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to answer; by correcting the prefent unequal distribution of landed property, by imparting to the poor fome portion of what the rich enjoy (or rather poflefs than enjoy), and by increafing the number of independent cultivators of the foil, who are in general the most virtuous and most healthy part of the community, increase the quantum of public happiness.

We fhall content ourfelves with a fhort enumeration of the principal objects of this Effay; in the difcuffion of which the writer fhews that he wants neither folidity of judgment nor boldnefs of imagination. After inveftigating the right of property in land, first as derived from the law of nature, and next as founded in public utility, he delineates, in a masterly manner, the abuses and pernicious effects of the monopoly allowed and eftablished by the municipal laws of Europe. He then proceeds to treat of the circumftances and occafions favourable to a complete, or, if that cannot be attained, a partial reformation of the present fyftem; and likewife of the means calculated to promote a gradual and falutary change in this refpect, either under the direction of public boards, or by the generous efforts of individuals and he concludes with exhibiting the scheme of what he calls a progreffive Agrarian law (in oppofition to thofe fudden and violent changes that were incident to the Agrarian laws of antiquity), as the basis of so desirable a reform

ation.

These objects are, it must be confeffed, great and dazzling : and the Author owns, with a becoming modefty, that the opinions he has advanced may appear at first fight vifionary, and perhaps erroneous. It is natural to the mind, fays he, when new ideas arife on important fubjects, to open itfelf with fondness to the pleafing impreffion which they make. Yielding to this feducing enthufiafm, the Author has been led to fpeak with freedom of great changes fuddenly to be accomplished, as practicable in fome cafes, and to be defired in many. Yet he is well aware that great changes, fuddenly accomplished, are always pregnant with danger and with evil; and ought, on almost no occafion whatever, to be defired or brought forward by the friends of mankind. Partial reformation, gradual progreffive innovation, may produce every advantage which the most important and fudden changes can promife, yet without incurring those dreadful hazards, and thofe inevitable evils with which great and fudden changes are ftill attended. The paffage that follows conveys a handfome and manly tribute of refpect to the land. holders of England; and as it will give our readers a favour able impreffion of this Writer's ftyle and fpirit, we shall infert it, by way of conclufion to the prefent Article.

With the greatest fatisfaction of mind the Writer of these pages avows his perfuation, that were great and important innovations, res

specting

fpecting property in land, as practicable and fafe as they are difficult and full of danger, there is no country under the fun which ftands lefs in need of fuch reformation than England. Although, indeed, the principles of jurifprudence refpe&ting property in land which the laws of England recognize, are derived from the fame fource, and partake of the fame abfurd and pernicious nature, with thofe maxims which prevail almost every where on the continent of Europe; yet fuch has been the generofity of English landholders, fuch their equitable conduct towards their tenants and dependents, and fuch the manly fpirit of the lower claffes, fostered by a fenfe of political rights, that, in England, the comfortable independence of the farmer, and actual cultivator of the foil, is established on as fecure a footing as the most refined fyltem of property in land, deduced from the genuine principles of public good, and natural right, can propose to render effectual and permanent. It is to be regretted only, that this comfortable independence which the farmers enjoy cannot be extended to a ftill greater proportion of the community. English landholders, and English farmers, are fuperior in all refpects to the fame clafs of men in other countries: in their manly vigour, their plain good fenfe, their humane virtues, confifts the true bafis of our national pre-eminence. Their blood circulates in every rank of fociety, their domeftic manners have given the tone to the English character, as difplayed in all the various departments of bufinefs and enterprize; nor can any wifh be formed more favourable to the profperity of the public, than that the numbers of this clafs of men may be increased. To increase the number of landholders, by advancing farmers to that more independent fituation, can never be made the object of legislative care in this country, as it might in the abfolute monarchies of the continent; but to increase the number of farmers, by favouring the advancement of day-labourers and manufacturers, to the more animating and manly occupations of cultivating a small farm for their own account, is an object very fimilar to many branches of enlightened policy, which the British legiflature (more than any other) has purfued with attention and fuccefs.

