same time recollect the extraordinary chariness with which he usually measured out his scantlings of praise, will not think lightly of the following passages.

'Mr. Smeaton, than whom there is no person or artist better instructed, more knowing, and of a more penetrating and correct judgement must have been deceived in the collection of facts and materials, on which he established his plan of operations.'

A great mind is often deceived by its own virtues. Habituated to give, on all occasions, the genuine and honest productions of its faculties, it often relies too much and implicitly, on that which appears to be the same of other persons.'

Again:

• His directions I conceive to have been clear and sufficient if they had been fulfilled: his candour will not allow him to say thus much; a commendable regard to others engaged in the executive branch, suppresses what ought to be said: but I who feel for the character and reputation of so great an artist, and every man so peculiarly situate as he is, must be permitted to say, that the purport and effect of his directions were not executed, and of course that he was deceived.'

We have only room for one more quotation, in which we have Mr. Smeaton's method of preparing a cement that will harden under water. It is formed principally of the puteolana genuina, or pozzelana, found in the volcanic mountains of Italy, even in those that are extinct, chiefly about Naples and Rome. Mr. Smeaton's directions for preparing, making and using' the pozzelana mortar, cannot fail of being exceedingly useful, and are these:

• The first thing that should be done, is to sift it through a coarse wire sieve, separating what will pass through the sieve from what will not, and then to sift what has passed through the first sieve through one of a finer sort. A wire sieve having about seven or eight mashes per inch running, will be of sufficient fineness, and all that will pass the second sieve will be fit for use, what will not pass the second sieve must be reserved for grinding, and what would not pass the first sieve must be broken to a size conformable to what would not pass the second, and then all ground together: but in breaking the large that would not pass the first sieve, it will be proper to pick out a kind of grey stony matter, as well as other heterogeneous substances that get accidentally mixed therewith; and which will readily discover themselves from the true pozzelana, and which have no cementing quality, and render it more difficult to grind. The true pozzelana is of a dark brown or dirty red colour, and the larger pieces being broken will readily discover themselves, especially with an ordinary magnifying glass, to be of a spongy substance with innumerable little cavities like a cinder, and not much harder.

• That part of it requiring grinding must first be got perfectly dry, either by the sun or by a drying kiln, otherwise it is apt to clog the mill stones, and it is done by far the most completely by grinding it upon a pair of

corn mill stones, which will at one operation reduce it to a proper finenes without need of further sifting; French stones answer the purpose best for though it may be done by other kinds of mill stones, yet being mixed with flinty matter, which cannot readily be picked out, no other kind of stones will stand the service, if wanted in any considerable quantity. The millers however are not very desirous of meddling with it, on account of its spoiling the colour of their stones. I have therefore in the larger

kind of works that I have been concerned in, found it worth while to construct a mill on purpose, to go by water, wind, or horse, according to convenience.

'In making mortar of it, it must be mixed with lime in much the same manner and proportion that terras mortar is made; it must be observed that the better and stronger the lime is, the better and stronger the cement will be, but like terras it may be used with any lime, and in making comparative trials with terras, the same sort of lime should be used with both.

The best kind of lime for water works that I know of, is from Watches in Somersetshire, Aberthaw in South Wales, and Barrow in Leicestershire, and the strongest composition I know is made by an equal quantity of lime, striked measure in the dry powder, after being slaked and sifted, and of pozzelana ground and prepared as above, and if put together with as little water as may be, and beaten till it comes to a tough consistence like paste, it then may be immediately used; but if suffered to set, and it be afterwards beaten up a second time to a considerable degree of toughness as before, using a little moisture, if necessary, it will set harder but not so quick.

This composition is of excellent use in jointing the stones that form the lodgement for the heels of dock gates and sluices, with their thresholds, &c. when of stone.

• A second kind of mortar is made by using the same proportion of ingre dients as terras mortar, that is, two measures of lime to one of pozzelana beaten up in the same manner, and which if used with common lime, will fully answer for the faces of walls either stone or brick that are exposed to water, either continually or subject to be wet and dry, in which last case the pozzelana greatly exceeds the terras, as also in its lying quiet in the joints as the trowel has left them, without growing as terras does.

As a piece of economy, I have found that if the mortar last mentioned is beaten up with a quantity of good sharp sand, it no ways impairs its durability, and increases the quantity. The quantity of sand to be added depends upon the quality of the lime, and is thus determined: if to the pozzelana considered as mortar, you add as much real sand as will make out the whole quantity, such as an experienced workman would allow to his lime to make good common mortar, this will shew the quantity to be added, that is, may be originally beaten up together; thus, if the lime is of such quality as to take two measures of sand to one of lime, then one measure of pozzelana and three measures of sand will satisfy two measures of lime.

The compositions above mentioned are seldom used further than for six inches within the face of the stone, or at most, for setting the stones and the bricks forming the face of the work, while the backing is wholly done with common mortar, and which under water never comes to the hardness and onsistence of stone; or forms that bond of union which would arise

from a stony hardness; I have therefore found it preferable, where pozzelana can be had in plenty, to allow one bushel of pozzelana to eight bushels of the lime composing the mortar for backing.

