SCOTS MAGAZINE. FEBRUARY, 1779. CONTENT The MIRROR. Of Pedantry 57. OF ICE-ISLANDS, and a SOUTHERN CON- PASTORAL LETTER 61. Extracts from the IMPRESS ACT 63. HISTORY 1777. North America: Provin-1 ciak embodied 65. Magazines destroyed at Peck's kill 66. Danbury ib. and Sagg harbur 68. Gen. Howe takes the field 70. Fails in an attempt to bring Washington to an action 1. Ld Sterling defeated by Ld Cornwallis ib. Gen Prefcot surprised 72. The royal army arrive at the mouth of the Flk 73. TARLIAMENT. Commons, on the report of the addrefs: Speeches by Sir Ph. J. Clarke, Me dam, Bailey, De Grey, Fox 74. Ld North, Gen. Burgoyne 75. Ld G Germaine 77. Mr Fox, and Ld G. Germaine 18. AMERICA. Operations in Georgia 79. and in St Lucia 85 A difference between the Governor and Affembly of St Vincent 89.Saratoga prifoners marched to Virginia 90. S. Adm. KEPPEL's trial. Events which gave rife to the trial 91. Preparatory steps: An inquiry moved for by Mr Luttrell in the Houfe of Commons ib. Speeches of Adm Keppel and Pallifer ib. A charge exhibited 92. Mr Luttrell moves to inquire into the conduct of Adm Pallifer ib. Speeches by Adm. Pallifer ib. and Adm. Keppel 93. Debate on Adm Pallifer's conduct previous to the trial b. and on the constitution of the admiralty board 94. A memorial of twelve Admirals 96. The court martial affembled ib. The five articles of charge 97% The true ENJOYMENTS OF LIFE 98. Books. The hiftory of Edinburgh 99. Other Scottish publications 100. NUMBERS in different cities 102. A cure for the TOOTHACH 102. POETRY. Prize-monody on the death of Garrick 103. The country ib. Prologue and Epilogue to the Law f Lombardy 103. 104. A thought on a husband and wife in one grave 104. On the birth of a French princefs ib. P The MIRROR, No 5. Wednesday, Feb. 10. EDANTRY, in the common fenfe of the word, means an abfurd oftentation of learning, and ftiff. nefs of phraseology, proceeding from a mifguided knowledge of books, and a total ignorance of men. But I have often thought, that we might extend its fignification a good deal farther; and, in general, apply it to that failing which difpofes a perfon to cbtrude upon others, subjects of converfation relating to his own bufinefs, ftudics, or amusement. In this fenfe of the phrafe, we should fnd pedants in every character and conction of life. Inftead of a black coat, and plain thirt, we fhould often fee pe VOL. XLI. dantry appear in an embroidered suit, and Bruffels lace; instead of being bedaubed with fouff, we fhould find it breathing perfumes; and, in place of a bookworm, crawling through the gloomy cloisters of a univerfity, we fhould mark it in the ftate of a gilded butterfly, buzzing through the gay region of the drawing-room. Robert Daify, Efq; is a pedant of this laft kind. When he tells you, that his ruffles coft twenty guineas a pair; that his buttons were the first of the kind, made by one of the most eminent artifis in Birmingham; that his buckles were procured by means of a friend at Paris, and are the exact pattern of those worn by the Comte d'Artois; that the loop of his hat was of his own contrivance, H and and has fet the fashion to half a dozen of the finest fellows in town: when he defcants on all thefe particulars, with that fimile of felf-complacency which fits for ever on his cheek, he is as much a pedant as his quondam tutor, who recites verfes from Pindar, tells ftories out of Herodotus, and talks for an hour on the energy of the Greek particles. But Mr Daily is truck dumb by the approach of his brother Sir Thomas, whofe pedantry goes a pitch higher, and pours out all the intelligence of France and Italy, whence the young Baronet is just returned, after a tour of fifteen months over all the kingdoms of the Continent. Talk of mufic, he cuts you fhort with the history of the first singer at Naples; of painting, he runs you down with a defcription of the gallery at Florence; of architecture, he overwhelms you with the dimenfions of St Peter's, or the great church at Antwerp; or, if you leave the province of art altogether, and introduce the name of a river or hill, he inftantly deluges you with the Rhine, or makes you dizzy with the height of Etna, or Mont Blanc. Alis will have no difficulty of owning her great-aunt to be a pedant, when the talks all the time of dinner on the compofition of the pudding, or the feafoning of the mince pies; or enters into a difquifition on the figure of the damafk table-cloth, with a word or two on the thrift of making one's own linen: but the young lady will be furprifed when I inform her, that her own hiftory of laft Thurfday's affembly, with the epifode of Lady Di's feather, and the digreffion to the qualities of Mr Frizzle the hairdreffer, was alfo a piece of downright pedantry. Mrs Candle is guilty of the fame weaknefs, when the recounts the numberlefs witticifins of her daughter Emmy; defcribes the droll figure her little Bill made yesterday at trying on his first pair of breeches; and informs us, that Bobby has got feven teeth, and is juft cutting an eighth, though he will be but nine months old next Wednesday, at fix o' clock in the evening. Nor is her pedantry lefs difgufting, when the proceeds to enumerate the virtues and good qualities of her husband; though this laft fpecies