Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

ast of parliament, it occurred to me to afcertain from the fame record the relative proportion of burials at different periods of the year. The refult of this enquiry I have drawn, up in the annexed table, the accuracy of which you may depend on, and which contains all the deaths recorded in the laft century, referred to their respective months, and fubdivided into separate periods of ten years.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

1781

23

[blocks in formation]

1791

1791
1801

23 21 23 16

35 31 27 32 31 19 28

Total 15130| 138] 151| 150 From the above calculation it appears, as well from the aggregate fums as from the feparate decads of years, that the funerals in the Winter and Spring months, viz. December, January, February, March, April, and May, have exceeded thofe in the months of Summer and Autumn in the proportion of about 84 to 65; that fpring has been the most fatal feafon and fummer the leaft fo; that the feweft deaths have generally been in the month of June; and that the path from Time to Eternity has been moft crowded with travellers in the months of May and April.

Will you allow me, Mr. Urban, to request that fuch of your clerical readers as have leifure, will be at the trouble of a fimilar enquiry? The comparison of the different refults will go far towards fettling a question, furely not an unimportant one, of the relative healthfuliefs of the different feafons of the year. C. J.

THE

Mr. URBAN, April 2. HERE is, perhaps, no difcovery in this age more curious or inportant than that of the Cow-pox, fecuring from the future attack of the Small-pox without being itself attended with danger. The facts relating to it have been established on fuch unqueftionable evidence and authority, that it behoves every good man, whether of the medical profeffion or not, whofe mind is convinced of their truth, to * See the various publications on this fubje&, particularly thofe of Dr. Jenner,

to whom the world is indebted for the introduction of this practice.

87115 118 96 136 99 128 promote by his utmost endeavours à practice of fuch incalculable benefit to mankind. It is demonftrably evident to every perfon of common underftanding, who will reflect on the fubject for a moment, that it may be made inftrumental not only in unmediately fnatching thousands of victims from the finall-pox, but of annihilating this difeafe, and that in an incredibly fhort space of time, and without fubftituting any other difeafe in its ftead, for as the Cow-pox cannot be communicated except by inoculation, it cannot be propagated cafually, nor can it fpread irrefiftibly like the fall-pox.

From the great progrefs it has already made in the opinion of mankind, in confequence of the enlightened liberality of all defcriptions of people in this country, who after due helitation have yielded to the evidence produced in its favour, it is not too extravagant a hope, for the friends of humanity to indulge, that they may live to fee the fmall-pox extirpated. And as a farther encouragement to this hope, and as a proof of the general perfuafion now prevailing of the beneficial tendency of this practice, thofe who are at the head of the Army and Navy have lent their fanction to it, and given their directions for the general introduction of it into thefe branches of the public fervice; fo that it is now actually practifed with fuccefs in the naval and military hofpitals, and in the regiments and fhips of war upon fervice; when it has this farther advantage over the fmallpox, that it does not prevent those who are under it from doing their duty.

Like measures on the part of the Legiflature,

gillature, feconded by the clergy and medical profeffion, would foon carry the fruits of this difcovery to the higheft pitch of which it is capable, that is, to the utter extinction of the finall-pox, which, for the laft 700 years, has been the most afflicting fcourge of Chriftendom, and has deftroyed many more of the human fpecies, particularly of the young and hopeful, than peftilence and famine ulited.

To thofe who may urge that we have already an antidote to the fmallpox in its own inoculation, let it be remembered, that, however falutary' this practice may be to thofe who actually undergo it, it is not fo to the community at large; for it appears from the Bills of Mortality, that as many die of the fmall-pox in our time as before the introduction of inoculation; owing, no doubt, to its being partially practifed, and to its extending the cafual infection among thofe who would not otherwife be expofed to it, and who might have efcaped for life, as was frequently the cafe before the introdúction of inoculation.

The infertion of this in your diffufive Mifcellany, while it will propagate ufeful truth, will at the fine time oblige your reader, BLNEVOLUS.

Mr. URBAN, Croydon, March 4. If your readers, particularly thofe

which then adorned the plant beingan arrear of 1799, or whether I had been fo fortunate as to procure a flip of the celebrated Glaftenbury thorn?

Well, Mr. Urban, the leaf, in defiance of much severe weather and a Northern afpect, not only flourished through the remainder of the Winter, but exhibited early in March a few imperfect flowers, which with their leaves died away early in May.

During the fummer the tree again appeared, as before, to be perfectly dead. The withered leaves which had sprouted in winter remained on the tree, dry and faplefs; and no attempt at vegetation took place at the ordinary period when plants of this fpecies are accuftomed to exhibit leaves and flowers. My gardener would have thrown it away in autumn as dead; but I would not confent to fo decifive a measure. The event has juftified my caution. After remaining lifelefs two fummers, and flourishing one winter, my capricious thrub is preparing to fall into the regular courfe of annual vegetation, being already in bud, with the appearance of an abundant difplay of flowers.

I have been led into more length than I expected; but the fingularity of the fubject will, I hope, plead in my excufe. W. E. R.

Mr. URBAN,

FR

April 7. ROM a wish to fee every new attempt at a defcription of our native country as complete as may be, I fend you the following frictures on "The Beauties of England and Wales."

