this statue does a general officer. There are no cannon or other emblems of war, and it is only known to be in honour of a Lieut. General by a very short inscription in gilt letters against one side of the column. We then quitted Glasgow, and rode to Hamilton, where the Duke of that name has a principal residence and park. This stage is over excellent land, all in cultivation, in the commendable four years rotation of potatoes, wheat, clover and oats. The next stage is to Lanark where the land rises into hills, on each side of the river Clyde; cultivated up the slopes, though rather a poor soil, and towards the tops of the hills very poor. The leys are infested with rag-wort. In this stage are seen the lesser falls of the Clyde, very picturesque. AtLanark, agrea a great change takes place in the soil for the worse; but the banks of the river even increase in picturesque effect, till at the greater falls of the Clyde it rises into the sublime. The residence of the philanthropic Mr. Owen is finely placed for the chaste beautiful; but it is not kept in such high condition as such villas are in the south of England. We had a full view of his village by riding through it; and the side of an adjoining hill was divided in many small potatoe-gardens. The houses are built with stone, and slated: they are modern, but too much crowded, With very few exceptions, it appeared clean; but here, as in other places in Scotland, the street dung (human excrements) is exposed in a very offensive manner. And the women are without covering to their feet. This is a remnant of the barbarous or rather of the savage state, which does not admit of those parts being dressed. A young woman, of nearly twenty years of age, opened a gate for our carriage to the paddock of Colonel Ross; and, though she was otherwise well dressed, she gave herself some trouble to shew the falls of the Clyde to us, We enquired if she was suffering from poverty? She replied, no, but it was usual in that country to go with naked feet in the summer." We were told this custom does not prevent the young folks being taught to dance as well as to read; but it is obviously an unchaste custom, and productive of immoral effects. 66 We then drove seven or eight miles over very bad land, much of it covered by heath; considerable portions of it in a state of ley, infested with rag-wort; several small pieces of meadow, which were half rushes, and the corn, which is all oats, a miserable crop. In this day's ride of thirty-seven miles, we did not see so many acres of turnips. This brought us to Douglas Mill Inn, where we were well accommodated for the night; but here, as in all the second-best inns in Scotland, the privy is without any door; generally where such offices have a door there is a large hole in it opposite the seat, which exposes the person to full view. Thence to Elfeet, a small and lonely house used as an inn; the road lies along the sides of hills similar in figure, but of coarser herbage than the downs in Wiltshire; of which four or five miles square are said to be rented by the respectable man who keeps the Douglas Mill Inn. Thence towards Moffatt are lofty hills and a deep dale, shaped like the Wiltshire downs, but even less valuable than the last stage. There are a few birch trees here and there in a sickly or dying state; much deep peat, as well as basaaltic rock and some slate. One mile before we arrived at Moffatt, that town and its neighbourhood were seen to great advantage. There are several neat-looking villas; but the access to them ought not to be endured, as they cannot be approached without passing by a public necessary in the market place. That building is of an octagon shape, with eight apertures (door-ways) but without doors, and so filthy that no cleanly person can go within ten or twenty yards of it. There is only one inn, which is a good house, but badly conducted. This small town is handsome; but its thriving is repressed by the innkeeper, and the public necessary (not privy.) Between Moffatt and Lockerby, we were surprised by the re-building of broken bridges, to the number of six or eight; but were informed they were destroyed by a tremendous thunder storm, the 18th of last July. The general figure of this part of the country continues to be a good deal like Dorsetshire or Wiltshire: the hills in both are covered with sheep, but there the similitude ends; for in the south west of England the valleys are well cultivated, but here they are in miserable tillage; or, when in grass, it is overrun with rushes and peat, or where dry with ragwort. From Lockerby to Annan the hills are much lower and more generally tilled though unskilfully as before. Potatoes are the only things well cultivated during the last fifty miles. No turnips in the first thirty miles of this day, and not many in the last twenty, nor are they clean, or otherwise than