is fo uncommon, that it may, perhaps, be admitted into converfation for the fake of variety. when he tells you of the scarcity of m ney at prefent, and that he is amaz how people can afford to live as they d that, for his part, though he has a to rable fortune, he finds it exceedingly di ficult to command cath for his occafion that trade is fo dead, and debts fo paid at prefent, that he was obliged fell fome fhares of bank-ftock to ma up the price of his laft purchase; as had actually countermanded a service plate, elfe he fhould have been oblige to firike feveral names out of the lift his weekly penfioners; and that this pology was fuftained t'other day by t Noble company (giving you a lift of thr or four peers, and their families) w did him the honour to eat a bit of mi ton with him. All this, however, true; as is alio another anecdote wh Muckworm forgot to mention: His f coufin dined that day with the fervan who took compaffion on the lad, af he had been turned down ftairs, wit refufal of twenty pounds to fet him in the trade of a fhoemaker. at There is pedantry in every difquifitio however masterly it may be, that t the converfation of the company for bove five minutes. When Silius deliv you that fort of lecture he is apt to into, though it is fupported by the m extenfive information and the cleareft cernment, it is ftill pedantry; while I admire the talents of Silius cannot help being uneafy at his exhi tion of them. In the course of this c fertation, the farther a man procee the more he feems to acquire ftreng and inclination for the progrefs. night, after fupper, Silius began up Proteflantifm, proceeded to the Irish m Jacre, went through the Revolution, dn the character of King William, repeat anecdotes of Schomberg, and ended, a quarter past twelve, by delineating courfe of the Boyne, in half a bumper port, upon my best table; which rivi happening to overflow its banks, did in nite damage to my coulin Sophy's whi fatin petticoat. L Eve In fhort, every thing, in this fenfe the word, is Pidantry, which tends defroy that equality of converfati which is neceffary to the perfect ease a good humour of the company. one would be ftruck with the unpolit nefs of that perfon's behaviour fhould help himfelf to a whole plate Muckworm is the meanest of pedants peafe or ftrawberries which fome frier had fent him for a rarity in the beginning of the feafon. Now Converfation is one of thofe good things of which our guefts or companions are equally intitled to a fhare as of any other conftituent part of the entertainment; and it is as effential a want of politeness to ingrofs the ene, as to monopolize the other. Befides, it unfortunately happens, that we are very inadequate judges of the value of our own difcourfe, or the rate at which the difpofitions of our company will incline them to hold it. The relections we make, and the ftories we fell, are to be judged of by others, who may hold a very different opinion of their acuteness or their humour. It will be prudent, therefore, to confider, that the 4th we bring to this entertainment, however pleafing to our own tafte, may prove but moderately palatable to thofe we mean to treat with it; and that, to eve Tf man, as well as ourfelves, (except a low very humble ones), his own convertion is the plate of peafe or strawberries. A portrait of David Garrick, Efq; [54.] Drean by an unknown hand, but supposed to be the work of a free and liberal biographer a century hence. THE beginning of the 18th century gave birth to the greatest actor that ever graced the ftage. As Nature unlocked her exhauftlefs ftores to SHAKETEARE's eye, giving him the faculty difcerning them; fo the diftinguished GARRICK as her favourite child, and gave him the various faculty of perfoniying them. Hence it was, that he burft upon the world in a full meridian blaze, antrained, untutored, and unrivalled. Is the courfe of a few nights he mounted the most brilliant pinnacle of the temple of Fame; he excelled the most excellent in that art; he surpassed all that ever went before him, and he gave an example to pofterity which they never will be able to imitate. DAVID GARRICK, Efq; was in figure Hr, pleafing, manly, genteel, and eleat. He had every requifite to fit him or every character: his limbs were pliant, features ductile and expreffive, and seye keen, quick, and obedient, verst to all occafions and places; his voice was harmonious, and could vibrate Lrough all the modulations of found; Fold thunder in paffion, tremble in fear, Jolve into the foftness of love, or melt to every mood of pity and diftrefs. These liberal devifes of Nature were or namented by the moft refined acquifitions of Art: Mulic, Dancing, Painting, Fencing, Sculpture, gave him each its refpective graces : From thefe he borrowed his deportment, his attitudes, and his cafe. These were the powers with which he charmed an aftonished age; and with thefe powers he had all Nature at his command. Every degree of age,-every ftage, fcene, and period of life,-from the hot and youthful lover, up to the lean and flippered pantaloon,-all were alike to him. At twenty-four he could put on all the wrinkles of the greateft age; and at fixty he wore in his appear. ance and action, all the agility of buxom and wanton youth.