To the wo thy and humane English landholders, and more particularly to those who of late yeats have voluntarily granted to their tenants an abatement of rent, this fhort Effay is infcribed by the Author, as to men whom he regards with high esteem, and from whom he may hope that his fpeculations, fhould they ever come to their knowledge, would meet with no unfavourable reception. Why Thould he not flatter himself with this hope, however feemingly vain, fince uninformed by theoretical reafoning, and prompted only by the innate candour and humanity of their own minds, thefe refpectable landholders, truly worthy of their ftation and of their trust, have habitually acted in conformity to thofe principles of public good and natural right, which he is defirous to elucidate and establish,'

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ART. VIII. An Account of a Method of preferving Water, at Sea, fromt Putrefaction, &c. by a cheap and easy Process; to which is added, a Mode of impregnating Water, in large Quantities, with fixed Air, for Medicinal Ufes, on board Ships, and in Hospitals, &c. Ec. By Thomas Henry, F. R. S. and Member of the Medical Society of London. 8vo. 2 s. Johnfon. 1781.

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HIS little Performance, which is dedicated, by permiffion, to the Lords of the Admiralty, deferves particular notice; as it contains matters that greatly concern the health and the well-being of a numerous and deferving clafs of men-the fea-faring part of the community-who, from their fituation, are too frequently expofed, not only to the inconveniences, but to the very great evils that attend the drinking of putrid water. The Author's fcheme to avoid thefe inconveniences and evils is founded on the modern difcoveries relative to fixed air: it is now well known that calcareous earths or ftones, which are naturally infoluble in water, are, in confequence of having their fixed air expelled from them by calcination, converted into lime; that is, into a falt-for it has all the characters of a falt-totally, though sparingly foluble in that fluid. The water faturated with this falt is called lime-water.

The Author, having found great inconveniences, in diftillation, from the putridity and feetor which were foon contracted by the water in the tub, through which the worm of the ftill paffed, thought that the addition of lime to it might preferve it from putrefaction; and the event greatly exceeded his expectations: fo that he was not obliged to renew the water in the worm-tub, till after it had been ufed above 18 months; when he thought proper to change it, merely because it was become. foul from duft.

Though the water, however, in which the lime is diffolved is thereby enabled to refift putrefaction, it cannot be confidered as a proper beverage for a fhip's company: but the lime-ftone, which had, by the expulfion of its fixed air, been rendered foluble in water, will greedily attract fixed air, and will again become infoluble in that fluid, if fixed air be introduced to it: accordingly the falt, now become an infoluble earth, will be precipitated from it. In short, while it remained diffolved in the water, it prevented its putrefaction; and when precipitated from it, it leaves the water in the fame state of purity as when it was firft diffolved in it.

Though no doubt can be entertained with refpect to the rationale of this procefs, or of its practicability when fmall quantities are to be operated upon; it may nevertheless be apprehended, that it cannot conveniently be executed on board of a fhip, and on a large fcale. The method, however, here mi

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nutely defcribed by the Author, does not appear to us to be clogged with fuch difficulties, as juftly to deter those, under whofe cognizance this matter naturally falls,from ordering a public trial of it. The following is a fhort sketch of the Author's procefs. To preferve the water from putrefaction, two pounds of good quick-lime are directed to be added to each cafk containing 120 gallons. To free the water afterwards from the lime with which it has been impregnated, it is to be drawn off into a ftrong cafk containing about 60 gallons, with an aperture at one end large enough to admit a veffel which is to be let down into it by means of ftrings, and which contains a proper quantity of effervefcent materials, that is, of marble or chalk, and vitriolic acid. The mouth of this laft veffel is to be stopped with a tubulated stopper, through which the fixed air, let loose from the marble, paffes up through the body of the water. The lime is thus rendered infqluble, and is foon precipitated in the form of an impalpable powder of chalk: the water being thus reftored to the fame ftate of purity as when it was first shipped on board; or, as the Author has reafon to believe, to a state of ftill greater purity; feveral hard waters having, in confequence of this procefs, been rendered as foft as rain water, and freed from different impregnations.