The first composition will assuredly acquire the hardness of stone under water, and in twelve months will be hard as Portland.' pp. 414, 415, 416. Among the reports which we have now gone over, those which refer to the improvement of harbours, evince a most extensive and accurate acquaintance with all the grander operations of nature; and great fertility in the suggestion of expedients, by which natural operations should be made to supply the means of correcting the evils they had previously produced. Those, again, which relate to the Carron Iron Works, and the Gosport Water Works, manifest not merely great ingenuity in effecting what Mr. Smeaton's employers proposed, but au honest and active zeal, prompting him to incite them to undertakings for which their respective works were well fitted; but which they had hitherto neglected. We have a remarkable instance of this, in the pains he took to bring the Carron Company to adopt his opinions, (mistaken though we have reason to believe they were,) respecting the superiority of castiron anchors; and in the ingenuity with which he attempted to expose the inconclusiveness of the experiments in Deptford Dock-yard, which led to an opposite decision. And lastly, those papers which contain descriptions of centering for arches, of water-wheels, wind-mills, steam-engines, or other machines, display such an union of simplicity in the parts, with symmetry and strength in the framing, as was never we believe exhibited before Smeaton's time, nor has scarcely ever been excelled since, except perhaps by Alexander, or Rennie, or some other such favoured mortal, who has had the good fortune to see most of Smeaton's works, and been possessed of such a combination of taste, judgement, and science, as has kept him from falling short of such models, and enabled him now and then to go beyond them.

As to the style of Mr. Smeaton, it is allowed by his warmest panegyrists, and even by the present editors of his reports, that he had a particular, and in some degree a provincial way of expressing himself, and conveying his ideas, both in speaking and writing; a way which was very exact and impressive, though his diction was far from what may be called classical or elegant,' But, critics as we are by profession, we do not so class among those "word catchers," who "live on syllables," as to censure this. His ideas are, in truth, conveyed in a way which was very exact and impressive,' and therefore, though he would sometimes use "lay" for "lie," "otherways," for "otherwise," and "while," for "till," we are not so unreasonable as to suppose, or so fastidious as to insinuate, that this will in the

least degree diminish the utility of the reports. The object of language is to transmit our notions in a way that is exact and impressive; and if that object be attained, we, for our parts, shall never much quarrel with a writer, unless he set up for a grammarian, an orator, a poet, or a philosopher, although he should now and then infringe upon one or two of the nicer rules of Lowth, or Lindley Murray.

Laudatory as we have thought it our duty to be in the present article, we cannot however, entirely close it without complaining a little of the manner in which the editors of these reports have discharged their duty. Gentlemen, the business of whose lives is "planning," and acting conformably to those plans, cannot be ignorant of the advantages of method and arrangement. Yet the papers in these volumes are thrown together in utter violation of all the rules of order. Neither the sequence of dates, nor that of subjects is observed; and, in addition to this, the alphabetical index at the end of the third volume abounds with erroneous references. Should the work reach another edition, which we think highly probable, notwithstanding its expensiveness, we would beg to recommend a classification according to the subjects, while the order under each subject should be chronological. We would farther recommend the addition of a short note to each paper, informing the reader whether it was a inere project, or whether it was executed; and if it were executed, with what success. Such notes would greatly extend the utility of the reports; and they are obviously such as might very easily be supplied by "a Committee of Civil Engineers."

Art. V. An Account of the Life and Writings of Lord Chancellor Somers, including remarks on the Public Affairs in which he was engaged, and the Bill of Rights with a Comment. By Henry Maddock, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at Law. 4to. pp. 400. Price 11. 118. 6d. Part I. Clarke and Sons, 1812.

WE opened this volume with considerable expectations of amusement and instruction; for we know of no branch of literature more useful, nor more generally acc. ptable, than the lives of men who, with credit to themselves, and advantage to the community, have advanced from the humbler spheres of life, to the attainment of conspicuous and influential stations in the administration of public affairs. Independently of the lively and salutary interest that is excited in witnessing the remuneration of honourable toil, and the not unpleasing sympathy that is kindled in observing the occasional struggles of beneficent endeavours, the history of a statesman, who, during a long period, and in a busy portion of our history, has been called upon to fill high offices in the government, can scarcely fail to

shed a considerable light upon the public transactions in which he has borne a share, and, by his failures or successes, to serve as a warning or an encouragement to those whose destiny it is to pursue the same career. The volume before us appears to be designed as a sort of tentative of the public: it forms the first part only of the intended work, and we are told that a second part is destined to follow, which extends to the same number of pages' and, together with an index is ready for the press.' The reason that the whole of the work is not now published, we are given to understand, is, the hope that such noblemen and gentlemen, as are in possession of unpublished information relating to Lord Chancellor Somers, may be induced to communicate the same to the author, and by so doing, enable him to confer a value on the remainder of the work, it could not otherwise possess.' How far the author is intitled to the information' he thus covets, we shall endeavour, as far as is in our power, to enable our readers to judge for themselves.

The present volume is divided into five books. The first book contains the earlier part of the life of Lord Somers. He was born, we are told, at Worcester, some time about the year 1650,' not of very illustrious, though of highly respectable parentage. His father (Mr. John Somers) followed the profession of an attorney, and was a very zealous supporter of the party at that period in opposition to the court. The future Lord spent his youth under the paternal roof, and nothing was discovered to have happened during this part of his life, indicative of the subsequent eminence it was his lot to acquire. Whether or not he was intended for the bar seems to be matter of some doubt, but the fact however is, that he was fortunate enough to attract the notice and patronage of Sir Francis Winningsouth, then Solicitor General, and under his auspices and guidance it was that he set himself very assiduously to work in the study of the law. In 1675 he entered as a commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, and the year after was enrolled a student of the Middle Temple. About this time the Earl of Shrewsbury 'seeing the strong bent of his genius, introduced him to all the great patriots and leaders of the opposition to the arbitrary measures of the court,' and the associations that he thus formed, appear to have given that bent to his genius, and that turn to his politics, which regulated the remainder of his life.

The second book is principally occupied with an account of the various works that were published by Lord Somers, from which, after the hacknied prefatory apologies, such as, 'the subject of this trait is of the utmost importance' (p. 84.)