badly managed, being smothering in wild mustard, as the oats are in knot-grass. Wheat there is none, and of barley very little; of clover a fair proportion, but the hay of that valuable plant as well as of natural meadows is spoiled by their manner of making it. The Inn at Douglas Mill is unpromising but good; those at Elfeet, Moffatt, and Lockerby, are very ordinary make-shifts; but that at Annan is unexceptionably good. Annan is a respectable market-town, with a church and a gaol, each of which is surmounted by a spire with a clock. In the market-place of this town we numbered thirty-three single-horse carts, loaded with slate of excellent quality, and some of large size. They were said to be from Westmoreland, and going much farther into Scotland. Here is a river, though not navigable, and a good bridge over it, from which there is a view over some good meadows. From Annan to Gretna Green is rather a poor soil, nearly level and badly tilled. Gretna Green is of a triangular shape, with an old mutilated cross, and about a dozen huts of poor persons. There is also one white house about equal to a respectable farm-house. One third of a mile nearer England is a regularly neat Scotch village, of one street, containing perhaps sixty small houses of one story only, though built with stone and slated. Near the middle of this village is a public house of two stories, and in it the marriage of English runaway couples are solemnized. The priest (not a blacksmith) is said to be ready, and on the watch for post-chaises from England; on such a carriage stopping at the public house, he walks towards it, to discover whether they are in want of his service or not; in case of yes, he makes his bargain, regulated by the appearance of the parties, in doing which long experience has made him very expert; and having received his fee, he performs his part of the ceremony, and leaves the parties to themselves. Scotland includes this village and a sloping descent of about a hundred yards to a brook (with a bridge) which divides the two kingdoms. Being about to leave Scotland, permit us to observe, that most of the observations hitherto made are local, and those of more general application have been reserved for this place. The general features of such of the Scotch highlands as are not mountainous, are heath and peat; in many places mixed, or strewed over with large blocks of granite. These stones are in a state of decomposition, as appears by a great many grains of quartz which lie near them. The exceptions are small patches of either arable, meadow, or planted forest trees. The mountains are slate, granite, or volcanic rocks, partially covered by moss and other worthless plants. The plantations mostly consist of Scotch firs and larch, in which it is obvious that the former is the hardier plant of the two; as the larch is not in so healthy and thriving a state as the Scotch fir, especially when it is planted without the shelter of the other. There are some places both in England and Scotland, where even the Scotch firs are ceasing to grow; and belts of such trees are annually becoming more and more broke in upon by the deaths of trees in patches. Vast masses of plantations have been made in Scotland, apparently within the last forty years; but they are mostly in the southern half of that district, and it is greatly embellished thereby: yet the northern half is nearly a naked desert. The Duke of Gordon and some others, have planted much some thirty years ago, but such places appear very small when compared with the more extensive heath and peat which covers the rest of that desolate country for a hundred miles together :-rendered desolate by the poverty of its inhabitants and the supineness of the owners of the soil; who have neglected draining 'off superfluous water, the great encourager of peat, and consequently that has extended in every direction; by which it has destroyed all the grasses which supported or can support useful animals; it has also destroyed the trees, groves and woods, which formerly contributed to embellish as well as enrich Scotland. The neglect of drainage produced peat, and the continuance of such neglect, aided by the peat, destroyed the woodseven the last remnants are perishing in succession, as the peat and water are enabled to extend their deadly influence to the living trees. In case the drainage of Scotland had been taken care of, peat would not have accumulated to a mischievous extent, and the forest scenery would have continued till our times in as much perfection and beauty as it formerly has been. All the grounds where the present inhabitants cut peat, abound with the remains of trees and sticks of less size than trees; which they take care of and carry to their several habitations, as part of their store for fire in winter. Notwithstanding what has been written to the contrary, we can assure our