From the cross at Puerto real, draw a line through the cross, at St Catalina; and from the cross at Isla, through that at Cadiz. Where it cuts the other line, is the town of Rotta, which, with Cadiz, forms the outer harbour. The Spanish and English batteries are distinguished from the French. E is the place where the boats of the fleet water. The distance from Matagorda to Puntales is 1330 yards; from the cross at Cadiz to Matagorda, 4400. A mortar carries 4200 yards. FF are redoubts formed by the English, for the second line. Place the compass to a map, and you will see the situation of the coast. The oblongs near the river are salt pits. The town of Chiclana is a little behind 5 French batteries. We have picquets at all the batteries. The river St Petre is very muddy. A 74 gun ship lies at Zuaza bridge, by which you can judge of the depth. Near Zuaza bridge you will see M, which battery is the one commanded by the Maid of Saragossa. There are two drawbridges at it, very strong with batteries, and the whole of the country, for a mile on the French side of the river is so intersected with the salt pits, that nobody can move but by the road.

Letter from David Hume, Esq. to the Rev. John Home, Author of Douglas. Prefixed to the First collected Edition of Mr Hume's Essays (Now very scarce, and, it is believed, never since Print cd.)

TO THE REV. MR HOME, AUTHOR OF DOUGLAS, A TRAGEDY.

MY DEAR SIR,

T was the practice of the ancients to address their compositions only to friends and equals, and to render their dedications monuments of re

gard and affection-not of servility and flattery. In those days of ingenious and candid liberty, a dedication did honour to the person to whom it was addressed, without degrading the authors. If any partiality appeared towards the patron, it was, at least, the partiality of friendship and affection.

Another instance of true liberty, of which ancient times can alone afford us an example, is the liberty of thought, which engaged men of letters, however different in their abstract opinions, to maintain a mutual friendship and regard, and never to quarrel about principles, while they agreed in inclinations and manners. Science was often the subject of disputation, never of animosity. Cicero, an Academic, addressed his Philosophical Treatises, sometimes to Brutus, a Stoic-sometimes to Atticus, an Epicurean.

I have been seized with a strong desire of renewing these laudable practices of antiquity, by addressing the following dissertations to you, my good friend-for such I will ever call and esteem you, notwithstanding the opposition which prevails between us, with regard to many of our speculative tenets. These differences of opinion I have only found to enliven our conversation; while our common passion for science and letters served as a cement to our friendship. I still admired your genius, even while I imagined that you lay under the influence of prejudice; and you sometimes told me, that you excused my errors, on account of the candour and sincerity which you thought accompanied them.

But, to tell truth, it is less my admiration of your fine genius, which has engaged me to make this address to you, than my esteem of your character, and my affection to your person. That generosity of mind which ever accompanies you;

that

that cordiality of friendship-that spirited honour and integrity, have long interested me strongly in your behalf, and have made me desirous, that a monument of our mutual amity should be publicly executed, and, if possible, be preserved to posterity.

I own, too, that I have the ambition to be the first who shall, in public, express his admiration of your noble Tragedy of Douglasone of the most interesting and pathetic pieces that was ever exhibited in any Theatre. Should I give it the preference to the Merope of Maffei, and to that of Voltaire, which it resembles in its subject should I affirm that it contained more fire and spirit than the former, more tenderness and simplicity than the latter, I might be accused of partiality: and how could I entirely acquit myself, after the professions of friendship which I have made? but the unfeigned tears which flowed from every eye, in the numerous representations which were made of it in this Theatre-the unparallelled command which you appeared to have over every affection of the human breast-these are incontestible proofs that you possess the true theatric genius of Shakespear and Otway, refined from the unhappy barbarism of the one, and the licentiousness of the other.

