defigning, and not of liberality of fentiment; but I affure him that I am un able to attach to his fear of realizing the Fable of the dog in the manger, any thing like liberality of fentiment. I know of no 66 angry petulance' I made nfe of in my letter which at all affects Mr. Lukin; I am, indeed, of a warm difpofition, but not habitually impudent, I am perfuaded with Mr. Lukin, that angry petulance does not promote the caule of fcience; and as he feems to he fo fenfible of it, am amazed that he did not argue with me, inflead of carping at my ill-appropriated phrafes; for I certainly put what I had to fay into the form of argument. But, paff ing by the principal argument, he dwells particularly upon the rudeness I was guilty of to Y. R. I fay he is not the Inventor of the Life-Boat, because In his Invention there is no form defined, "To boats of any form," &c. But in the Life-Boat the form is a principal object, and no dependance what ever is placed on projecting gunwales, for fecuring the unimmergibility of the vefiel. So long as the veffel hangs together, her form fecures her from overfetting; and every one knows that a fufficient quantity of cork fecures her from finking. Here lay Mr. Lukin's bufinefs with me; but fome people are fond of employing themfelves about any thing but their bufinefs.

Mr. Lukin tells me of a "pert quef tian," and "an arrogant unfupported then." I am well perfuaded with that gentleman, that a controverfy is not always decided by fuch; and that it is more than poffible to draw conclufions from erroneous premiffes. But has he thewn the erroneoufnefs of my premiffes, or the arrogance of my "then?" Ilad he done so, impudent as he thinks me, it would have had a much greater tendency to make me blufh, than his frequently hinting that I ought to do fo. If Mr. Lukin thinks I wrote the letter in anfwer to his challenge, to please either the fimple people of the country," or the knowing ones of the capital, he is very much mittaken. I wrote it to fhew that his unimmergible Boat is not the Life-Boat; and I leave it to fuch as underftand the fubject, to determine whether I have not done it fufficiently, and whether I have not alfo allowed to Mr. Lukin all the merit the fpecification of his patent lays claim to? If he wishes for more, let him quarrel with himfelf for the paucity of

his views when he obtained it, and not with me because I was ignorant of the vanity of his prefent defires. Though Mr. Lukin has "no curiofity to enquire into the fquabbles of a remote country town, nor any ambition to take a part in the unimportant difcuffou, whether Mr. Wouldhave or Mr. Greathead is molt entitled to the gratitude of the publick," I am perfuaded it will be much more important to the perfection of his pamphlet than he fuppofes, if he wishes to be confidered the Inventor of the Life-Boat. If he only means to claim the honour of having firit agitated the general principles, I have.not difputed it with him, though fome French gentlemen may; for there are faid to have been fuch boats as thofe he mentions in his fpecification invented in France by Monf. Bernieres, and ufed in the Loire and other rivers and coafts of that country, long before he obtained his patent; fo that, how provoking foever it may be to him, Monfieur will in all probability carry off the prize, and though the French, being naturally polite, may ftrip him of his honours in a more gentle manner than I can pretend to, yet he may depend upon it (fuch is his cruel. fortune) that he never will be allowed to be the Inventor of the Life-Boat built at Shields; and however the Frenchmen may bow and call him their dear Sir, &c. they will not allow him to be the Inventor of the unimmergible Boats with projecting gunwales ufed on the Loire, &c. before he had obtained his patent.

As I have paffed childhood, Mr. Urban, it is rather unpleasant to be charged with puerility. But with refpect to the first of thefe puerile expreffions, I have been informed it was a cant word of an old British Admiral, I think Earl Howe; who, when he gave orders to fire in paffing an enemy's quarter, ufed to fay," Now, my boys, bring down their gingerbread work," alluding to the ornamental carvings, &c. As for the fecond, "flimfy prefervatives," if any one wishes to be fatisfied refpecting its propriety, let him view the Thames during the ftrength of the tide, crowded with the lightermen's craft, and boats of different kinds and dimenfions, and figure to himself the fate of projecting gunwales, either

hollow and water-tight, or of other light materials," had they been adopted. Yours, &c. W. A. HAILS.

