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1796.]

Plan of Experimental Farm.

greater confequence to the fuitors, arife from the unfkilfulness or d.fhonefty of practifers-none of which evils are rethedied by taxation

Were the Judges to exercife the power given them by the Acts of Parliament, for regulating Attornies and Solicitors, and examine young men when they come for admiffion, as to their qualifications, &c. and require a teftimonial of their good character, the evils we complain of, 'would, I believe, in great measure be checked, if not entirely

removed.

a

It was with pleasure I heard, laft winter, of a scheme for the foundation of a fociety, under the fanction of Parliament, to confift of men of rank in the profeffion, before whom all young men, previous to their applying for admiffion, were to undergo an examination. Such an institution, would, I think, be of great utility, as well to the profeffion as to the community in general; and we fhould then feldom hear of fuitors fuffering by the ignorance or villainy of

their attornies. Briftol, Aug. 15, 1796.

539

tral Mifcellany, to hear of other inftitu-
tions of the fame kind.

I am, fir, your conftant reader,
July 29, 1796.

PROPOSALS

AGRICOLA.

FOR ESTABLISHING AN
EXPERIMENTAL SOCIETY OF AGRI-

CULTURE, IN THE COUNTY OF
DURHAM.

WITH a view to the attainment of this important object, it is propofed to eftablish an Experimental Society of Agriculture, and to profecute fuch trials as feem likely to improve the art, on a farm taken for that purpose. Such an inftitution, under the direction of wellinformed and difinterefted cultivators, would afford to neighbouring farmers examples of the most approved rotation of crops, of the most advantageous management of land, and of the use of the beft implements of husbandry. It would tend to improve the stock of the country, by introducing the most esteemed breeds, and by affording an opportunity of afcertaining the excellencies and defects of each; fuch as the quantity and quality

ATTORNATUS. of food they require to make them

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

THE

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HE great importance of an ExPERIMENTAL FARM to the future improvement of agriculture being univerfally acknowledged, I have much fatisfaction in tranfmitting to you fome account of a projected inftitution of that kind in the county of Durham. Many of your readers will, doubtlefs, recollect that a fimilar fcheme was fome time fince propofed by the fociety at Bath, and another, more recently, by the fociety in Leicestershire. I do not recollect whether plans of either of thefe were matured; I believe none was publithed; and it is certain, that from fome unavoidable caufes, both projects were rendered abortive. It is ftill, however, admitted by the most skilful farmers in this kingdom, that nothing will contribute fo greatly and certainly to the fpeedy advancement of the Georgical

arts as the establishment of two or three

experimental farms, on liberal principles, The outline of the plan of the Durham farm, here fubjoined, will poffibly excite emulation in other diftricts; and I fhall hope, through the medium of your cen

thrive; their power of bearing inclemency of weather, their general hardi. hood, and many other important circumftances, which ftock-breeders can hardly be expected to divulge, but which would be fully and candidly published by the fociety. The cultivation alfo of artificial graffes, and the investigation of the virtue of each, and of the foil and exposure in which they flourish moft, prefent an ample field for improvement. And lastly, the fociety, by pointing out the most ef fectual and expedient modes of draining, of fencing, and of performing all thofe various operations which are required in hufbandry, might contribute to form a more intelligent and ufeful body of la bourers than can at prefent be met with. In every branch, in short, of agriculture, the fociety would (it is hoped) prove beneficial, by confirming established ufages, where they are founded in truth; by detecting and removing errors, where they have been allowed to creep in; and by exploring the yet hidden paths which may lead to the perfecting of this the moft neceffary, and the most pleafing, of all the arts that are practifed by man.

A plan for fuch an inftitution is here. with fubmitted to the public. It is to be confidered not as a complete and fettled form, but as an outline, deftined to be filled up and corrected by the more ma

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ture

ture reflection and better judgment of the fubfcribers. No ftep would have been taken towards carrying the project into execution, without previously confulting thofe who may be inclined to promote it; but it was so essentially neceffary to the fuccefs of the undertaking, that a fufficient number of active and intelligent practical farmers fhould act in the committee, that it was deemed improper to folicit the concurrence of the public, until that first great point had been fecured. Meffrs. Collins, of Barmpton and of Ketton; Mr. Mowbray, of Sherburn; Mr. Mafon, of Holywell; Mr. Grainger, of Heugh; and Mr. Forfer, of Broomyholme, have removed this difficulty, by promifing their aid; and from the liberal fpirit of the yeomanry, there is every reafon to look, in general, for their affiftance. The fupport, therefore, of the public is alone wanting; and the promoters of the undertaking are willing to believe that it will not be withheld from it. The improvement of agriculture, indeed, prefents fuch great and manifeft advantages to every clafs of the community, that the enlightened and benevolent must be anxious to promote it.