My enemies, you know, and, I own, even sometimes my friends, have reproached me with the love of paradoxes, and singular opinions; and I expect to be exposed to the same imputations, on account of the character which I have here given of your Douglas. I shall be told, no doubt, that I have artfully chosen the only time, when the high esteem of the piece could be regarded as a paradox; to wit, before its publication; and that, not being able to contradict, in this particular, the sentiments of the public, I have, at

Proceedings of the Wernerian Natural History Society.

AT the meeting of this society, on the 21st July, Mr Campbell of Carbrook, read some observations on the cause of the antilunar, or inferior tide, tending to impugn the Newtonian theory on that subject. And Dr Thomson read a paper on natural carbonated hydrogen gases.

Monthly Memoranda in Natural History.

1810, July 12.-A few Cross bills (Lorea curverostra) have been observed in this neighbourhood, and we know of one specimen having been shot. These birds appear, by the newspapers, to have been very common this summer near Aberdeen; but they do not breed in this country.

-25. Sharp-nosed Rays (Raia oxyrinchus) have of late been taken in considerable numbers in our Frith, and carried to market. Some of them have been of a very large size. The spontoon-nose, especially in the male fish, at once distinguishes this species of skate. They are found in deep water, frequently near a sunk rock, called the Gunnet, situated a little to the westward of Inchkeith. From this circumstance, they often receive the local appellation of Gunnet-skate; but they are more generally known by the name of Friarskate.

FIORIN

FIORIN-GRASS.-In the Numbers of this Magazine for October and November 1809, we mentioned some of the most striking properties of this grass, as reported by Dr Richardson of Clonfeele, in Ireland; adding a few remarks on discriminating it from other creeping grasses. We also announced, that Sir John Sinclair had begun the cultivation of it, on a small scale, in different places, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. We have now to mention, that the experiment bed of fiorin, situated at the back of Heriot Row West, where irrigation can be practised, is at present in a most luxuriant state, the grass already completely covering and matting the surface; insomuch, that if it continue growing at the same rate till October, it will, doubtless, go far to justify Dr Richardson's eulogies of its wonderful productiveness. The plants are now in flower, and fortunately prove to be very generally the Agrostis stolonifera, or true fiorin. In another field, near Comely Bank, the grass has not made nearly so much progress, the soil being dry.

Mr John Farish, of Dumfries, has lately published a little treatise on fiorin. The author was commissioned by the public spirited Mr Miller of Dalswinton, to go to Ireland to inspect the fiorin fields under the immediate management of Dr Richardson himself. He amply confirms all that was previously said in favour of this grass. He found an Irish agriculturist feeding his milch cows with it, as green food, in December and January, in preference to coleworts which he had raised for the purpose. He shews, that it will produce a crop of hay, which, at ls. a stone, will be worth L.46. per acre, from land not worth 10s. an acre for any other purpose; and he assures us, that cattle and sheep decidedly prefer fiorin hay to

good hay made from rye-grass and clover. Mr Farish saw, in Ireland, crops of fiorin growing on quag mires, where floats were necessary to keep the workmen from sinking; and he thinks it not only practicable but "comparatively easy" to cover the very extensive Locher-moss with crops of this valuable description,an important hint, to which the proprietors in that district of Dumfriesshire would do well to attend.

Mr Farish enters warmly into the praises of this grass: he is even scandalized at hearing such names, a "squitch, or red robin," applied to it: he declares, it is neither squitch, nor coush, nor quickens, nor red-robin, nor vile trash which no animal will eat, which we wish farmers to cultivate; but Fiorin, which every animal will eat, and eat with pleasure." But, with submission to this zealous fiorin missionary, black squitch and red robin, are the familiar English appellations of this grass, and just as good as the magi cal name of fiorin.