Mr.

a more favoured one, and the building falls into difufe, or ferves for any common purpose. The congregations, like the opinions, are a rope of fand; and at laft no fyftem at all is to be found. So true is it, that, where the

"Church erects a house of prayer, The Devil's fure to build a temple there;" not an ale-house, as it used to be formerly, but a more intoxicating houfe, a conventicle of perverse and unintelligible doctrines.

The Bishop of Norwich properly bears his teftimony against the "generalifing fyftem of Mr. Jofeph Lancafier, "which is now fo much talked of; of which fyftem, whatever menit it may have in other refpects, the diftinguished doctrines of Chriftianity make no part: at the fame time he is ready to bear full teftimony to the benevolent atten

tion of this humane and active friend to the poor, and alfo the ingenuity difplayed in carrying fome parts of his fyftem into execution. "I fhould, however," he adds, "be exceedingly forry to fee his "Inftitutes of Chriftianity," whenever they make their appearance, fuperfede the use of our incomparable Church Catechifm, and be fubftituted in the room of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments" (p. 17); or, we may add, in that of fʊ good an Infiitute as Bp. Gaftrell's, or any other pious writer of our Church. We have had fufficient evidence that Quakerifim is not Chriftianity, however Jofeph Lancaster may be pitched on and encouraged as a champion fent forth to defy the armies of the living God."

accrewed," in the expences of Prince Henry, fo faft, that Sir Thomas Challoner was commiffioned by K. James to fee that "the forme of the Prince's howse should rather imitate a colledg than a court." To which end, Sir Thomas refufed admittance of any fuperficial fervants and officers recommended by great perfonages, that no office might be furcharged with a number, but fome of them might be put in a voyd place of another office, when it falls, that is not furcharged."

III. "Mr. Henry (afterward Sir Henry) Yelverton's Narrative of what pafled on his being restored to the King's favour, 1609, whom he had difobliged by his Freedom of Speech and Conduct in Cumming, Efq. F.A.S."-The general Parliament. Communicated by James tenor of Mr. Y's offence, according to his restoration, was, that "he hated a this fpeech of Lord Dunbar to him on whole Chriftian nation, as he was faid to do the Scotch; that he kicked against all the juft and wholesome actions of his Sovereign, as he was reported to have done; and did bite him (meaning himself) that never offended him, nor knew him till within thefe few days." Mr. Y's excufe was, he "knew it was the King's pleafure we fhould all ufe liberty of fpeech; and the experience of the place in parliament teaches us fo much." But, it feems, neither free fpeaking nor punning could be fuffered in that fervile Court, though the example of Sir Francis Bacon could be quoted. In the fucceeding reign men's eyes and mouths were more effectually opened in parliament.

IV. "The Names of his Majefties Shipps, with the Nomber of Men aud Furniture requifite for the fettinge forth of them; alfo, the generall Muftars taken throughout the whole Realme of England and Wales. Extracted from an original MS. of the Beginning of the Reign of James I.; preferved in the Society's Library. Communicated by the Rev. John Brand, Secretary.”—In all, 25 ships of war; forming a ftriking contrast between the Royal Navy of England in the reigns of James I. and his prefent Majefty King George III.

V. Account of the Greek Infcription on Pompey's Pillar; by Capt. W. M. Leake, and Lieut. John Squire in a letter to Dr. Raine.-The obfcurity which has long overhung this famous pillar, and exercised the fkill of feveral

Literati,

Literati, is here removed by two young gentlemen in the fuite of Mr. Hamilton. The difcovery feems to me,' fays Dr. R. "to be of confiderable importance; and the learned world will lament that young men, fo zealous in the caufe of antient literature, fhould have had the misfortune to lofe by fhipwreck many treafures collected in various parts of Greece."