The Author's method of effecting thefe purposes is illuftrated in three plates; in one of which is delineated an apparatus, formed on a fimilar large fcale, for impregnating water with fixed air; fo as to impart to it the properties of mineral and other medicated waters, for the use of the fick on board of fhips, and in hofpitals. This is an extenfion of Dr. Priestley's original plan, communicated fome years ago to the Lords of the Admiralty. We fcarce need to add, that the execution of it cannot fail, on numerous occafions, of being attended with the most falutary effects, particularly in putrid fevers, dyfenteries, fcurvy, and other difeafes of the putrid clafs, to which feamen are peculiarly liable; efpecially if the efficacy of the waters, and its power of abforbing fixed air be increased, by previously dif folving in it a proper quantity of alcaline falt, particularly of the mineral alcali.

We should not omit mentioning a lefs material, indeed, but ftill defirable application of fixed air, to the making of fresh fermented bread at fea. This is to be effected by impregnating flour and water with fixed air, so as to form an artificial yeaft, with which the Author affirms, that he has made very good bread without the affiftance of any other ferment. The Hour and water are firft boiled together till the mixture acquires the confiftence of treacle, and is then to be faturated with fixed air. Being placed in a warm fituation for about two days, fuch a degree of fermentation will have taken place, as to give

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the mixture the appearance and the qualities of yeaft; a quart of which mixed with a proper quantity of warm water will be fufficient to convert fix pounds of flour into a dough; which, after ftanding about twelve hours, is to be formed into loaves and baked.

In a Poftscript, the Author confiders fome objections that have been, or which may be, made to his general fcheme. Thefe objections appear to admit of very fatisfactory answers. Proper trials, however, will beft afcertain to what extent it may be realifed at fea, and on large quantities of water; nor fhould flight inconveniencies be regarded in the acquifition of objects of fuch importance, as the ftopping up one source at leaft of diftemper among our mariners, and the counteracting the effects of other difeafes already exifting, and arifing from other causes.

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1 s. 6 d.

ART. X. Duplicity: A Comedy. As it is performed at the Theatre-
Royal, in Covent Garden. By Thomas Holcroft. 8vo.
Robinson.

IN

Na Preface to this Comedy, the Author enters into a vindication of his piece against the objections which he conceives to have been made to it; none of which seem to have touched him more nearly, than those which glance at his profeffion. On this head he fpeaks as follows:

I have likewife been accufed by fome of imitation, and want of originality. It is faid, I have ftolen an incident from one piece, and a character from another, and that it is evidently the play of a player. This last remark, I believe, would never have been made, had I not been known to be a player. The accufations, which have the greatest appearance of truth, are, that Le Diffipateur of Monfieur Dellouches, and the Tragedy of The Gamefter, have furnished the great outlines of the plot. To these I answer, that, were it fo, I would make no fcruple of avowing it, because I fhould not think myfelf degraded by the avowal; but I declare the plot was finished, and almoft the co.. medy, before I ever read Le Dilipateur: and if I have pillaged the Gamefter, it was from latent ideas, of which I am unconfcious; for I have neither read, nor feen the Gamefter for many years. A parallel circumflance to that of Sir Harry lofing his fifter's fortune, is found, I am told, in the Gamefler; but this incident was added to Duplicity fince it was firft written, by the advice of a friend, to give a ftrength to the Denouement. But there is a flory told in the life of Beau Nah, which, had thefe critics known, would have immediately pointed out the place whence, they might have fworn, withoat the leaft fufpicion of perjury, I had fiolen my plot; and yet, had they fworn, they would have been perjured, for I never read that story till I had written my play, and then, I confefs, I was amazed at the fimilarity.

Confcious, or Unconscious, we cannot but perceive that a theatrical education, or fome latent ideas, have wonderfully difpofed

the

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