The quality of increasing by stolones, after the seed is ripe, he considers as "peculiar to the fiorin." This, however, is a mistake; all the agrostides throw out suckers from the roots in autumn, especially in moist places; poa trivialis becomes stoloniferous in the richly irrigated meadow below Salisbury Craigs; and poa fluitans continues to push its shoots, in mild weather, all the winter. His description of fiorin is too general: the trailing shoots of poa fluitans, just mentioned, possess most of the characters mentioned by him. The red colour of the stems, near the joints, and the invariable appearance of incipient radicles proceeding from the under sides of these joints, might afford additional marks; but the surest consist in the closeness of the florets, and shortness of their stalks, and in the greater rigidity and com

pactness

pactness of the whole panicle of flowers.

Mr Farish certainly deserves praise for his endeavours to promote an acquaintance with fiorin, and its properties, which must necessarily precede any general attention to its culture, even on waste and useless lands. But justice requires that we should add, that this grass is no "new discovery:" its valuable properties are distincly mentioned by Mr Knapp, in his Gramina Britannica, published in 1804; and, ten years before that period, in the Wiltshire Agricultural Report, Mr Pole of Bath, had proved that the late crop of the famous Orcheston meadows, chiefly consisted of agrostis stolonifera, while the early crop was principally composed of trivialis and pratensis.

poa

N.

ARDENT SPIRITS.

Professor Rush, author of an inquiry into the effects of ardent spirits upon the human body and mind, calculates that not less than 4000 persons die annually from the abuse of spirituous liquor, in the United States.

ANALECTA.

"Particles of science are often very tensive comprehension have incidenwidely scattered. Writers of extal remarks upon topics very remote from the principal subject, which are often more valuable than formal treatises, and which yet are not known, because they are not pro

rary.

(Continued from p. 436.)

SUICIDE.

PLUTARCH tells us, that an unaccountable passion for suicide seized the young women of Miletus, from which they could not be deterred by all the tears and entreaties of their friends. But what persuasion and entreaty could not effect, was accomplished by very different means. A decree was issued, that the body of every young woman who hanged herself, should be dragged naked through the streets, by the same rope with which she had committed the deed. This edict put a complete stop to the extraordinary frenzy. It is also recorded, that in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus some Roman soldiers who were appointed to make drains and common sewers in the city, thinking themselves degraded and disgraced by such servile

interesting form, and which bears in the thought, as in the expression, a character of vigour and originality, is the work of genius."-Suard.

HAMLET AND GUILDENSTERN.

"The last night of Jefferson's engagement, he played Hamlet, for his own benefit; and Tom Blanchard, ever accommodating, agreed to double Guildenstern with the Grave-digger. When Hamlet called. for the recorders, Blanchard, who delighted in a frolic, instead of the flute, brought on a bassoon, used in the orchestra. Jefferson, after composing his countenance, which the sight of this instrument had considerably discomposed, went on with scene. Will you play upon this pipe?' My Lord, I cannot.' 'I pray you. Believe me, I cannot.' I do beseech you.' 'Well, my Lord, since you are so very pressing, I'll do my best.' Tom, who was a good musician, immediately struck up Lady Coventry's Minuet,' and went through the whole strain, which finished the scene, for Hamlet had not another word to say for himself."-Ryley.

the

·

BURSARIES.

What are denominated exhibitions in the English, are called bursaries in our Scottish Universities. They are sums of money from L.5 to L.50, paid to students, and chiefly produced from what are called in Scotland, mortifications. The patronage of bursaries is in some cases in the hands of the descendants of the endowers; in other cases, in the hands of the Magistrates and Common Council, and sometimes in the hands of the Professors of the Colleges. It must appear to every honest man, highly disgraceful that the presenting to bursaries is by no means free of the venality which is so common at this day.

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EDUCATION.

The truth on this much disputed point, seems to have been exactly hit on by a Dane, of the name of Melchior, who, a few years ago, published a work on the subject, in which he stated it as his opinion, that each mode has its peculiar advantages, and that neither ought to be exclusively adopted. Private education, he very justly represented, as best adapted to infancy, and public to a more advanced age; while the advantages of both are balanced, and in some degree combined in small domestic seminaries.

Biographical