P. 9. Some curious particulars relative to St. John's, hofpital, Bedford, founded by Robert de Paris, destroyed by the fire at the Cotton library, was a particular" of it, Tib. E. VIII. 71.

the inveftigation of botanica! curiofities, recollect the letter which I fent you, in the fpring of last year, on the subject of what you well intituled a Vegetable Phænomenon, they may, perhaps, with to know the fate of the plant which had fo fingularly deviated from the common laws of vegetation. To fave them the trouble of a reference" to my former letter, I fhall here recapitulate the leading facts; viz. that the Thrub, an American double-bloffomed thorn, was planted in my pleafureground in October 1798; that through the whole of the year 1799, it remained in a ftate of torpor and inaction, apparently dead; and that, at the end of fificen months, viz. in January 1800, it broke out into the luxuriance of vegetation, in which fiate it actually was at the time of my addrefling you on the fubject, (February 23, 1800. See vol. LXX. p. 316.) I then afked of your more learned correfpondents, whether in their opinion, I was to expect a fecond foliage in 1800, that

The effablishment [of Grey friars] furnishes a figual proof of the mutations to which all temporary poffeffions are fubjected." We do not want general observations as make-weights in a work of this kind, nor words borrowed from Latin when Englith will do as wellchanges for mutations. The fame applies to the reflections on Harpur's charity, pp. 11, 12. Facts, narrative, and defeription, are all that are required.

Bunyan commenced preacher, and continued that avocation, p. 15.

66

The crofs and memorials (or rathe inftruments) of the paffion could not be the arms of any religious houfe. On feal of Eliz. Boyville, abbefs of Elnftou

abbey

[merged small][ocr errors]

Is not a road ifluting from Dunftaple, on the North fide of the church," the prefent turnpike high road that pafles through the town? The oldeft houfes in the town do not exceed the time of Elizabeth. (p. 17.)

In what part of England is cowbafhen provincial language? (p. 18.) Mr. Grofe makes it South country, equivalent to barton. And to what purpote of English topography lines from M. P. Andrews, efq. on fraw bonnets?

[ocr errors]

The religious fpirit with which this compilation is made one is forry to eftimate from the following paffage;" One execution at Dunstable, rendered fingular by the moft horrid dif play of cruelty, will ever remain an indelible brand on the reign of the fe venth Heury, in whole days it was tranfacted. Dr. Smyth, the infamous bithop of Lincoln, ordered the unfortunate William Tillefworth to be burnt for denying the pope's fupremacy. But. the infliction of corporeal pain was infufficient to gratify the malignant and fiend-like feelings of ecclefiaftical ven geance. The greateft pollible degree of mental anguish muft alfo be fuperadded to the agonized fenfations produced by the action of confuming flames. The

"A church roof of oak, finely carred with knots of flowers, &c. the beams fupported by angels horizontal and perpendicular" (p. 19), is not un-infernals in human fhape could only be common, or peculiar to Danftable.

Bp. Gibfon was not the laft who did not "exert a little common fenfe" to understand the Dunitable epitaph. (p. 21.) Mr. Pennant, from the Digby pedigree, expofed his own ignorance more completely. (See Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain, II. 193,194) I remember that traveller making a cobler in Dunftable ftare by afking for the fite of the friars preachers.

P. 22, r. Society of Antiquaries. The Eat part of the chancel cannot have been formerly the choir of the church, as Mr. Steele remarks, unlels he means fince the diffolution; for it was obferved the old choir was then pulled down.

We should be glad to fee the authority for faying, fo diinguithed was the favour of Henry I. that even murder, that blackest deepest crime of which man can be guilty, might be committed by the profelled [the monks of Dunftable] with impunity." (p. 24.) This privilege we never met with granted to any religious hou ́es, though they could protect murderers who fought refuge. Such errors are too grols to be propagated in compilations that pretend to the merit of the newelt and inoft correct information; and it is from a with to preferve this as pure as inay be, that the prefent ftrictures are thus early offered to the editors, who fhould not confider affectation of wit and of fuperficial acquaintance with their fubject as new and genuine information, and concealing the authorities whence they derive it, as in the appearance of a crofs in the air, 1189, From Hemingford's Chronicle, p. 519.

fatisfied by obliging the fear-ftruck daughter of their miferable victim to fet fire to the pile defined to-end the life of the beloved author of her being! Curfes pierce not: but if the tooth of the never-dying worm be employed by eternal justice in the punishment of guilty deeds, the perpetrators of fuch an atrocious act, we may be affured, will have their reward" (p. 28.) Not to infift that not Dunftable, bat Amersham, was the fcene of this execution, Fox hitelf, who relates it and a few more intances of fimilar perfecution under Bp. Suyth, and whofe zeal against Popery would not fuffer him to be more tender than the truth compelled him to be, even to the founder of the college where he received his education, fays, however, of Smyth, ed. 1596, p. 750, that, although he was fomewhat eger and fharpe agaiaft the poore fimple Hocke of Chritte's fervants, yet he was nothing fo bloudy and cruell as Longland, which afterward fucceedel in that dioces. For fo I finde of him, that, in the time of the great abjuration, divers he fent quietly, without punish.nent and pennance, bidding them go home, and live as good Chrif tian bich fhould do." The fentence of the court was executed by the sheriff'; and if he exceeded that fentence in feverity, or any other mode, the guilt

66

[merged small][ocr errors]

ft attach to him. Churton's Life of Smyth, p. 137-140. The firong terms, therefore, applied by our compilers here, like the "debafing spirit of Calvinifin" (p. 16), must be confidered as fo many affectations of fashionable characteristic writing, to fay nothing of the Spirit which may inspire them..

The

[ocr errors][merged small]
[graphic][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »