The foil of the fub-alpine vallies, where they are flat, is frequently a blueish clay; which is the cause why they are generally marthy. For the rills of water falling from the heights swim upon this clay and ftagnate, nourishing plants of that kind which love to be always in water. Above this clay, the torrents, depofit either a ftratum of ftone and gravel, or fine fand; the latter more rarely. But that the inundations of torrents have anciently been very frequent, is demonftrated by the great and round ftones which are in many places found on digging cellars and wells. That the marthy meadows were formerly wooded, may be conjectured from the trees which are frequently found in fenny foils. Above the Jakes there is every where, I believe, a plain of fome leagues, through which the parent river runs in the midft of level marshes. Mould would be fcarce in Switzerland, had not the perpetual industry of three ages gradually fabricated vegetable earth from manure, which now tempers the gravels or clays. Here and there, however, fertile fields may be found, yielding a large increase of feed. I have no where in the Alps met with veftiges of volcanic mountains; no pumices, or any thing like fcoriæ, or matter calcined by the force of fire. Yet fulphur is plentiful in fome parts. Funnels alfo, or chafms, an acre or more in extent, may be obferved: but I rather fuppofe them the ruins of gypfeous ftones, which water has confumed. Metals do not belong to my fubject; yet Switzerland poffeffes many, though very few in any abundance, fo as to be wrought with profit. Several torrents wash down gold, particularly the Emma, and the Goldbach which flows into it, and next to these the Aar and the Rhone. I know not whether any mine of gold has been difcovered, except in the Valais, where about mount Semperen, in a yellow clayey earth, fome gold is extracted by means of quickfilver, by the flourishing family of Burginers. Silver mines have been difcovered in the canton of Bern, and even in the higher Alps, about lake Engftlan, but to no advantage. Copper is dug up in the Valais, about Martinach. There is a rich mine of lead above Morcle, in Bern; and formerly lead was fmelted about Sichellauinen, in the valley of Lauterbrunnen. Iron is fufficiently plentiful, yet in very few places are there profitable mines of it. The richeft ore, in roundish maffes, like yellowish flints, abound in mount Jura; it is foft and of good quality; but being mistakenly abandoned to ftrangers, is tinelted to advantage almoft folely in the mountains of the bishoprick of Bafil. In mount Wetterhorn, a rich heavy ore, nearly refembling the iron produced from it, is found: but the furnaces in which it was finelted are fallen to decay. Steel has been made in the county of Chiavenna about Flims; but I am informed that this fabric too is difcontinued. Sulphur is frequent in Bern, in mount Lohner, out of which I have feen brimstone and vitriol procured, in the village of Canderfteg: alfo, about Sublins, above Le Bevieux, where it efflorefces virgin from the rocks. There are alfo fprings loaded with fulphur in the falt-water pits; and fub-faline waters rich in fulphureous vapour, which takes fire on the approach of a candle, are boiled down not without benefit. Above Lauwenen the earth alfo is found rich in fulphur; yet they no where turn these gifts of nature to advantage, Petroleum flows in various places; as not far above Bern on the Aar; and it is found copioutly mixed in the gritty ftone of Chavornac. Crystals are in tolerable abundance, and of fome value. Large pyramidal maffes of it are found in caverns, where the inhabitants difcover them by protuberances in the rock. On the banks of the Aar, as it flows towards the hofpital of Grimful, in a moft wild valley, maffes of one hundred, two hundred, and more pounds, were dug out in the year 1727, which I faw and examined in 1728 and 1733. Among thefe, was a mafs compofed of two united pyramids, weighing 697 pounds. In the upper Valais ftill greater maffes have been found. The canton of Uri alfo yields crystals ; and many perfons throughout the country fupport themfelves by digging up or vending cryftals. Of mineral waters there is ample ftore in Switzerland. True hot springs are found at Baden and near Leuk; tepid waters at Fabar and Weiffenburg: there are alfo cold waters impregnated with a fine bole or lixivial earth, which have the odour of rotten eggs. Acidulous waters are rare, fcarce any being known but thofe in the Engadina, near St. Maurice's church. Brines, or falt fprings, are only met with in that corner of the territory of Bern which is terminated on this fide by the torrent of