readers the trees have not been thrown down by hurricanes; as is demonstrated by their stumps, which are now in the very same places and upright position in which they had grown. The obvious truth is, that the living trees died in succession as they were attacked by stagnant water and the poison of peat. Dead trees have, during all our times, been taken by farmers and other country people, either with or without leave, for their firing and repairs. The greater number of the trees have been so disposed of, and the rest are found in the peat at this time. In this manner the forest trees of Scotland have been destroyed, but in what man ner can they be replaced? That may be done in all dry places, which are free or nearly free from peat, by the usual methods of planting; but to restore them on a deep peat, even after it has been drained, is a desideratum which deserves the most serious consideration of the proprietors of the soil. Peat is the greatest enemy of trees; for not only has it destroyed them over very extensive districts, but it continues to make havock among such of them as are now standing upon its borders. Wherever there are peat grounds, they are extending themselves on every side; and when that (the peat) arrives at plantations of trees, it destroys them one after another by some noxious quality which it communicates to the soil. The destructive effect which this earth has on plantations may be seen in hundreds of places, but in none is it rendered more certain than within a few hundred yards eastward from the miserable inn of Inveroreham, on the border of the rivulet Urchy. In this place several of the trees die annually, and they are then cut down a foot or two above the ground, where their stumps remain many years, or even ages, in a state which is every way similar to the stumps of trees now found in the peat grounds. These things prove, that trees have formerly grown to considerable size in places where the accretion of that earth prevents the raising trees at this time; the change, for the worse, is occasioned by neglecting to drain the soil, which would repress the extension of peat, and prevent its destructive effect. SIG For the Monthly Magazine. Some PARTICULARS of the GRAND NOR'S LIBRARY, by a recent Traveller. THE HE total number of MSS. which are contained in this library, is 1,294, mostly Arabic, either original or translated from the Turkish and Persian.— The subjects are theology, jurisprudence, logic, philosophy, physics, grammar, history, philology, and the belles lettres. The two first are in the greatest number. The Syriac and Arabic bibles, in antique characters, formerly in the library, are no longer to be found; nor are there, at present, any Latin, Greek, or Hebrew MSS. It is in the form of a Greek cross; one of the branches serves for the vestibule, and the three others, with the centre, composes the body of the library. Over the portal, between the place of entrance and the library, are the following words in Arabic, Enter in peace.' The building is very narrow-not above twelve yards from one extremity to the other. Over the central part is the cupola, which, with the marble pillars and a number of windows, produces a luminous and agreeable effect. There are twelve cases of books, four in each closet, with folding doors and curious lattice work. The books are placed on their sides, one upon another, with the ends outwards, and the titles written on the margin of the leaves. But although no Greek MSS. are now to be found in the Seraglio, it is certain that it abounded with them in the 17th century. In 1685, M. Giardin, French ambassador at the Ottoman court, purchased fifteen of the best, by the intermediation of the Jesuit Besnier. The remainder, to the number of 180, were sold in Constantinople, at 100 livres each. If they are still extant in any libraries, the seal and arms of the Sultan would readily distinguish them. The fifteen procured by the French ambassador were sent to Paris; one of them was a copy in vellum of all the works of Plutarch. It was collated by Wyttenbach, who gives it a high character.There was also a copy of Herodotus, of which Larcher makes mention, as having collected from it some valuable readings, with a considerable number of Ionian idioms. It appears that the library was robbed some time about the year 1638, for Gravius (Greaves, an Englishman) got possession of several MSS. which, he was assured, had been stolen from the Seraglio. We may add to this, that there was at Constantinople, in the year 1678, an Arabic translation of a lost work of Aristotle. There are several other libraries in the Seraglio, but access to them has been constantly refused; they are, however, of an inferior description. The principal one, as above, was founded by the Sultan Mustapha, in 1567. Some OBSERVATIONS and EXPERIMENTS on the ABSORPTION of ICE by the AT |