-In heroes and princes he affumed all the distant pride, the exalted manner, the ftately port of rank and royalty: He moved with dignity, fpoke with dignity, acted with dignity. His prince never interfered with his peafant, nor his peafant with his gentlemau. He was always judicious. Our ancestors, who faw him, tell us wonders of this great actor. He had in his poffeffion every key of the foul. He tranfported his hearers where he pleased. He was the matter of the paffions, and tuned them to his will: he waked them, fwelled them, foothed them; he melted them into foftnefs, and routed them into rage. If he was angry, fo was you: if he was diftreffed, fo was you: if he was terrified, fo was you: if he was merry, fo was you: if he was mad, so was you. He was an enchanter, and led you where he pleased. Such was David Garrick. What more needs be faid of him!-Shakefpeare, his own Shakespeare, will finifh the portrait: Oh! thou divineft Nature! how thyself thou blazon't In this thy fon! form'd in thy prodigality, derful! For if we take him but for all in all, We 60 I On ice-iflands, and a Southern continent, Vol. 41. own weight. My obfervations will no Obfervations on the formation of ice-islands, allow me to acquiefce in this opinion and on the existence of a Southern continent. because we never found any of the ice which we took up incorporated with From Capt. Cook's Voyage. [39.539-] Had now made the circuit of the fouth-earth, or any of its produce, as I think ern ocean in a high latitude, and tra- it must have been had it been coagulated versed it in such a manner as to leave not in land-waters. It is a doubt with me the leaft room for the poffibility of there whether there be any rivers in these coun being a continent, unlefs near the pole, tries. It is certain, that we faw not and out of the reach of navigation. By river, or ftream of water, on all the coat twice vifiting the tropical fea, I had not of Georgia, nor on any of the fouther only fettled the fituation of fome old dif- lands; nor did we ever see a ftream o water run from any of the ice-islands coveries, but made there many new ones, and left, I conceive, very little How are we then to fuppofe that ther more to be done, even in that part. are large rivers? The vallies are cover Thus I flatter myself, that the intention ed, many fathoms deep, with everlaftin It is her of the voyage has, in every refpect, been fnow; and, at the fea, they terminat fully answered, the southern hemisphere in icy cliffs of vaft height. fufficiently explored, and a final end put where the ice-iflands are formed; n to the searching after a fouthern conti- from streams of water, but from confol nent, which has, at times, ingroffed the dated fnow and fleet, which is, almo attention of fome of the maritime powers, continually, falling or drifting down fro Durir for near two centuries paft, and been a the mountains, efpecially in the winte favourite theory amongst the geographers when the froft must be intense. that season, the ice-cliffs muft so acci of all ages. mulate as to fill up all the bays, be the ever fo large. This is a fact which ca not be doubted, as we have seen it fo fummer. Thefe cliffs accumulate by co tinual falls of fnow, and what drifts fro the mountains, till they are no long able to fupport their own weight; ar then large pieces break off, which we c ice-iflands. Such as have a flat even fo face, muft be of the ice formed in t bays, and before the flat vallies; the thers, which have a tapering unequal fu face, must be formed on or under the fis of a coaft compofed of pointed rocks at precipices, or some fuch uneven surfac for we cannot fuppofe that fnow alon as it falls, can form, on a plain furfac fuch as the fea, fuch a variety of his peaks and hills, as we faw on many the ice-ifles. It is certainly more reaso able to believe, that they are formed a coat whofe furface is fomething fimil to theirs. I have obferved that all th ice-islands of any extent, and before the begin to break to pieces, are terminate by perpendicular cliffs of clear ice or fre zen fnow, always on one or more fide but moft generally all round. Many and those of the largeft fize, which ha a hilly and spiral furface, fhewed a per pendicular cliff or fide from the fumm of the highest peak down to its bat This to me was a convincing proof, tha thefe, as well as the flat ifles, must hav felves broken off from fubftances like them That there may be a continent, or Jarge tract of land, near the pole, I will not deny; on the contrary, I am of opinion there is; and it is probable that we have seen a part of it. The exceffive cold, the many islands, and vaft floats of ice, all tend to prove that there must be land to the fouth: and for my perfuafion that this fouthern land muft lie, or extend, farthest to the north, oppofite to the fouthern Atlantic and Indian oceans, I have already affigned fome reafons; to which I may add, the greater degree of cold experienced by us in these feas, than in the Southern Pacific ocean under the fame parallels of latitude. In this last ocean, the mercury in the thermometer feldom fell fo low as the freezing point, till we were in 60° and upwards; whereas in the others, it fell as low in the latitude of 54°. This was certainly owing to