Outlines of the Plan.

1. The fociety to take a farm, for the purpose of pursuing fuch experiments as tend to improve agriculture; of affording to the neighbouring tenantry an example of the most improved management of land, and of the beft implements of husbandry; and of introducing into the country the most valuable breeds of Stock.

2. The management of the farm to be placed in a Committee, to be annually chofen by the fociety, and a skiiful hufbandman, to be brought from fome one of the counties where agriculture fourishes moft, for the purpofe of working

3. A journal of the farm to be kept, together with a regular table of the ftate of the weather; and to fubmit them to the members of the fociety, at their general meetings, which it is proposed to hold four times a year.

.

4. The farm to be viewed by the members on the morning of the quar terly meetings. At thefe meetings alfo the progrefs of experiments under trial to be reported, and future experiments to be propofed. Any affociate who propofes an experiment (of which the majority approves) to be requested, jointly

with the committee, to fuperintend its execution.

5. The committee to difpofe of the produce of the farm, and apply the money in aid of the neceffory expences; the deficiency to be supplied by subfcription.

6. If the funds of this fociety be adequate to the farther expence of tftablifhing an Agricultural Library, it would add to the utility of the inftitution.

7. In the choice of the farm, the fociety, or their committee, will, no doubt, take care that its fituation be centrical; that it poffefs a due variety of foil; be conveniently placed for procuring a variety of manures, and afford (as far as can be expected) an ample range for experiment.

N. B. Gentlemen defirous of affifting this plan, will pleafe to fignify their intentions to Dr. Fenwick, or to Mr. Pennington, printer, Durham.

Since the circulation of the foregoing, a meeting bas been held of the COMMITTEE, at Durbam, when the following Specific refolutions were entered into:

1. That to carry the plan into execution, it will require a farm of at least two hundred acres.

2. That to furnish the farm with a due variety and proportion of the best breeds of ftock, and with proper machinery and implements of h sbandry, &c. not lefs than one thoufland pounds will be neceffary.

3. That from the kinds of fail chiefly wanted, the rent of the farm will pro bably be about one hundred and fifty pounds a year.

4. That as it is of great importance that the perfon to whom the immediate management of the farm is committed should be able, active, well informed, and refpornble, his falary cannot be taken at lefs than one hundred pounds a year. Inftructed by such a man, it is expected that the labourers employed on the farm will prove highly valuable as fervants in husbandry.

5. That as the stock cannot for fome time be expected to make any retura, an annual fum of three hundred pounds will be required to support the inftitution in its infancy.

6. That in the beginning of the inftitution, the committee fhould meet at leaft once a month.

7. That the committee fhould confift of fix practical farmers, three other gen

tlemen,

1796.]

Sunderland Iron Bridge.

tlemen, and a fecretary, to correct and arrange the Journal of the fociety, and fuperintend the publication of thofe proceedings which the fociety may with to fubmit to the public.

8. That the ftock, implements of husbandry, &c. fhall remain the property of the fubfcribers.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

As your Provincial Intelligence for the prefent month will undoubt edly include a relation of the opening of the new Iron bridge, at Sunderland, fome account of the principles upon which that ftupendous edifice is conftructed, may not be unacceptable to your readers, and the rather, -as they are totally different from thofe which have been erected of the fame materiis, in other places. The principle of this bridge proceeds entirely upon the idea of rendering the arch infinitely lighter than it could have been made in tone, by means of the great voids which caft-iron will permit, and the fimplicity with which that metal will adopt any

form. The blocks, which are caft to ferve as arch-ftones, are made of the annexed form and dimenfions:

3 Feet

3 Feet.

Their thickness is no more than four inches, and their weight about 4 cwt. These are kept in their places, and made to bear accurately upon each other, in the manner of key-ftones, by bars of wroughtiron, which run along grooves (marked by thades) on each fide of the blocks, and are bolted through, at equal diftances, to braces of aft-iron, paffing horizontally between the rits; of fix of which, placed at five feet from each other, the bridge confifts. The wrough: iron is common Swedish, or Ruffian bariron, which may be taken out, and replaced, if neceffary: but there is every

