niftration. BY ANSWER to QUESTION II. For the COUNTY MAGAZINE. JULY. fummer all! Oh! bear me to the scene, To fport with thee, O Fancy! through the green, These remarks point to the acceffion of the elector of Hanover to the Germanic league; and the reafonings they employ point to the propriety of the refignation of Mr. Pitt. Now, as Mr. Pitt is, of all men, the leaft defirous of defcending fron his high station, it may be curious to inquire, how the acceffion of Hanover to the Germanic league is to be canvaffed. If the minifter fhall refufe to comply with the etiquette of his ftation, he destroys the maxim, "that the king of England can do no wrong," by taking away the props upon which it refts. He allows, therefore, the freedom of the conftitution to take place to the fullest extent. In the giddinefs of his youthful impetuofity, he expofes his fovereign to hazard, and violates a known establishment of the law. For, is it not true, that, if the impropriety of the acceffion to the Germanic league is not done away by the refignation of the minifter, the people by their reprefen-All are employ'd throughout the non'rous train, tatives may actually call the fovereign in perfon before them, to explain a proble-Till ev ning's twilight warns them home again. To range the plain, the garden, or the grove, matical part of his conduct? This would create a great fituation. It would exhibit the prerogative of the crown in explanation before the majefty of the people! This would be the grandeft event that the prefent century has produced, and would be founded over the world with the highest admiration!!! In alittle time the motion of Mr. Fox on the Germanic league is expected; and conftitutional lawyers may tremhle for what may happen through the ignorant obftinacy of the youthful pre-, mier. Rous'd by the early herald of the day, In artless talk they gain the diftant fields, And healthy meal, give refpite to their toil. What words can I adopt to prove The happiness I knew, When I could boaft iny Betfey's love, And the to me was true? Together oft we've tript the plain, Or fought a cool recefs, But now, alas! how chang'd the scene, Are chang'd to scenes of woe. Use thy joint effort with the maid, But if my Betfey's generous heart Cupid refign thy bow and dart, A life of mirth and glee, AMINTOR. He accompanies the folitude of those who watch the midnight taper, He paffes the day with the children of affliction ; From the fea of his bounty iffues the vernal cloud, Which waters alike the thorn and the jeffamine; From the repofitory of his beneficence proceeds the autumnal gale, Which befpangles with gold the carpet of the It is his presence which enflameth the orb of day, Their mighty spheres would defcend quick into From the vault of heaven to the centre of the earth, Which ever way we direct our thoughts and imagination, Whether we defcend, or haften upwards, We shall not discover one atom uninfluenced by his power: Wisdom is confounded in the contemplation of his effence, the attention and encouragement they have There is nothing can more furely indi- render them despicable in the eyes of every man of principle. Let thofe, I fay, turn their thoughts on judging charitably, and reflect on the pleasures arifing from fincerity. Let them only for a time put in practice thofe benevolent principles, that exert theinfelves chiefly in acts of kindness to all perfons, without refpect to party or nation, and thofe generous opinions of words and actions, that put the most favourable conftruction on both. In the ftead of hypocrify and diffimulation, let them place opennefs and honefty of But let the calumniator recollect the in- intention; this will render them refpectable, jury he is committing, and if he has a fpark prevent that jealoufy and fufpicion which of benevolence or good-will in his compodeceit will always bring thofe under who fition, he will bluth when he remembers practice it, and will fix their reputations what he is doing. Endeavouring to com- firm in the world. They will then be conmit a robbery for which he can never make vinced that whatever temporary convean adequate recompence; taking by the nience may be found in these vices, yet meaneft artifice, that which, when once they are foon fucceeded by the most unhaploft, can never be regained; propagating Py difadvantages; and when they confider opinions as malicious as they are falle and that nothing can poffibly tend more to the groundlefs, and thefe with an affirmation of fubverfion of religion and humanity among truth, to the prejudice of fair characters, to us, thofe who have any love for themthe detriment of thofe whofe fole depen- felves, or the common interefts of mandance may be on the maintenance of their kind, muft at once begin the cultivation of reputations, and thus endeavouring to bring thofe feeds of charity and fincerity in their ruin on those deferving of the highest com-hearts, as will fecure them the favour of mendation. The murderer who comes with open force, and plunges the dagger in the innocent breaft, is a more excufable kind of affaffin, than him who thus privately affaults -Times corrupt, and Nature ill inclin'd. the reputation; for him who can act thus POPE. wickedly, would doubtlefs not hesitate to take the life alfo, could he do the one with the fame degree of impunity as the other.. MONG the many vices that mark The concomitant of flander is diffimuthe