All the various opinions on this pillar are collected in our vol. LI. p. 17. Profeffor White pronounces it one of the 400 of the Serapeum, in our vol. LXXI. pp. 426, 539, LXXII. 651; Denon, LXXII. 833; Wilfon, ibid. 1129. The infcription, announced as communicated to the Society, LXXIII. 104, was printed by Sir R. Willon, in the fecond edition of his Hiftory of the Egyptian Expedition; and in our vol. LXXIII. p. 322, is a copy from Captain Walsh's Journal of the Campaign in Egypt, the blanks filled up by Mr. Hayter at Naples, commented on by E, ibid. 397, 726; another copy, ibid. 620; Capt. Squire's letter to the British Critic, May, 1803. (The exact dimenfions of the pillar, by Capt. M. Thorland, of the Pandora, may be feen in our vol. LXXIV. p. 410.)

All doubts and difcuffions are fuperfeded by the prefent publication, which determines the infcription to be as here reprefented:

Τον τιμι ( ΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΑ ΤΟΝ ΠΟΛΙΟΥΧΟΝ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΕΙΑΣ ΔΙΟκλητΙΑΝΟΝ ΤΟΝ . . . . ΤΟΝ ПÒ. . . . . . ЄПAРXоC AIгTITOY

:

.....

Of the prefect's name the fix laft letters are not decypherable. Though confiderable pains have been taken at fome period to efface the infcription, it is evident that the letters were originally but rudely cut, and of little depth in the red granite; in which kind of ftone no other infcription has yet been feen and it is probable the haft, once perhaps employed for a different purpofe, was reared in honour of Diocletian, and a capital, bafe, and pediment adapted of the degraded tafte and execution of the age.. The occafion, perhaps, may be found in that part of the Hiftory of this Emperor when, after having feverely chaftifed the inhabitants of Alexandria, who rebelled against the Government, he eftablished a public allowance of corn for the city, at two millions of me

dimni. Chron. Par. 276. Procopii Hift. Arcana, c. 26.

We can only lament the tardiness with which this interefting communication has been made.

VI. "Account of the Entertain ment of King Henry VI. at the Abbev of Bury St. Edmund's. Communicated by Craven Ord, Efq. F. R. and A. S. from an original MS. of the Regifter Curteys of that Monaftery, in his Poffeffion. In a Letter to the Prefident."-Mr. O. after heartily recommending to the exertions of the Society the republication of fome of the fcarceft of our most rare and coftly Chronicles and Hiftories, as they convey to us not only much curious intelligence of former ages, told in true Englifh franknefs, but alfo many hiftorical facts lightly if at all noticed by our more recent writers on English Hiftory, proceeds to relate, in the words of the old register of an abbot, from 1429 to 1445, how the king, in the twelfth year of his reign and age, determined in council to keep his Chriftmas at Bury abbey, and take up his refidence there till St. George's day following (near a quarter of a year). The abbot, though firuck with the novelty of the design, as it could not be found in any chronicle that the King of England, at least at that feafon of the year, had fettled his abode there by royal edict, was yet glad to receive his guests, and employed 80 workmen for a month to fit up his pa lace, then in a ftate of decay and ruin; and entertained 100 officers previous to the coming of the king, who had been crowned King of the two Kingdoms of England and France on Christmas 1432, two years before. After confulting with the aldermen and corporation how they thould apparel themfelves on the occafion, the abbot perfuaded the aldermen to wear fearlet, the others red cloth with purple hood (coloris fanguinei); and they, to the number of 500, met the king fo habited on Christmas eve, on Newmarket heath, and conducted him for à mile to the precincts of the monaftery (the ruined fteeple and its fallen ftones not permitting them to enter it), to the middle of the fireet, between the gate and the North door of the monaftery, where the earl of Warwick took the king in his arms from his horfe, and, proceeding to a place covered with a filk cloak, he kneeled

