1

For the Bee.

TO MYRA*.

A SONG BY THOMSON NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.

I.

O THOU whose tender serious eyes,

Exprefsive, speak the mind I love;
The gentle azure of the fkies,

The pensive shadows of the grove:

II.

O mix their beauteous beams with mine,
And let us interchange our hearts;
Let all their sweetnefs on me fhine,

Pour'd thro' my soul be all their darts:

111.

Ah-'tis too much!I cannot bear
At once so soft, so keen a ray:
In pity, then, my lovely Fair!

O turn these killing eyes away!

IV.

But what avails it to conceal

One charm, where nought but charms we see?
Their lustre, then, again reveal,

And let me, Myra, die of thee!

LINES FOUND IN AN OLD BOOK.
THERE

HERE was a man whose name was semper idem,
And, to be brief, he was mercator quidam,
He had a wife who was neither tall nor brevis,
Yet in her carriage was accounted levis.

He to content her gave her all things satis,

She to requite him made him cuckold gratis,

He for that same act turn'd her out of fores,

And bade her go and learn some better mores. DOMINEFELIX.

THE DETERMINATION.

Love and truth warm the mind of my beautiful Fair,

And each tender tale wins her heart;
Sensibility's fhrine is bedew'd with a tear,

When fortune proclaims we must part.

Than leave the sweet maid each ill I'll endure,
Bear insult and poverty's dart;

For riches without her to me is no lure.

We never, we never can part!

M.

*This beautiful song, tho' addrefsed to Myra, was meant for Amanda; and the last line has been changed in the song set to music by M: Urbani. VOL. vii.

TT

INTELLIGENCE RESPECTING ARTS. Plan for moderating the price of sugar. a

THE present extravagant price of sugar has attracted the attention of every clafs of persons in this island, and has brought forward many plans for remedying that evil, some of which will no doubt take effect at some future period; but there is reason to suspect, that the nation must submit to the hardship for a good while, before things can be brought to bear.

Among the first plans that was suggested for this purpose, was that of manufacturing sugar from the maple tree, in America. It has been long known, that the juice of one kind of maple, common in most of the American states, can afford a grained sugar, without any other procefs than that of evaporating the watery parts by boiling; but the quantity of water that requires to be difsipated, renders that procefs so tedious and expensive, in a country where labour is very high, as gives reason to fear the assistance that can be derived from thence will be but very inconsiderable.

The quantity of sugar that may be imported from the East Indies, and from Africa, may be indeed immense ; and if ever government fhall regulate the duties, and drawbacks, so as to put the sugars obtained from British settlęments in these parts, on the same footing as those from the West Indies, there seems no reason to fear that ever this country will run a risk of being again thrown into such distress for this article as it is at present.

But should government refuse to relax the monopoly in favour of the West India islands, it does not seem to be altogether beyond the bounds of pofsibility to supply ourselves with sugar from the produce of our own fields; for I know of no law in existence, that authorizes the sheriff

of each county to pluck up by the roots the plants that produce it, as he is required to do with regard to tobacco; and I trust the æra is past, in which the nation will submit to the enactment of a new law, by which its people should be effectually debarred from cultivating their own fields to the best advantage. This would, indeed, be submitting to a slavery more cruel than the bondage of the Israelites. in Egypt.

Many plants, that are natives of Britain, can be made to yield sugar in considerable quantities, as has been fully demonstrated by a set of experiments, conducted with great care, about forty years ago, by a celebrated French chemist. It is unnecessary to enumerate the whole here. It is enough to say, that he found no plant which afforded so much sugar as the root of the common green beet; a plant which can be reared with as much facility as any one that grows in our climate.

The result of many trials fairly ascertained, that from sixteen ounces of the fresh root, one ounce of grained sugar can be obtained. From this fact, we may compute what might be the produce in sugar from an acre of ground in this way.

A Scots acre *, it is well known, has been made to produce, in one season, seventy-two tons of parsnip root. I suppose an equal weight of beet root could be obtained; but, for the sake of moderation, call it only sixty tons; at that rate an acre might produce 8400 pounds of sugar at one crop; which at threepence per pound, would be worth precisely one hundred guineas. The root of scarcity, which is a plant of the same genus, and yields roots more fleshy and free from fibres, might probably be found. to yield an equal quantity of sugar, and could perhaps be cultivated with more profit than the common beet.

* Four Scotch acres are nearly equal to five English.

:

These facts have been long known to philosophical readers, but the circumstance which has deterred any person from ever having attempted to extract sugar, on a large scale, from this plant, is the seeming difficulty and expensiveness of the procefs; a difficulty which, however, appears to be by no means insurmountable in Britain, where large capitals can be applied to purposes of this sort, when suitable returns may be occasionally expected.

The expence of the process arises from this circumstance, that 'the sugar must be extracted from the root by means of ardent spirits; now, in making such an extract in open vessels, great must be the waste by evaporation. If, however, the procefs were carried on in close vessels, no lofs could possibly be sustained from evaporation; and to any person who reflects upon the subject for a moment, it will appear obvious that nothing but the expence stands in the way of having an apartment, made of any size that fhould be required, perfectly close, in which the whole procefs of digestion, for making the extract, could be performed without the smallest waste. And this apartment, or vefsel, being once made, would stand in very little need of repairs to keep it in perfect good order for many years. to come. It is unnecefsary to add, that the extract being once made, the evaporation of the spirit fhould be made in a still, properly adapted for that purpose; by which procefs, the spirit would be again obtained pure for carrying on the businefs by a second procefs. In this manner, a stock of spirits once obtained, might be continued for a long time with very little diminution, as to quantity; and consequently with little expence to the undertaker.

It is not impofsible indeed but the spirit, during this procefs, might be refined, and improved, so as to become an. additional source of profit to the undertaker. But without dwelling on that head, or on the collateral advantage the farmer might derive from the leaves, while the plant

was growing, or the refuse of the root after the sugar was
extracted, which would probably be of equal value with
the raw root itself as a food for his cattle; it is enough bare-
ly to have fhewn the practicability of obtaining sugar
with advantage from our own fields, in abundance to sup-
ply our own wants, without having recourse to foreign aid,
or to the labour of slaves for that article. Thus might the
slave trade be annihilated, even without the intervention
of law; and without the convulsive struggle that may be
dreaded, should that measure be pushed forward in spite
of the opposition to be expected from those who believe
their interest would be affected by any alteration in the
law respecting this article. A struggle of another sort
might be expected should this measure be seriously adopt-
ed;
and though it might be possible to fhow that this op-
position also would arise from ignorance, yet it is unne-
cefsary now to combat it. "Sufficient to the day is the
evil thereof."

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS.

CORN BILL.

W
Continued from p. 2-262.

THE Committee again sat on the 16th of March, when

Mr Ryder, said, that having moved an instruction to the committee, to provide for the importation of corn from: Ireland, from Quebec, and from his majesty's colonies in North America, upon lower duties than from foreign countries, he begged to state, by way of notice, what the regulations would be that he meant to propose. The proposition would be to admit wheat from Ireland, when the average price was in this country from 46 to 48 s. the quarter,. at a duty of 2s. and 6 d.; when the average should be above 48 s. at 6 d.; upon conditions, however, that the Irish legislature fhould adopt similar measures with repect to Britain. Several observations of little importance