prefent degeneracy of the times,lation. This alfo is but too common in the world, and is too frequently found dif earth and heaven. For the COUNTY MAGAZINE. R. 4 true Defcription of the Intereft and Pblicy of the Continent of AMERICA: By bis Excellency Dr. BENJ. FRANKLIN, Prefident of the State of Pensylvania. and ftrongly feem to oppofe the cause of virtue, few can be ranked in a more malig-guifed in the mafk of fincerity and friend-See in the public newspapers of different ship. nant light, and few, alas ! are more predoItates, frequent complaints of hard times, deadnefs of trade, fcarcity of money, &c. &c. minate, than detraction and diffimulation. Many inftances do we daily fee of thofe It is not my intention to affert or maintain The mischiefs produced by the wiles of who are enfiared by the pretences of de- that thefe complaints are entirely without calumny, are fuch as often prove irrepa- figning men, who, by fair words and pre-foundation. There can be no country or narable; they are generally aimed at the repu-tended proteftations of fervice, have created tion existing, in which there will not be fome tation; and as this is certainly by far the a belief in those who hear them, that their people fo circumftanced as to find it hard to most valuable poffeffion of every individual, intentions have been real; but time has gain a livelihood; people, who are not in the fo, from the infernal nature of the vice, it fhewn the deception, and them to be ftran-way of any profitable trade, and with whom chooses to attack that part where the most money is fcarce, because they have nothing gers to veracity or honour; indeed fincedangerous wounds are likely to be given. to give in exchange for it. And it is always rity and plain dealing feem quite out of in the power of a fmall number to make a It is with much concern we must ob- fashion, and in the place of truth and rea-great clamour. But let us take a cool view of ferve the prevalence of this unhappy turn lity, we find the fubftitutes of lying and the general state of our affairs, and perhaps of mind in the world; and when we reflect knavery. the profpect will appear lefs gloomy than has that innocent and good minds can receive been imagined. no gratification in fuch attempts, we must he led to lament the more fuch frequent wanderings from the paths of virtue. Cenfure is a tribute that few of us efcape paying to the world; but plain cenfure is now the lot of few; it proceeds farther, attacks with envied virulence thofe characters that are best fpoken of, and employs every endeavour to diminifh the worth, and hurt the intereft of thofe, who, by unwearied obfervance of the rules of right, have gained from the better part of the world But happy is it, that the arts of deceit and cunning, the longer they are practifed, the lefs effectual are they to those who ufe them; the counterfeit must be difcovered, and though nature itay for a while lay concealed, yet the will foon break her prifon. Let thofe who may have been unfortunate enough to fint in their difpofitions an aptnefs to vices of this kind, confider the baneful effects of giving way to them; vices, that all who have the love of their neighbour, or the honour of their religion at heart, muft abhor, as the practice muft culture. For one artizan, or inerchant, I fupThe great bufinefs of the continent is agripofe we have at least one hundred farmers, by far the greatest part cultivators of their own fertile lands, from whence many of them draw not only food neceffary for their fubfiflence, but the materials of their clothing, fo as to need very few foreign fupplies; while they have a furplus of productions to difpofe of, whereby wealth is gradually accumulated. Such has been the goodness of Divine Providence to thefe regions, and fo favourable the climate, that fince the three or four years of hardships in the first fettle-` ment of our fathers here, a famine or fearcity has never been heard of amongst us; on the contrary, though fome years may have been more, and others lefs plentiful, there has always been provifion enough for ourfelves, and a quantity to spare for exportation. And although the crops of last year were generally good, never was the farmer better paid for the part he can fpare of commerce, as the published price currents abundantly teftify. The lands he poffeffes are continually rifing in value with the increase of population. And on the whole, he is enabled to give fuch wages to thofe who work for him, that all who are acquainted with the old world must agree, that in no part of it are labouring poor fo generally well fed, well clothed, well lodged, and well paid, as in the United States of America. If we enter the cities, we find, that fince the revolution, the owners of houses and lots of ground have had their interelt vafly augmented in value; rents have risen to an astonishing height, and thence encouragement to encrease building, which gives employment to an abundance of workmen, as does also the encreased luxury and fplendor of living of the inhabitants thus made richer. These workmen all demand and obtain much higher wages than any other part of the world would afford them, and are paid in ready money. This rank of people, therefore, do not, or ought not, to complain of hard times, and they make a very confiderable part of the city inhabitants. ceffive number of fellers, that the mischief | tures, to fay nothing