178 Metre of Horace....Pappelbaum on Greek MSS. 3d. That the parties circulating fuch coin, be refponfible to the holders for the value in gold or filver, when demanded; and fhall ftamp their names, and an obligation to that purpofe, on the coins or tokens fo iffued by them." It might also be proper, that fuch perfons iffuing promiffory coins, fhould take out a licence for that purpofe, from the principal officers of the mint, as an authority for their coinage; giving fecurity, at the fame time, for their obfervance of the above conditions. Dundee, Feb. 11, 1797. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, IN your Magazine for laft June, is inferted a letter of mine, on the fubject of a fpecies of metre ufed by Horace. As none of your correfpondents have taken notice of the hint fuggefted in it, I prefume, that they think my obfervations either well founded, or ill founded, or of little importance. The latter can hardly be the cafe, with any man tolerably converfant with claffical literature: for he must have perufed fome of the writings of our moft celebrated critics, on this fubject, and thence have feen the importance which is juftly attributed to it by the learned. But perhaps, fome may think my remarks ill founded. Thefe perfons, I requeft to read over attentively, the fixteenth Ode of the first book; and anfwer, whether it is probable, that Horace, in making excufes for his guilty iambics, fhould have used in his recantation a fi milar meafure: Me quoque pectoris The lyric measures, as the fubfequent verfes inform us, are adapted to fubjects mitia non triftia; and hence, I think, I am juftified in not allowing an iambic to be ufed in the measure fimilar to that of the Ode now quoted. But English ears are very little fenfible of this diftinction. This is true; and for this reafon, very few enter into the fpirit of Horace's poetry. A drunken-fong, a hymn to the gods, a love [March, fong, whatever may be the subject, whatever may be the metre, all are mouthed out, particularly by perfons educated at our great schools, in a way to break the drum of the ear of your's, PHILOMETER. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, THE long-expected work of PAPPELarrived too late, for the perfon whose reBAUM, is at laft arrived; but it has putation is at stake, to make due reparation to the public, for the unfounded affertions in his former writings. By the death of Mr. Travis, we may probably be deprived of his remarks on Mr. Marth's Letters, and certainly of an answer to this work; which, in various 'places, brings forward fuch strong charges against the late archdeacon, as, if the repeated cenfures of a PORSON, a MARSH, and a GRIESBACH, had not driven him entirely out of the republic of, eriticism, muft confign him to eternal oblivion. PAPPELBAUM, has made an exact collation of the Codes Ravianus, on which Travis fo much depended; he has brought forward fuch ftrong proofs, that no one can doubt of its being a tranfcript from the Complutenfian edition of the Teftament, with fome variations inferted for a particular purpose. Every lover of facred criticim will be naturally anxious to fee this work, by which the defenders of 1 J. v. 7, have loft the little prop on which they refted; that is, on a ftraw. It feems fingular, that the unhappy archdeacon, fhould have entered into a conteft, in which every ftep he took led to his difgrace. His Letters to Gibbon, excited the reply of Porfon. His journey to Paris, fhowed his ignorance of Greek, and incapacity in collation. His remarks on MSS. made every one attentive to the fubject, and gave Marth the opportunity of fhowing his total ignorance of the Silefian readings: laftly, his ridiculous affertions on the Ravian manufcript, have produced this work, which not only contradicts every thing faid by the archdeacon on this head, but by giving, in the appendix, the original letter of Pappelbaum, to the faid archdeacon, fhows, how men's minds when worked up to a certain pitch, are blinded not only to every fpecies of information, but to the certainty of future Your's, punishment. CRITICES. Londen, March, 14, 1797. 1797-] Lime as a Manure.....Manumiffion of Cottages. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, MUCH has been written in your ufe ful Magazine, upon the utility, or otherwife, of LIME, as a manure; but thefe writers, in my opinion, have not paid fufficient attention to the very great difference there is in limes of various countries and yet, unless this is accurately done, no decifive opinion can be formed. : I have tried the various limes in my neighbourhood, though upon a small fcale, and have found a very great difference in their effects;-fome kinds doing good, and others producing no alteration whatsoever. Laft fummer, I paffed fome time about Buxton, and had the good fortune to meet with a very intelligent practical farmer, of Yorkshire, from whom I gained much ufeful agricultural information:-Speaking of lime, he faid, "few people paid any due regard to the great difference there was in various lime, whereas this was the first thing a farmer should know, before he laid out his money; for (faid he) there is almoft as much difference in limes as there is between cloth and cotton.-Some lime burns the land, but other forts feed it." He then told me, that he had tried all the limes in his neighbourhood, but found none to anfwer fo well as that in Middleton Dale; and though it was eighteen miles from him, and he could buy lime enough at only fix miles' diftance, yet he preferred, and always ufed, the Middleton line. This lime, he faid, was of great fervice, and where the heap was made in the field, before the fpreading, the corn was a very deep colour, and remarkably ftrong: whereas, where heaps of other lime happened to be laid, the ground was burnt, and produced nothing but twitch grafs for feveral years after. He alfo affured me, that all his neighbours had tried the fame experiment, with the like refult. I have fent, you the above facts, thinking they may difpofe fome of your chemical readers to turn their attention to the subject. It would be a great point gained in rural economy, if fome eafy, practical, and decifive tefts cou'd be difcovered, by which the farmer might be enabled to tell, whether or no the lime he was about to ufe, would do him the fervice he expected, or not; at prefent, *This beaut ful romantic dale is well known to all who have visited Buxton or Matlock. MONTHLY MAG. No. XV. Your's, 179 he does all by guefs, and more frequent- F. B-B. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, THE obfervations of your correfpondent H. B. (in your 13th Number) relative to the amelioration of the coudition of that oppreffed clafs of the community, the cottagers, whofe caufe he has efpoufed, with a benevolence and goodness of heart, which does honour to but I greatly fear the adoption of his plan his character, afforded me a real pleafure; would be attended with great difficulty, if place, there is a probability, that the not be wholly impracticable.-In the first demands of the lords of manors to their fion of cottages, would be too exorbicopyholders for lives, for the manumiftant for their intereft, were they to embrace them fiderable danger that they would put fo ; or if they did, there is conhigh a value on the houses, as would deter the cottagers from fufficiently prac tifing that industry and fobriety, which could alone be the means of enabling the cafe, their condition would be even them to purchase them: if fuch were worfe than it is at prefent. With regard to manumiffion, a queftion arifes, which is in fome measure inorder to obtain it, an act of the legilavolved in politics, namely, Whether, in ture would not be neceffary; as the num number of freeholders and voters, would ber of freeholds, and, confequently, the be materially increafed ?-This, perhaps, to decide upon, than I confefs myself to your correfpondent may be better able be. If, indeed, the power of manu miffion refts folely with the lord of the which manorial rights are certainly remanor, as under the feudal fystem, of liques, I fhould be one of the first to ufe my utmoft endeavours to promote the defirable end H. B. has in view: but I conceive, that as by cuftom, which has varied within a series of years, villenoge, has been, in great measure, destroyed, this from whence copyhold tenures fprung, power of manumiflion is alfo deftroyed, and that, although the holders of copyhold eftates are fubject, in certain refpects, to the lord of the manor, yet it that fuch manumiffion can be effected. can only be by an act of the legislature, If in this I am miftaken, I hope fome of your correfpondents will correct me. * The other favours of this correspondent have not reached us. A a No No one is more defirous than myfelf to better the condition, and increafe the happiness, of my fellow-mortals: I have long been an eye-witness to the most poignant diftreffes of the families of cottagers, where, notwithstanding the utmost exertions of the parents, the children have been deftitute of many of the neceffaries of life yet, amidst all these hardships, they have hardly dared to utter a complaint: fearful left the cruel hand of oppreffion fhould feize their little all for rent, and turn them, pale, fhivering, and deftitute, out of a miferable hovel, which fcarcely protects them from the inclemencies of the weather. The benefits likely to arife from H. B.'s plan, are not to be denied; and if that pleafing picture which his imagination has painted as the confequences of its adoption, was happily verified, it would be of the greatest benefit to the community at large, and add innumerable comforts to that unfortunate clafs of beings, who have been long infulted, degraded, and oppreffed. Your's, &c. Norfolk, February 7, 1797• B. D. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, PRESUME it will not be difpleafing to many of your liberal-minded readers, to fee that the Effay on the Aboliton of Tithes, in your Supplementary Number, has been noticed by a correfpondent, who feems to be a clergyman. This gentleman, whether he be or be not of the established church, is entitled to the refpect of his fellow-citizens, for his avowed good will to " a Reform," in the matter of Tithes.-It was natural to suppose there would be found, in the magnitude and boldness of the plan alluded to, fome points about which many clergymen would be "far from agreeing" with the author. Such difagreement will be ufeful, by leading to a candid difcuffion. Your correfpondent, J. W. diffents, at the threshold, from the poffibility that tithes can be valued at all;" and this fingular idea he feems to adopt, from the poffibility, that what is now fairly valued, may, a century hence, be worth far more money. But, fhould we grant the whole force of the argument, in this cafe, we might bring it agains an attempt at the prefent valuation of any thing; becaufe, as the value of all pro-perty is fluctuating, and a thing may very materially differ in value, at [March, diftant day, from that which this day is affixed to it, fo, by curious mathematical induction, fome variation may take place to-morrow, or before a transfer can be legally made. But this kind of reafoning is not to govern common utes. In matters of property, it is fufficient that, by the judgment of perfons moft competent to determine, we afcertain what a thing is worth now. Every man will allow this may be done, refpecting an eftate in houses, lands, or goods, or a given reverfionary intereft in either. On this principle, I have no fcruple in maintaining, that there is no eftate or intereft in tithes (which are taxes of property) however peculiar, but will admit of equally fair valuation. Where the confideration money, for the amount of the valuation, goes to an individual as his own entire right, he exercifes his choice in difpofing of it, and the business ends without any impeachment of the general principle of justice. If he be a truftce, he either is to follow a prefcribed mode for the intereft of his fucceffor, or to exercife his beft judgment in the vetting of the money and this, by common confent is deemed confiftent with the general interefts and good of fociety.--These principles would be allowed to apply to more than one half of the tithes in the kingdom, because they are fuppofed to be in lay-hands: their being fo difpofed of by valuation, would be confidered as a tranfaction perfectly fair in itfelf, and falutary in its confequences. The principle applied to the other part, which goes to the maintenance of the national clergy for the time being, is equally clear, up to the moment of paying the money. The difpofal of this money to the greateft poffible advantage, we will fuppofe, brings on the main difficulty-and your correfpondent feems chiefly to reft his objections against the plan, on the ground of one mode of dif pofal, that is, the creation of a fund for yielding an intereft, under the guarantee of government. He fuppofes a confe quent deduction from the nett income, by an extenfive civil eftablishment for the management of the fund, and the payment of the annuitants: but fuch an expenfive establishment is not neceffary, and may eafily be avoided by a judicious organization of a proper board, at which I fee no objection to the admiffion of fome clerical gentlemen-nor can I think their fpiritual function would be more degraded thereby, than the whole body of beneficed clergy, efpecially many many of thofe most highly beneficed, is, by their conftant attentions to fecular interefts and calculations, on the prefent plan, attended as it is with perpetual oppofition and ftrife! As to the idea of degradation by the mode of receiving their ftipends, I humbly conceive this objection to be founded more in falfe notions of proper dignity, than in juft and true ones. The