there being a greater quantity of ice, and to its extending far ther to the north, in these two feas, than in the South Pacific; and if ice be first formed at or near land, of which I have no doubt, it will follow, that the land alfo extends farther north. The formation or coagulation of iceifands has not, to my knowledge, been thoroughly inveftigated. Some have fuppofed them to be formed by the freezing of the water at the mouths of large riyers, or great cataracts, where they acfumulate till they are broken off by their felves; that is, from fome large tract of ice. When I confider the vast quantity of ice we faw, and the vicinity of the places to the pole where it is formed, and where the degrees of longitude are very fmall, I am led to believe, that these icecliffs extend a good way into the sea, in fome parts, especially in fuch as are fheltered from the violence of the winds. It may even be doubted if ever the wind is violent in the very high latitudes. And that the fea will freeze over, or the fnow that falls upon it, which amounts to the fame thing, we have inftances in the northern hemisphere. The Baltic, the gulph of St Laurence, the straits of Belleille, and many other equally large feas, are frequently frozen over in winter. Nor is this at all extraordinary; for we have found the degree of cold at the furface of the fea, even in fummer, to be two degrees below the freezing point; confe. quently nothing kept it from freezing but the falts it contains, and the agitation of its surface. Whenever this last ceafeth in winter, when the froft is fet in, and there comes a fall of fnow, it will freeze on the surface as it falls, and in a few days, or perhaps in one night, form fach a fheet of ice as will not be easily broken up. Thus a foundation will be laid for it to accumulate to any thickness by falls of fnow, without its being at all neceffary for the fea-water to freeze. It may be by this means these vaft floats of low ice we find in the fpring of the year are formed, and which, after they break up, are carried by the currents to the north for, from all the observations I have been able to make, the currents every where in the high latitudes, fet to the north, or to the N. E. or N. W.; but we have very feldom found them confiderable. If this imperfect account of the formation of thefe extraordinary floating islands of ice, which is written wholly from my own obfervations, does not convey fome ufeful hints to an abler pen, it will, however, convey fome idea of the lands where they are formed; lands doomed by nature to perpetual frigidness; never to feel the warmth of the fun's rays; whofe horrible and favage afpect I have not words to defcribe. Such are the lands we have discovered; what then may we expect thofe to be which lie ftill farther to the fouth? for we may reasonably fuppofe that we have seen the beft, as lying most to the north. If any one should have refolution and perfeverance to clear up this point by proceeding farther than I have done, I fhall not envy him the honour of the discovery; but I will be bold to say, that the world will not be benefited by it. I had, at this time, fome thoughts of revifiting the place where the French dif covery is faid to lie; but then I confidered, that, if they had really made this difcovery, the end would be as fully anfwered as if I had done it myself. We know it can only be an island; and if we judge from the degree of cold we found in that latitude, it cannot be a fertile one. Befides, this would have kept me two months longer at fea, and in a tempestuous latitude, which we were not in a condition to ftruggle with. Our fails and rigging were fo much worn, that fomething was giving way every hour; and we had nothing left, either to repair or to replace them. Our provi fions were in a state of decay, and confequently afforded little nourishment; and we had been a long time without refreshments. My people, indeed, were yet healthy, and would have chearfully gone where-ever I had thought proper to lead them; but I dreaded the fcurvy laying hold of them, at a time when we had nothing left to remove it. I muft fay farther, that it would have been cruel in me to have continued the fatigues and hardships they were continually expofed to, longer than was absolutely necessary. Their behaviour, throughout the whole voyage, merited every indulgence which it was in my power to give them. Animated by the conduct of the officers, they fhewed themselves capable of furmounting every difficulty and danger which came in their way, and never once looked either upon the one or the other, as being at all heightened, by our feparation from our confort the Adventure. All these confiderations induced me to lay afide looking for the French difcoveries, and to fteer for the Cape of Good Hope; with a refolution, however, of looking for the ifles of Denia and Marseveen, which are laid down in Dr Halley's variation-chart in the latitude of 41° ro S.; and about 4° of longitude to the eaft of the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope. With this view I fteered N. E. with a hard gale at N.W. and thick weather; and on the 25th, at noon, we faw the laft ice-ifland, being at this time in the latitude of 52° 52′ S. longitude 26° 31' E Pafloral |