of plate, jewels, and arifes; and if every fhopkeeper, farmer, and coined money; and all this notwithstanding mechanic would return to the ufe of his plough their bad, wafteful, plundering governments, and working tools, there would remain of and their mad deftructive wars; and yet lux. widows and other women fhopkeepers fuffiury and extravagant living has never fuffered cient for the bufinefs, which might then af- much reftraint in thofe countries.Then ford them a comfortable maintenance. confider the great proportion of industrious and frugal farmers inhabiting the interior parts of thefe American itates, and of whom the body of our nation confifts, and whether it is poffible that the luxury of our fea-ports can be fufficient to ruin fuch a country. If the importation of foreign luxuries could ruin a people, we fhould probably have been ru ined long ago; for the British nation claimed a right, and practifed it, of importing among us, not only the fuperfluities of their own production, but thofe of every nation under heaven; we bought and confumed them, and yet we flourished and grew rich. At prefent our independent government may do what we could not then do,-difcourage by heavy duties, or prevent by prohibitions fuch im portations, and thereby grow richer; if indeed, which may admit of difpute, the defire of adorning ourselves with fine clothes, &c. is not, by trongly inciting to labour and induftry, the occafion of producing a greater value than is consumed in the gratification of that defire. Whoever has travelled through the various parts of Europe, and obferved how finall is the proportion of people in affluence or cafy circumstances there, compared with thofe in poverty and mifery; the few rich and haughty landlords, the multitude of poor abject rack rented, tythe-paying tenants, and half-paid and half-ftarved ragged labourers; and views here the happy mediocrity that fo generally prevails throughout thefe ftates, where the cultivator works for himfelf, and fupports his family in decent plenty, will methinks fee abundant reafon to blefs Divine Providence for the evident and great difference in our favour, and be convinced, that no nation known to us enjoys a greater share of human felicity. It is true, that in fome of the States there are parties and difcord; but let us look back, and afk if we were ever without them? Such will exift wherever there is liberty; and perhaps they help to preferve it. By the collifion of different fentiments, fparks of truth are ftruck out, and political light is obtained. The different factions which at prefent divide us, aim all at the public good: the differences are only about the various modes of promoting it. Things, actions, measures, and objects of all kinds, prefent themselves to the minds of men in fuch a variety of lights, that it is not poffible we should all think alike at the fame time on every fubject, when hardly the fame man retains at all times the fame ideas of it. Parties are therefore the common lot of humanity, and ours are by no means mischievous, or lefs beneficial than thofe of other countries, nations, and ages, enjoying in the fame degree the great bleffing of political liberty. At the distance I live from our American fisheries, I cannot fpeak of them with any certainty; but I have not heard that the labour of the valuable race of men employed in them is worse paid, or that they meet with lefs fuccefs than they did before the revolution. The whale men indeed have been deprived of one market for their oil; but another, I hear, is opening for them, which it is hoped may be equally advantageous. And the demand is constantly increafing for their fpermaceti candles, which therefore bear a Some indeed among us are not fo much much higher price than formerly. grieved for the prefent ftate of our affairs, as There remain the merchants and fhop-apprehenfive for the future. The growth of keepers. Of thefe, though they make but a luxury alarms them, and they think we are fmall part of the whole nation, the number is confiderable; too great indeed for the bufinefs they are employed in; for the confumption of goods in every country has its limits. The faculties of the people, that is, their ability to buy and pay, is equal only to a certain quantity of merchandize. If merchants calculate amifs on this proportion, and import too much, they will of courfe find the fale dull for the overplus, and fome of them will fay that trade languishes. They fhould, and doubtless will, grow wifer by experience, and import lefs. If too many artificers and farmers turn fhopkeepers, the whole quantity of that bufinefs, divided amongst them, may afford too fmall a fhare for each, and occafion complaints that trading is dead; they may all fuppofe, that it is owing to the fearcity of money, while, in fact, it is not fo much from the fewness of buyers, as from the ex from that alone in the high road to ruin. They obferve, that no revenue is fufficient without economy, and that the most plentiful income of a whole people from the natural productions of their country, may be diffipated in vain and needlefs expences, and poverty be introduced in the place of afflu. ence. This may be poffible. It, however, rarely happens; for there feems to be in every nation a greater proportion of industry and frugality, which tend to enrich, than of idlenefs and prodigality, which occafion poverty; fo that upon