Avanion, on the other by that of La Grande Ean. This tract is covered with a ftratun of gypfum, which is Vol. II.] Haller's Defcription of the Swiss Alps. is, in various places, burned for the ufe of the builder; and there is fulphur in the vicinity. The veins of brine are weak that is fomewhat the strongest which fprings in the mountain les Fondemens, in which there is about an eighth of fea falt another near it is weaker, full of a fulphureous vapour, and yielding fcarcely above a hundredth of falt. Thofe alfo are weak, though more copious, which iffued from a free-ftone rock, two leagues from thence, near the village Panex: laftly, thofe are the most fcanty which in the fame tract fpring from the furface of the earth, beneath the high rock of Chamofiere. It is worthy of notice, that in many places a falt water percolates from a blue compact marle, in the centre of the mountain, round which is a rock compofed of very hard micaceous whetstone. Another kind of falt both efflorefces fpontaneously from the rocks, even in the neighbourhood of the falt-fprings, and is alfo contained in a black foil in various parts of the Alps. This is manufactured by fome of the inhabitants into a purging falt, under the name of Gletscher Salt. In the crevices of the rocks under Chamofiere is found a falt resembling native Glauber's Salt, cooling, bitter, icy, deftitute of regular figure, and frothing when laid on red hot iron. In common waters Switzerland excels almost every country in Europe. I never recollect out of Switzerland to have feen thofe limpid and truly cryftalline waters, which gufh, unpolluted by any earth, ftrained through the pure flints of our rocks. Not a few of them have this further advantage, that they neither themfelves freeze in the fevereft colds, nor per. mit common water to freeze when mixed with it. A rill of this kind rushes from the village of Fontenai, and is carried by pipes to Aigle, protecting the waters of Grande Eau, with which it mixes, from the utmoft violence of frot. Such, too, are the fprings in the manor farm of Roche, which alone fuffice for the whole village in the most rigorous winters, when all others are frozen up. The caufe of this phenomenon is unknown: the waters are extremely pure, and grateful to the tafte. Perhaps they are collected not far from their fource into fome deep fubterranean lake, where, as in a natural fortrefs, they refift the power of frost, and in a fhort course cannot fuddenly be reduced from their native heat of 53 degrees to that of 32. Further, the waters of Switzerland do not become fœtid on ftanding, nor proSUP. to MONTHLY MAG. Vol. II. 943 duce conferva, as is common in those of other countries. Switzerland generates ftreams for all Europe, in the manner we have already mentioned. Thefe waters find on all fides declivities prepared for them, through which they defcend into the greater val lies, as thofe of the Valais, the Valtelline, the Grifons, &c. and empty into the fubalpine lakes, with which Switzerland abounds. The rivers, however, never lay afide all their favage character: for the Rhine has two cataracts between Schaffhaufen and Bafil, and a most rapid current both at Schaffhaufen, and between Lauffenburg and Rheinfelden. The Aar, fixty leagues from its fource, runs through a dangerous and rapid channel above the town of Brugg. The Rhone, below the Leman lake, finks into the earth in the midft of rocks. The Inn, which the country of the Grifons fends to the Euxine fea, has a precipitous course throughout. The Tell, alone, both above and below the lake of Neufchatel, flows with a caim and navigable stream." There is no valley in Switzerland without its rivulet; scarcely a village which is not enlivened by fprings of running water. Wells are hardly known, except in a very few places, where there is no declivity. Hence I cannot believe that ftrumous fwellings are produced by the impurity of the waters for though in the Valais muddy waters are drunk, yet the water at Bern is extremely pure, where, nevertheless, ftrumous diseases are not infrequent in both fexes. It remains for me to speak of the mountains; between which and the Alps there is a great difference. The principal of thefe is Jura, which on one fide stretches beyond Geneva towards Lyons; on the other, extends near fifty leagues to the conflux of the Aar with the Rhine, where it terminates. It is a little craggy in many places, tame, woody, and even admitting the plough beneath its highest fummits. In this mountain are long plains, and ridges like the principal: there are no pyramids; yet the bare fummits are not productive of trees. The greateft part of the mountain is compofed of an uniform, yellowish, very hard ftone, useful for building, but unfit for the carver. Jura abounds in iron of the best quality. It is drier than the Alps, and in places void of water, even in the vallies; fo that the rivulets of melted fnow and ice might be here wished for. There are alfo in the valley of Emms mountains continued from the Alps, though_diftantly, which the country 6 E people people themselves diftinguish by a peculiar name from the craggy Alps. These are entirely compofed of gravel, or at least arched beneath by rocks concealed under much earth, nearly as in the Hercynian valley. From thefe mountains innumerable hills are derived, feparated by little watered dales, without any certain order. In the hills whetstone prevails, which may be met with every where from the village of Lutry to Burgdorf, either naked and broken, or buried under a little earth; on a fandy mountain of which kind the city of Bern is placed. I do not find, however, that in the tracts of Switzerland there is any uniformity of the various fpecies of ftone. About Lutry whetstone is dug. Then fucceeds a hard calcarious ftone continued from the Alps. With these are mingled ftony concretions of flints, cemented by a hard matter: thefe may be found fcattered by the road from Cuilly to St. Saphorin. Hard calcarious rocks again fucceed beyond Chilon, and true marble of various colours, which on all fides hangs over the principal valley of Aigle. Yet the fame marble is here and there interrupted by a reddish whetstone on this fide Ivorne; and by much gypfum beyond the Grande Eau. The neighbouring rocky part of the Valais is deftitute of marble. A fchiftus comes down to Bex, above which town it is fit for flating. Thence it afcends into the Alps. Thus, when the hill near Bern, beyond the Aar, was dug through for making the high-read, I faw mixed micaceous ftone and alpine quartz, intermingled in the quarry with a round lime-ftone, and gritty whetstone. Clay alfo covers the whole mountain Jorat, the rocks of which confift of whetstone. I fhall add, that the Swifs marbles are all varioufly coloured, no white ones having been found; fo that we are ignorant whence the Romans brought thofe immenfe maffes of white marble which are feen in the building and ftatues at Aven. ches. The marble climbs to the higher regions; for a kind, variegated with rofecolour and green, is frequently found about the icy rocks of the valley of Grindelwald, in fallen maffes, but not in entire rocks. A very beautiful black kind is dug near St. Tryphon; a kind variegated yellow, afh-coloured, and bloodred, about Roche; and near it, an afhcoloured and spotted kind; about Spiez, a back with white veins, of which the houfes in Bern are ufually built above ground. The blueish whetstone of Bern is very beautiful; but it has the fault of attracting moisture to such a degree, as to comfume itself if it touches the earth. Flints, jafperine, white, red, green, and black, every where abound in the rivulets of Switzerland: the black ones, are faid to contain fome gold. The fands confift of triturated quartz, of little pebbles, like granates; and other cryftals: the beds of rivers are generally ftréwed with very flat oval ftones, of a fandy nature, extremely fit for the experiments of the celebrated Spallanzami. Chalk is unknown in Switzerland, though it abounds in calcarious ftones, No where, alfo, are to be found large tracts of fand: those which there are appear either about the margins of lakes, or the fhores of rivers. I now come to the fubject which the preceding obfervations were intended to introduce; namely, the variety of plants which Switzerland produces. This variety is connected with the fituation of places, the water, but principally the air. Switzerland reprefents almoft all the countries in Europe; from the farthest Lapland, and even Spitzbergen, to Spain. About the rocks of ice, in the highest vallies of the Alps, the temperature of the air is the fame with that of Spitzbergen: the fummer is extremely fhort, fcarcely confifting of forty days, and thofe too interrupted by fnow; and all the rest of the year is fevere winter. Hence moft of the plants found by Martens in Spitzbergen are produced near the glacieres of the Alps. Since thefe plants in Spitzbergen and Greenland grow near the fea, it appears, that the caufe why they are alfo peculiar to the Alps is not the levity of the air, but the cold; for in this refpect the climate of the Alps refembles that of the remoteft north; but in the weight of the air it is extremely different. From thence, on leaving the eternal ice, paftures fucceed; firft poor, ftony, and frequented by fheep alone; in which plants of the humbleft growth, all perennial, and many of them diftinguished by white flowers, compose short turf. They are in general harder than common, more tenacious of their colour in dyeing, and more aromatic, fo as that even the common ranunculufes have a grateful odour. The paftures, becoming more and more fertile, now fuffice for cows, which remain in them the forty days that alone are free from fnow, nor then, indeed, with perfect conftancy. In that region numerous plants are produced, which are commonly called afpiue; Vol. II.] Haller's Defcription of the Swiss Alps. A little lower fucceed the Fir woods, in the declivities both of the Alps, and the other mountains. Some of thefe, which face the north, produce the boreal plants of Lapland and Siberia; as that which defcends from the mountain Poutdenant to the village les Plans. The other woods of this kind generally afford the Hercynian and Swedish plants, and fome peculiar to the country. The woods are occafionally interrupted by meadows, which owe their rife to burned trees, and are for the moft part very fertile, and abundant in the fineft hay. Among thefe, the Yellow Gentians, Veratrums, Campanula with a Draba leaf, Anchufas, brown Stachys, and other mountain plants prevail. And now fucceed the fub-mountainous and fubalpine regions, variegated with fields, meadows, and woods; fuch as the territory of Friburg, and other tracts lying beneath the lower mountains; tracts not level, but unequal in their fur face, compofed of clufters of hills and vallies. These resemble the north of Germany, yet are without its fands: they have fome turf bogs, but not large. Along with common plants, fome Alpine ones are here found, probably brought down by the torrents. The vine-bearing plains follow, as thofe of Bafil, Zurich, Turgow, Paternach, Vaud, Geneva, and the alpine vallies. This warmer tract resembles that of Jena, or the middle of Germany. But the funny banks of the Leman lake, and that of Neufchatel, and the midst of the Valais, excel all others in the generous quality of the wines and plants. Here we meet with many plants of Auftria, the fouth of France, and Italy; and fome even of Spain in the very hot and foutherly expofed vallies of the Valtelline and Valais. In the fame are produced aromatic wines, replete with native fpirit, and extremely frong. The heat of the atmosphere in thefe 945 vallies is fuch as fcarcely can be credited by strangers. I have seen, when the sky threatened a ftorm, in a thermometer at Roche expofed to the fun, the mercury afcend to the 117th degree of Fahrenheit's fcale; and in the year 1762, even to the 140th, when fixed to a garden wall, protected from the north and east. The hotteft parts of all are in the Valtelline, and in tranfalpine Switzerland, about Lugano and Chiavenna. These afford plants, as yet not fufficiently examined, but entirely Italian, and unknown in Germany, unlefs Carniola and Istria be reckoned in that country. Thus it comes to pafs, that Switzerland, in a small compafs, produces more numerous plants than thofe kingdoms of which we as yet poffefs floral catalogues. Not that we deny that the fame riches will be found in the Alps, vallies, and plains of Savoy and Piedmont, when the collections of C. Allionius fhall be made public. But if A. Gouan, in his Flora Monfpelienfis, has enumerated 1,865 fpecies, of which about 1,600 have confpicuous flowers; and if our enumeration contains almoft 2,500 fpecies, of which there are 1,714 exclufive of Lichens, Moffes and Fungi; I may juftly fuppofe that ours exceed in number, fince that celebrated botanift has reckoned among his many garden plants; whereas we have not a fingle one which may not be found in uncultivated fpots; and there are scarcely above twenty which can be fufpected to have come originally from gardens. It is wonderful in how fmall a tract fuch a variety of plants is contained. If from Sion in the Valais you travel to Mount Sanctsch, a journey of about feven hours, you will leave at Sion the Ephedra, the Gramen echinatum, the Pomegranates, flowering in the rocks of mount Valeria, you will leave the Chefnuts and flourishing Walnuts, filled by the chirpings of the Cicada, and the vines producing excellent wine; then, the fields fertile in the finest wheat; and by degrees the Beeches and Oaks will vanish; then even the Firs will defert you, and foon after the Pines with an edible nut; at length, the whole race of trees; and you may dine among the heath-like Saxifrages, and other plants of Spitzbergen; and thus, in the fpace of half a day, collect plants which grow from the 40th to the 80th degree of latitude. For the Monthly Magazine. HEADS OF AN ESSAY ON CIVIL JURISPRUDENCE. AT Read before a learned Society. Ta period when the public attention has been fo much directed to political investigation, and when we can even venture to pronounce that a very liberal ftyle of thinking has prevailed upon thefe fubjects, it could not fail to excite, fome degree of furprize, if we should find upon enquiry, that the most important of political topics had been, (both practically and theoretically) almoft totally neglected; and the moft pernicious errors incautiously countenanced, on matters, the moft affecting to human happiness. The majority of kings and ftatesmen (I include even thofe who have been in, general elevated above mean and felfifh views) have imagined that they confulted beft the welfare of their respective states, when they increafed their territory; when they formed treaties of alliance, calculated to enlarge the power, and, what they are pleafed to confider as the glory of the nation; and above all, when they have extended and improved its commerce, and increafed its wealth. Even fpeculative politicians have fallen into an error almoft equally prejudicial. They have in general been engaged in contests concerning the form which the executive power of a nation ought to affume-they have not confidered, that in every country where public liberty is fortified by the ftrong barrier of a popular legiflature, it is almoft impoffible that opprethon or defpotic authority fhould be exercised; and that the reft is a mere queftion of expediency, whether the executive authority of a ftate fhall defcend in a chain of fubordination from one chief magiftrate, or thall be rádically divided into different departments? a queftion which, in my opinion, might be difcuffed in much fewer words than have been bestowed upon it: a queftion, the folution of which is really of much lefs importance than many other political topics that have attracted lefs attention. While fuch have been the ufual employments of ftatefmen and philofophers, they have almoft entirely overlooked a subject of infant importance to the happinefs of fociety; a fubject in which every individual is deeply interefted; a fubject which gives, as it were, the very character to every Society--It is in fa&t THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE in every country which renders that country more or lefs defirable. This it is that stamps a value on the political establishment when it happens to be good, and above every other circumftance affects the welfare of a people. A few authors indeed have latterly arifen, among whom, one of the moft refpectable, is the Marquis Beccaria, who have treated of criminal law in a philofophical manner; but I do not recollect a fingle writer who has arisen to point out the defects in Civil Jurifprudence, though I am perfuaded that in most countries of Europe the civil is much more defective than the criminal code, and productive of much more oppreffion, injustice, and unhappiness. In the narrow limits of a literary memoir it would be abfurd, were the writer poffeffed of every neceffary qualification, to enter into the minuteness of legal difquifition; and all that can poffibly be attempted is to exhibit a flight fketch of what apparently ought to be the leading principles in a rational code of Civil Jurifprudence. The FIRST principle which I fhould infift upon as effential to a good code of laws is, that they be harmonious and confiftent.-The whole of the laws ought to branch out from a few principles, and thefe as confiftent as poffible with natural juftice; and though the cafes ought to be as numerous as poffible, in order to afford a fpecific remedy for every wrong, yet the fpirit fhould be the fame in all, and the fame chain of reafoning fhould univerfally apply.-But with which of the European codes is this the cafe? In moft of them, in our own for instance, the principle of the law is directly at war with the practice. The principle is moftly feudal, and is only to be rak d out of obfolete volumes by the indefatigable labour of the antiquarians. The judge who fits upon the bench is fometimes at a lofs for the reafon and principle of the law which he adminifters. The advocate often misunderstands, and ftill more commonly perverts it ; and the jury and the fuitors all remain in the most perfect ignorance. It is a mystery, a juggle, only for the initiated; and even they are frequently loft in its mazes, and unable to fay where the influence of feudality fhould end, and where the modern fyftem fhould begin. Hence proceeds the abfurd difcrepancy between what is called real and perfonal property. Hence an estate in land shall be |