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reason to believe, that an application of coal tar, and pounded charcoal, to the iron, in a heated ftate, will form a fpecies of japan, which will refift the weather for many years. The wrought-iron is as three to twenty-five of caft-iron in the quantity ufed; its price as 31 to 12. The particular defcription of the carcafies, &c, upon which the centre was laid, and the various other very ingenious contrivances, during the course of this verv fpirited undert. king, will be

The

laid before the public in a wk now prepreparing for the particular information of profeffional men. In the mean time, has juft heen published at Newcastle, by a beautiful perfpective view of the bridge Mr. Robert Johnfon, a very ingenious young artist, and Mr. A. Hunter, engraver, price 5s. which will, perhaps, convey a better idea of it to the public in general. From this view, it appears, that it is a small fegment of a very large circle; for though its fpan is 236 feet, the verfed fine, or perpendicular to the chord, is only 34 feet. The spandrils, of courfe, do not require much filing up; and this is done in the lighteft manner, by iron circles, placed upon the ribs, and abutments towards the centre. gradually diminishing in fize, from the whole is braced, and tied together at top by timbers, on which planks are laid, to carry a kind of lead roof, with the earth and materials of the road above it. Its heiht is 100 feet above highwater mark fo that fhips of confiderable burthen ae contin ally raffing under it; of course the pier are 76 feet of flid matonry. Supendous limestone rocks are the foundation of that on the fouth. fide; her fing ground being fomewhat more diftant from the river on the north, the intervalis filled up with ample warehoufes, over which the road is carried. What may have been the expence of it, your correfpondent has not the means of being informed; but if it be confidered, that, in a great meafure, both the invention, the expence, and the risk, belong to one individual (Rowland Burdon, Efq. one of the members for the county), who cannot, in the utmoft, ultimate fuccefs, be any farther benefitted than by the receipt of that common intereft for his money which he might have had without rfk any where, it muft certainly be claffed among the moft public-fpirited undertakings of ancient or modern times.

V. F.

ON

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Circumftances having directed purfuit to the investigation of the We Tongue, it has been continued clofely for many years, chiefly from the pleafure it afforded; and it bids fair ultimately to unfold things, which appear to me extraordinary and furprising, compared with what is known to the world upon the fubject in general*.

Permit me, fir, to bring to notice a few remarkable difcoveries from the language juft mentioned:

In the first place, there are in it thirtyfix letters; being, I believe, the exact amount of the powers of articulation. The vowel founds, unconnected with confonants, imply motion or action, in various times. All the poffible changes of fimple founds, or primary combination of vowels and confonants, fuch as ab, ci, da, eb, and the like, are about three hundred. Thefe founds, having refpectively a fixed abstract meaning, conftitute the bafis, from which every longer word is regularly formed in all its parts. Some of the fimple founds ftand always for principals, or nouns; and others remain as qualities; and the latter, generally dropping their vowels, are prefixed to the others, in forming the first fort of compounds; which are fyllables, like bod, cad, man, and pen. All words of this kind that have a com

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mon bafis, do neceffarily preferve the fundamental idea originally annexed to fuch bafis, however qualified by different prefixes, for the fake of difcrimination, and multiplying of terms. This may be illuftrated, by putting the qualifying prefixes-cv, fy, gy, by, ‘ly, ny, py, ry,

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Hen, that is fully advanced, or matured; old.
"Len, what is over, or covering; a veil;
Nen, what fpreads over; a vault, or canopy;
the sky.

Pen, what is fuperior; a head, a top; chief.
Ren, the Supreme; the Moft High; God.
Sen, what is put forward, or confpicuous; a
itigma.

All words of one fyllable, like thofe laft mentioned, become verbs, when they are farther compounded, by affix ing a vowel. The terminations of verbs, which are generally confidered as mere arbitrary figns of the different inflexions, are real words, with appropriate meanings, defcriptive of fuch modes, or times, for which they ftand, and are so used feparately.