the whole there is a continual accumulation. Reflect what Spain, Gaul, Germany, and Britain were in the time of the Romans, inhabited by people little richer than our favages, and confider the wealth they at prefent poffefs, in numerous wellbuilt cities, improved farms, rich moveables, magazines flocked with valuable manufac The agriculture and fifheries of the United States are the great fources of our increafing wealth. He that puts a feed into the earth is recompenfed perhaps by receiving forty out of it; and he who draws a fifh out of our waters, draws up a piece of filver. Let us (and there is no doubt but we fhall) be attentive to thefe; and then the power of rivals, with all their restraining and prohi biting acts, cannot much hurt us. We are fons of the earth and feas, and, like Anteus in the fable, it in wrestling with a Hercules we now and then receive a fall, the touch of our parents will communicate to us fresh ftrength and vigour to renew the conteft. A MEDICAL DUEL. WHEN Comte Caglioftro was at St. Peterburgh, he frequently faid that the Czarina's first phyfician was only the first quack in the empire. The Imperial Efculapius, a Lieutenant General in her Majesty's army, being informed of what the Comte had publifhed about him, fent Caglioftro a challenge, and named fwords for the weapons of revenge." That is not the way for me dical gentlemen to fettle their difputes, and obtain fatisfaction for an injury received," answered the Comte; "I know no better method than the following: I fhall give you a pill, you must fwallow it, and then endeavour to prevent its malignant influence. You will give me what you think proper, and I fhall ftrive to cure myfelf, and the furvivor fhall be proclaimed victor."-Catherine's phyfician refufed acquiefcing, and the Comte thewed the proper method of fighting medi cal duels. SALISBURY: Printed by B. C. COLLINS; DESCRIPTION of AUGUST. | people engaged in the various parts of the Fair Plenty now begins ber golden reign; N the beginning of this month the weather is ftill hot, and ufually calm and fair. What remained to be perfected by the powerful influence of the fun, is daily advancing to maturity. The farmer now fees the principal object of his culture, and the chief fource of his riches, waiting only for the hand of the gatherer. Of the feveral kinds of grain, rye and oats are ufually the firft ripened; but this varies according to the time of fowing; and fome of every fpecies may be feen fit for cutting at the fame time. Every fair day is now of great importance; fince when the corn is once ripe, it is liable to continual damage while ftanding, either from the fhedding of the feeds from the depredations of birds, or from forms. The utmoft diligence is therefore used by the careful husbandman to get it in, and labourers are hired from all quarters to haften the work. Pour'd from the villages, a numerous train This pleafing harvest-fcene is beheld in its perfection only in the open-field countries, where the fight can take in at once an uninterrupted extent of land waving with corn, and a multitude of 1786. Price Three-Pence. The poor labourer too, who has toiled labour. It is a profpect equally delight- in fecuring another's wealth, justly exful to the eye and the heart, and which pects to partake of the happinefs. The ought to infpire every fentiment of bene-jovial harveft-fupper cheers his heart, and volence to our fellow-creatures, and gra- prepares him to begin without murmuring titude to our Creator. the labours of another year. In a late feason, or where favourable opportunities of getting in the harvest have been neglected, the corn on the ground often fuffers greatly from heavy torms of wind and rain. It is beaten to the earth; the feeds are fhed, or rotted by the moisture; or, if the weather continues warm, the corn grows, that is, the feeds begin to germinate, and put out fhoots. Grain in this ftate is fweet and moift: it foon fpoils on keeping; and bread made from it is clammy and unwholesome. Harvest concludes with the field peas and beans, which are fuffered to become quite dry and hard before they are cut down. The blackness of the bean pods and talks is difagreeable to the eye, though the crop is valuable to the farmer. In thefe countries they are used as food for cattle only, as the nourishment they afford, though strong, is grofs and heavy. The rural feftival of harvest-home is an extremely natural one, and has been obferved in almost all ages and countries. What can more gladden the heart, than to fee the long-expected products of the year, which have been the cause of fo much anxiety, now fafely houfed, and beyond the reach of injury? Inwardly fmiling, the proud farmer views The rifing pyramids that grace his yard, And counts his large increafe; his barns are ftor`d, And groaning staddles bend beneath their load. SOMERVILLE. This month is the feafon of another kind of harveft in fome parts of England, which is the hop-picking. The hop is a climbing plant, fometimes growing wild in hedges, and cultivated on account of its ufe in making malt liquors. They are planted in regular rows, and poles fet for them to run upon. When the poles are covered to the top, nothing can make a more elegant appearance than one of thefe hop-gardens. At the time of gathering, the poles are taken up with the plants clinging to them, and the fcaly flowering heads, which is the part ufed, are carefully picked off. These are a finely flavoured bitter, which they readily impart to hot water. They improve the tafte of beer, and make it keep better. Kent, Suffex, and Worcestershire, are the counties most famous for the growth of hops. The number of plants in flower is now very fenfibly diminished. Those of the former months are running faft to feed ; and few new ones fucceed. The uncultivated heaths and commons are now, however, in their chief beauty, from the flowers of the different kinds of heath or ling with which they are covered, fo as to fpread a rich purple hue over the whole ground. Many of the fern tribe now shew the rufty-coloured dots on the back of the leaves, which are their parts of fructification. Some of the choiceft wall-fruits are now coming into season. The funny wall About the middle of Auguft, the largest of the swallow tribe, the fwift or long wing, difappears. As there can yet be no want of infect food, and the weather is ftill warm, they cannot be fuppofed to retire to holes or caverns and become torpid for the winter; and as they are fo admirably formed for flight, it can fcarcely be doubted that they now migrate to fome diftant country. Nearly at the fame time, rooks no longer pafs the nights from home, but rooft in their neft-trees. The red-breaft, one of our fineft though commoneft fongfters, renews his mufic about the end of the month. IRREGULAR FRAGMENT, Found in a Dark Paffage in the TO WE R. I. The terraqueous globe being thus burft into millions of fragments, and from a caufe apparently feated nearer to its center than its furface, muft certainly have been thrown into a ftrange heap of ruins; for the fragments of the ftrata thus blown up could not poffibly fall together RISE, winds of night! relentless tempetts rife! gularity, therefore an infinite number of fubterraneous caverns must have enfued, at the diftance of many miles, or many hundreds of miles below the bottom of the antediluvian sea. That dreadful Catastrophe, the UNIVERSAL DELUGE, is accounted for as follows, by John Whitehurst, Efq. F. R. S. in his inquiry into the Original State and For-again into their primitive order and remation of the Earth, 1 Vol. 4to, juft published. IT T is a truth univerfally known, that all bodies expand with heat, and that the force or power of that law is unlimited; now as fubterraneous fire gradually increased, so in like manner its expantive force increafed, until it became equal to the incumbent weight. Gravity and expantion being equally balanced, and the latter continuing to increafe every day more and more, became fuperior to the incumbent weight, and diftended the ftrata as a bladder forcibly blown. Now if fire thus generated was furrounded by a fhell, or cruft, of equal thicknefs, and of equal denfity, the incumbent weight muft have been equal: on the contrary, if the furrounding thell, or cruft, was unequally denfe, the incumbent weight muft have been unequal. But fince the primitive iflands were protuberances gradually afcending from the deep, the incumbent weight muit have been unequal for as the fpecific gravity of ftone, fand, or mud, is fuperior to that of water, we may thence conclude, that the incumbent weight of the former muft have been greater than that of the latter. Now the incumbent weight of the islands being greater than that of the ocean, the bottom of the fea would confequently afcend by the expanfive force below, fooner than the islands. The bottom of the fea being thus elevated, the incumbent water would flow towards the lefs elevated parts, and confequently the jflands would become more or less deJuged, as the bottom of the fea was more or lefs elevated, and this effect must have been more or lefs univerfal, as the fire prevailed more or lefs univerfally, either in the fame ftratum, or in the central parts of the earth. Now it is easy to conceive, when a body of fuch an immenfe magnitude as the earth, which is nearly 8000 miles in diameter, was thus reduced to an heap of ruins, that its incumbent water would immediately defcend into the cavernous parts thereof; and by thus approaching fo much nearer towards the center than in its antediluvian ftate, much of the terrestrial surface became naked and expofed, with all its horrid gulphs, craggy rocks, mountains, and other diforderly appearances. Thus the primitive ftate of the earth feems to have been totally metamorphofed by the firft great convulfion of nature at the time of the deluge; its ftrata broken, and thrown into every poffible degree of confufion and diforder. Hence thofe mighty eminences, the Alps, the Andes, the Pyrenean, and all other chains of mountains were brought from beneath the great deep. Hence the fea retiring from thofe vast tracts of lands, the continents became fathomlefs, and environed with craggy rocks, cliffs, impending fhores, and its bottom fpread over with mountains and vallies like the land. For the COUNTY MAGAZINE. A PARADO X. AS I went by Tisbury steeple, I chanc'd to meet three Chriftian people, Rush from the troubled clouds, and o'er me In this chill paufe a deeper horror lies, And hook thefe folemn towers!- lowers. II. How fearfully my step refounds Spare, favage blaft! the taper's quiv'ring fires, On this dire fcene of impious deeds- Ye vifions that before me roll, Their forms unfold! The anniversary of the murder of Edward the Fifth, and his brother Richard, Duke of York. |