H́nh ảnh trang
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

is certain that ministry, by augmenting our salaries, would do the nation more service than has been done by our late armaments; and at the * tenth part of the expence. I am sensible that a great part of our landed gentlemen would account this an intolerable burden, although in many places their rents are ten times as large as they were a century ago, For this reason, many of our members of parliament would not choose to run the risk of offending their constituents. by voting for such an augmentation. But while a philanthropic Wilberforce, and a patriotic Sinclair sit in the Britifh senate, I have some faint hopes that the one, so anxiously concerned about abolishing slavery abroad, will endeavour to put a numerous body of useful subjects at home, upon an equitable footing; and that the other, so usefully -employed in examining into the state of this kingdom, will use his influence to improve it in this particular. If this does not happen soon, and the value of money continue to fall, in a few years no person, properly qualified, will accept the office of a schoolmaster, which will tend directly to the subversion of other art and science.

every

[ocr errors]

In publishing this sketch, and giving your opinion upon the subject, you will infinitely oblige one, who, though no subscriber for your useful Bee, yet is, by the friendship of a kind neighbour, Sir, your constant reader, &c.

Bushan, March 30. 1792.

2. }}
}

A COUNTRY SCHOOLMASTER.

*These two armaments cost the nation about five millions sterling, the interest of which at 4 per cent. is L. 200,000. ore-tenth of which is 20,000. which would be about L. 22. to each schoolmaster in Scotlan

*

******

A TENEMENT TO BE LET. BY

ESQi

OYEZ! This is that all may learn,

Whom it may happen to concern,

To any lady, not a wife,

Upon a lease to last for life,
By auction will be let this day,
And enter'd on some time in May,
A vacant heart,—not ornamented
On plans by Chesterfield invented;
A plain, old fashion'd habitation,
Substantial, without decoration;

Large, and with room for friends to spare,
Well situate, and in good repair.

ALSO the furniture; as sighs,

Hopes, fears, oaths, pray'rs, and some few lies
Odes, sonnets, elegies, and songs,

With all that to th'above belongs.

ALSO,—what some might have been glat,
Though in a sep'rate lot t' have had,
A good rich soil of hopeful nature,
Six measur'd acres, (feet) of stature.
LIKEWISE another lot,-an heap
Of tatter'd modesty, quite cheap.
This with the rest would have been sold,
But that by sev'ral we were told,

If put up with the heart, the price

Of that it much might prejudice.

Note well.-Th' estate, if manag'd ably)

May be improv'd consid'rably:
Love is our money, to be paid
Whenever entry shall be made,

And therefore have we fix'd the day
For ent'ring in the month of May ;
But if the buyer of th' above,
Can on the spot, pay ready love.
Hereby the owner makes profefsion,
She instantly fhall have pofsefsion;
The highest bidder be the buyer:

You may know farther of THE CRYER.

!

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Thus Hope, once beaming, fled when Mary frown'd,
When smiles no longer grac'd the dimpl'd cheek;
Thus was the joy of life in anguish drown'd,
Thus did fell sadness reign, and thus did break

The gleam of hope.-Reflection of the past Yet still more mild the lustre it display'd; 'The present happiness excells the last,

And ev'ry hidden virtue is survey'd.

Thus pafsion gone, and reason rules supreme,
More clear the prospect fhines, and more serene.

Q. D. C.

BEAUTY. BY MRS ROBINSON.

Go tell the vain, the insolent, and fair,
That life's best days are only days of care;
That beauty, flutt'ring like a painted fly,
Owes to the spring of youth its rarest dye;
When winter comes, its charms fhall fade away,

And the poor insect wither and decay :
Go-bid the giddy phantom learn from thee,
That virtue only braves mortality.

EXTEMPORE ON DEFAMATION.

LIKE the broad ruin pestilence extends
O'er the fair fields where yellow corn bends;
Or as the thund'ring blast's elastic fire,
That scorches black the husbandman's desire;
So Ries grim DEFAMATION thro' the air,
To frail mortality the source of care,
And in its flight destroys the lovely Fair.

M.

ON THE CULTURE AND USES OF MADDER.

Continued from p.

p. 112.

Account of M. d'Ambourney's experiments on the green root. In the first place, says he, I washed the roots clean, that no earthy particles might remain on them; and as I had experienced that madder loses seven-eighths of its weight, when dried sufficiently to be ground into powder, I thought it would not be amifs if I proportioned my quantity accordingly.

With this view, in a bath which would have required one pound of ground madder, I infused eight pounds of the green root, being first pounded in a mortar; and, having dyed some cotton with it in the ordinary way, I found that the bath was still charged with colour, and that the cotton was so deeply dyed that it required two boilings to bring it to the common fhade or tint.

'I continued to make the experiment with six, and with four pounds of green root;, and, with the last mentioned quantity, I obtained a colour like that which is got from one pound of the dried root in powder.

As this is the case, half the quantity of the root is saved by using it green; yet this, though well worth our attention, is not the only saving.

1. The expence of erecting stoves and fheds, to dry the roots in uncertain weather, is entirely saved.

11. There is no danger of lofs ensuing from the root being dried two quickly or too slowly, either of which is prejudicial to its colour.

III. The waste occasioned by cleaning the roots, when all those of the size of the tag of a lace are lost among the rubbish, is avoided.

[ocr errors]

Iv. Lastly, there is no danger to be apprehended of the roots fermenting, which the ground root constantly does, if it is not immediately made use of.

All these advantages together, may amount to a saving of five-eighths in point of quantity.'

As to the time that the root may be preserved with safety after it has been taken up, the following experiments, made by Mr d'Ambourney also, will prove satisfactory.

'I caused a hole, three feet deep, to be dug in my garden, in which, October 6. I threw thirty madder plants, and the hole being filled up, remained in this manner exposed to the air and rain. I caused it to be opened on the 30th of March after, when I found all the roots in good condition.

'The hole was then filled up, and remained so till the 30th of September, when even the vermicular roots, though broken and separated from the plants, appeared to me to be as firm and healthy as when they were first deposited there; but being curious to know whether they had not undergone some alteration not discoverable by the eye, I dyed with them, at the same time with some other roots I had taken up for the purpose, and I found no difference in the bath, nor in the solidity or brightness of the colour.

'The planter then may preserve, in cases of necefsity, his crop for a whole year, in a trench dug in his yard, or even in the edge of a field, observing only to lay an alternate bed of roots, and a little earth.

[ocr errors]

In this manner he may wait for a proper opportunity of selling them, and the consumer can no longer play the tyrant, by giving him what price he pleases, because he is obliged to sell.

The dyer, who is friend enough to himself to adopt my method of dying with green roots, may, in like manner,

« TrướcTiếp tục »