narrow, peeping, and invidious fyftem of afcertaining and collecting fmall tithes, is abundantly more objectionable under this head, than drawing a quarterly or half-quarterly draught, receiving by agent, or applying in perfon, as circumftances may render moft convenient. But we may reafonably fufpect, that the comparative infecurity of fuch funds, is, more than any thing elfe, objectionable with your correfpondent--and might be moft likely to be pleaded against, by the clergy, as a body. Be it, however, believed, that if once the government of the country become changed, the fyftem of tithes will not be a favourite object of continuance; nor the clergy who may ftickle for that continuance, the moft fafe in their fituations. The judges, and the moft ufeful officers of the ftate, have been, from time immemorial, uniformly fupported by a money payment, in their refpective dignities and that fupport has been uniformly and progreffively liberal, in proportion to the altered value of money, through all periods of the government. Should the fund for the object in queftion, though (as it doubtlefs would be) fufficiently large at firft, be in danger of becoming otherwife by the lapfe of time, the prefent, or fit, annuitants of it need not fear for themfelves---and their fucceffors in office are no natural pofterity of their's; confequently, not the natural objects of their concern. Either are only poffelfors for life, and each will have the fecurity of government, fo long as government lafts: and fo long as government itself adheres to the conftitution of England, the church and the government may be fafe together-all beyond is uncertainty! The idea which J. W. feems to adopt, that the prefent clerical poffeffors of tithe income, are parties, as to a freehold of inheritance, and, confequently, have a right of refiftance against any alteration, in quality of proprietors in fee, I conceive to be going too far, either for truth or found policy. The highest magiftrate of the civil power, is alfo a conftitutional head of the church of England-and the civil power is paramount to all other diftinctions, in this 5 country. The converfe would be Pote dom-and a fpiritual ufurpation-which the conftitution of this country admits not. Time has been, when the power of the priesthood was an Imperium in Imperio, in this ifland, and from which the greatest evils refulted to fociety; but it is fo no longer. Its arrogance was ever odious, and at the extreme of oppofition to the primitive Chriftian re. ligion. The prefent taxation of landed-property, fimply, and (which is the grand evil complained of) the taxation of induftry and expenfive experimental improvement, are founded on civil authority only; and, during pleasure, guaranteed by the legiflature, as the means of maintenance for a particular clafs of fubjects-but the power that established, and upholds, can al er, at pleafure. It conftitutionally knows no rival autho rity; but is concerned fo to exercife its own, and to do that rational and feafonable juftice, which, according to the circumftances of the times, it fhall deem moft conducive to the general fatiffaction and good of the common-wealth. On this principle, I would reft the prefent branch of the fubject; and if your correfpondent can fhow, by fair argument, the contrary to be true, your candour will, doubtlefs, admit his reafoning; to which, alfo, I shall be happy to pay proper attention. But J. W. has not thought proper to notice the different modes of alteration fuggefted by the author of the effay-one of which, at leaft, I prefume, will be found free from objections, relative to depreciating the income or dignity of the clergy, viz. the purchafing of lands, to be holden in truft, for the benefit of the national clergy, and to become the permanent fource of their maintenance, with all the advantages of fecurity, fimplicity, and increate; which may be easily conceived by the unprejudiced public, and the warmest friends of the national church. This plan, equally with the other, would bring us to a deliverance from the incumbrance of tithes, and be equally fatisfactory to the country. In the foregoing obfervations, I thought it right to combat the reafoning of your correfpondent, on the ground he had chofen but I am not particularly partial to the plan he cenfures, and fhould be abundantly happy to fee this laft, lefs exceptionable one, in a train for adoption, rather than the continuance of the prefent fyftem. March 6, 1797. A a 2 A LAYMAN. 