In the next place :-Thofe elementary founds, with fuch meanings as are annexed to them in Welf, explain ab ftractedly moft words in different languages, agreeable to the appropriate fignifications given to them. That the hint may receive fome illuftration, two or three examples fhall be given; and firft, where the fundamental idea is preferved through a whole clafs of words: Sy (exifting as a quality, or agent) that

fends, forces, aifes or shoots out from a point, in any direction. Bal (by the agent, and the element) what is fent, impelled, raifed, or pro

jected from a point, in any direction. Now let the reader turn in his mind all the words he can collect, in different languages, beginning with Sy, and with Bal; he will then, perhaps, fancy that he perceives thofe two leading ideas preferved throughout. For the fake of brevity, one inftance fhall fuffice with refpect to particular words :-The appropriate import of the English word Run is well known; the abftract meaning of the fame found in Wefh, by confi *What is hinted at here, is likely to be excess of energy or activity; but it is dering its component parts, would be completed by Mr. W. Owen, in a Dictionary appropriated in Welsh, to exprefs agita. of the Language; half of which is nearly pub- tion or fhivering, and the word Red is ifhed. It will contain about one hundred-ufed fynonimoufly to Run in English; thousand words, discarding all compound epithets; this will convey fome idea of the labour, requifite to its completion, when it is under food that there is no other Welth Dictionary, which contains a fixth part of that number,

which alfo implies excess of motion. The prefix used to both words is Ry or "Re, over, much to excess; and perhaps this fixes the meaning of the common prefix

Re

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Such a regular fyftem of speech feems to prove, that man originally made ufe of only fimple founds to convey ideas :-or That the mind, without communication, conceived it in its more complex form: or

That language was imparted to the first man, perfecily conftructed.

A very great number of compound words, refolvable to their primitives in the Wel, run through many languages. There are in the Web, words perfectly fimilar in found to the mythologic names of the ancient world, anfwering exactly to most of the explanations given by Gebelin and Bryant.

It would be difficult to adduce a fingle article, or form of contruction, in the Hebrew Grammar, but the fame is to be found in Welb; and there are many whole fentences in both languages exactly the fame in the very words.

The Irifb and Welsh are fundamentally the fame, but differing much in dialect and pronunciation.

The Sclavonic, Breton, and Welfb, are one language, with but little variation of dialect, which I conceive to be an important difcovery.

The Sclavons and Welf being feparate people from a very remote period, militates greatly against the common notion of the inftability of language.

There is not the leaft difference between the language of the Laws of Howel in the tenth, or Geoffrey of Monmouth's Hiftory in the twelfth century, and that now fpoken in Wales.

Some may be apt to condemn the above as rather vifionary; but if any fhould be inclined to point out what feems improbable, perhaps I may be able to bring forward many extraordinary proofs in fupport of what is advanced.

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To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.
SIR,

will, with difficulty, be believed, that Berlin, the chief city of the late king of Pruflia, fhould afford any proofs of fuperftition or fanaticifm: yet an inftance very lately occurred, which has occafioned the refignation of Mr. Brumbey, a preacher; and an order to abitain from the future exercife of his office as preacher or teacher. The circumstance which gave rife to it, is thus related: Richter and Schulz, the two colleagues of Brumbey, very generally admired preachers, except by the followers of Brumbey, not approving the old pfalm at the communion,

"May God be praised and bleffed,
"Who hath himfelf fed us
"With his flesh, and with his blood,"

gave out the verfe,

"I thank thee, from my heart, O Jefus !" Brumbey and his followers were very i dignant at this change, and accused the preachers of actually denying the godhead of Chrift. Complete confufion took place in the church: Brumbey's party fcreamed and shouted out their beloved pfalm, and were on the point of attacking Richter at the altar; and a fanatical fhoemaker was taken into cuftody by the police. Brumbey, in his fermon, explained the communion text, and taught his audience, that it was not human blood, which they fed on at the altar, but the real blood of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft: he then wrote to the king; from whom (as, according to his account, his two colleagues, and all the Berlin preachers denied the divi nity of Chrift), he begged his discharge. In confequence of this letter, a confiftorial enquiry took place; of which the refult was as above ftated, and the police was particularly ordered to take care, that this very orthodox preacher thould not hold any conventicles. A new preacher is alfo to be appointed by the magiftracy.

As a contraft to the anecdote recited above from Berlin, an inftance of toleration, which has occurred at Spree, deferves to be recorded. In confequence of the deftruction of the Lutheran church, the Calvinifts have indulged the Lutherans with the ufe of their own church. The two fects now affemble, with their refpe&tive preachers, at different hours, in the fame church. On Thursday,

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