to

to the crucifix, and the proceffion began, the brethren of the house ftanding in their rich copes, the bishop of Norwich and the abbot in their pontificals; and the latter, having fprinkled him with holy water, and offered him the crois to kils, he proceeded to the high altar, the choir finging and the organs playing "Ave Rex Gentis Anglorum;" and prayers being performed at the fhrine of St. Edmund, the king heartily thanked the abbot for his kindness and expences on his fuite, and retired to the palace. On Chriftmas-day, after high mafs and proceffion in his royal robes, he held a high court during dinner, and celebrated the feftivities of the feafon till Epiphany. The abbot made handfome prefents both to the king and his nobles, with the concurrence of the convent, and out of their feveral revenues, 100 marks of the latter immediately, and 1001. for the ufe of the former, and a proportion of the fums he farther expended. The king retired after Christmas to the prior's apartment, and occupied it till Jan. 23, enjoying the fireams of waters, the wholefome air, and fragrance of the vineyard, out of the door of which he and his barons walked and hunted' the fox and hare, on the level fields, and among the green groves Understanding the abbot had a pleasant houfe at Elmefwell, with fish-ponds, moats, and woods, he retired thither, with his company, Jan 23, to take the diverfion of fishing and hawking, and was prefented by the abbot with fwans, pheafants, partridges, and other game, pikes, eels, and other fifh. On the Purification of the Virgin he retired to the abbot's palace, and again to the manor, to pursue the fame fports, and kept Lent in the palace. About the time of his removal to London, the abbot prevailed on the duke of Gloucester and other lords, and others of the king's fuite, to be admitted into the brotherhood of the monaftery, who returned hand fome prefents and good dinners. The king, in the chapterhoufe, defired to be admitted, which was done by the abbot with a fraternal kifs, and, at the humble fuggeftion of the duke of Gloucefter, his Majefty heartily thanked the abbot, taking him by the hand, for his liberal entertaininent, and took his leave.

An abstract, in English, of this royal vifit, had been before inferted in Mr.

Yates's Hiftory of this Abbey, pp. 150 -154; and the note from Mr. Cole's MSS. "an inftance, among others, of the pike being known in England before Henry VIII. when it has been faid to have been first introduced among us;" totidem verbis. Qu. if denticum is not an epithet of the pike for its fharp teeth? There is no fuch word in Ainfworth; and denter, Columb,VIII. 16, is a fea fish.

VII. Copy of a MS. intituled “A true Collection as well of all the Kinges Majefties Offices and Fees in any the Courtes of Weftminfter," communicated by Sir Jofeph Banks, is the MS. referred to in No IV. as in the Society's library.

VIII. "Some Account of an Ab bey of Nuns formerly fituated in the Street now called The Minories, in the County of Middlefex, and Liberty of the Tower of London. By Henry Fly, D.D."-A mere compilation from printed books, to fill up a barren meeting; but the Sketches of the remains are withheld from the publick.

IX. "Account of the antient Rolls of Papyrus, difcovered at Hercula neum, and the Method employed to unroll them. In a Letter from the Hon. Henry Grey Bennett to the Rev. Samuel Henley, M. A.”— Practice has now made men more expert than a young beginner, who, in his hurry to conclude, fpoiled much more than he faved of a copy of Epicurus. When firft Mr. Hayter began this procefs, there was one man tolerably expert, and three only who had feen the manner of it; confequently, all were to be taught. Only one Latin MS. has been found, but in too bad a ftate to promife any chance of fuccefs. They are of different fizes, fome containing only a few fheets, as a fiugle play; others, fome 100, and a few perhaps 2000. Whatever we may expect or hope for, little more has been difcovered than Epicurean philofophy and treatises on mufick.

X. "Account of Antiquities difcovered in Cornwall. By the Rev. Malachy Hitchins."-In Lanant parish, many celts, fome entire, fome broken, feveral pieces of copper fwords, and heavy lumps of fine copper, evidently brought for fufion, as there is every appearance that this was a military foundry. In the bottom of one, the largest and most perfect celt, were found fome fall bars of gold, none

of