182 Character of a Wife. [March, To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. in propria perfona, I find it quite as pru SIR, wife men have doubted SOME very whether-no-I beg their pardonvery wife men, in our days, are averfe to the flow procefs of doubting-and therefore find it easier to affert-that all our vices are the exceffes of fome virtue though, I believe, they have not gone fo far as to offer the converse of this propofition, and maintain, that all our virtues must be the fuperfluous part of our vices. Whether they are right in establishing this barter, is not for me to determine; but I cannot help being fomewhat inclined to think, that very good fort of people have ftrange whims and habits, which, though it would neither be polite nor juft to call vices, yet must be accounted very troublesome and inconvenient things. Such is the cafe, perhaps, with your outrageously virtuous people, in whofe opinion, a fmile is a criminal overture, and the touch of a finger, an impulfe of Satan-or with your violently fentimental people, who exult in the profpect of a long dreary aifle, terminated by a dungeon, who converfe in fobs and fhrieks; and whofe daily bread is a kind of fermentation, excited by the clanking of chains, and the report of piftols. But let me not wander from my intended fubject. Let me not plunge into the abyfs of romance, when I ought to relate a plain tale, nor wander abroad in fearch of terrors, when I may remain at home in pursuit only of inconveni ences. My misfortune, fir, is to poffefs the whole and fole property, perfonal and mental, of a WIFE, who is, without all exception (except what is to follow) one of the best of human beings. That fhe is fo, I fhould be difpofed to allow voluntarily, even if I were not obliged to affent to it, as attefted and fworn by every one who knows her, that is, who occafionally pays us a vifit, beholds her good deeds, and profits by them. To contradict people, who must be the best judges, because they think fo, and in a matter, too, which must be very gratifying to the feelings of a husband, would be at once very unpolite and very unwife. But writing, as I am now, to you, and in a Mifcellany which is intended to anfwer the purpofes of a Committee of Public Safety, I may, perhaps, take greater freedoms than domeftic good manners will allow; and in my fictitious character, advance fome things, which, dent to let pafs without animadverfion. Sir, this angel of a woman—that is a very fine epithet from a man who has been married above twenty years-would deferve more praises than you have leifure or patience to read, had fhe not hit, which the is never likely to complete, in early life, upon a fyftem of happiness, which perhaps never was completed, and which, if it could be brought to a termination, would probably make her the refolves all happinefs into two pafvery unhappy. You are to know, that fions, hope and fear, and a mind continually vibrating between thefe, is, in her opinion, a mind of perfect felicity. Now, I know that fome people would call this refleness, and an eminent phyfician, of my acquaintance, has affured me, that it is nothing but the fidgets, a disorder peculiar, as he fays, to females, efpecially to thofe who are called your mighty miffion to his medical skill, muft, I think, good kind of women: but this, with fubbe a mistake; for I have perceived fymptoms of the fidgets in women, who could not, in any fenfe of the words, be termed mighty good, or mighty evil. A learned lady affured me, that my wife's diforder was irritability of locomotion. Be this as it may, for doctors will differ, my wife purfues her fyftem with unabated affiduity, continually finding and fear, to raife expectation, prove inout fchemes to exercise her mind in hope genuity, gratify curiofity, and, as Bayes fays, in the Rehearfal, "to elevate and furprise." You may, therefore, fuppofe, that in order to carry on this plan of happiness, fomewhat of a romantic turn is neceffary. You are not mistaken. She poffeffes very much of that turn, but is much better pleafed with the romances of real life, than with thofe of fiction, and would much rather fummons a hackney-coachman, than call up hobgoblins in an old caftle. And it is very remarkable, that not a day paffes without her meeting, by the meereft accident in the world, with the ftrangeft perfons, the most unlooked-for incidents, or the oddeft fpeeches and expreffions, that ever occurred in the hiftory of the world.N.B. I never found a perfon of an adventurous turn of mind, who did not meet with adventures; and I don't know, but that, in fkilful hands, a journey to Hampstead might be made as fuprifing. as a voyage round the globe. But this. by the bye. You will alfo readily imagine, that my |